Opinion ID: 2634086
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Derivative Nature of a Claim against the Fund within the Primary Claim against the Employer

Text: ¶ 17 A claim against the Fund has not been treated as an independent action or proceeding separate and apart from the claim against the employer. Rather, our workers' compensation law has charted a course for proceedings on claims against the Fund within the proceedings on the primary claim against the employer. The WCC Rules require that the Form 3 commencing a claim against the employer identify the claimant as a physically impaired person, if applicable, and that the Form 3-f commencing a claim against the Fund be filed under the same court case number as the claim against the employer. [5] The special indemnity statutes require the Administrator of the WCC to notify the Fund of any claim identifying the claimant as a physically impaired person because it is a proceeding that may affect the Fund. Special Indemnity Fund v. Hulse, 1967 OK 219, ¶ 14, 441 P.2d 366, 369. ¶ 18 Our decisional law has consistently folded claims against the Fund into proceedings on the claims against employers. Cameron & Henderson v. Franks, 1947 OK 232, ¶ 28, 184 P.2d 965, 970, recognized the employer's pecuniary interest in having the Fund's liability decided in the claim against the employer and reversed the order of the State Industrial Commission (now the Workers' Compensation Court) dismissing the Fund as a party to the proceeding. Reynolds v. Special Indemnity Fund, 1986 OK 64 at ¶¶ 6, 8, 725 P.2d at 1268-1269, recognized the derivative nature of the Fund's liability and characterized the claim against the Fund as being derived from and supplemental to the claim against the employer. J.C. Penney Co. v. Crumby, 1978 OK 80 at ¶ 16, 584 P.2d at 1330-1331, reversed the WCC because neither the medical evidence nor the judge's order rated the claimant's prior physical impairment in deciding the claim filed against the employer. Hammons v. Oklahoma Fixture Company, 2003 OK 7, ¶ 5, n. 11, 64 P.3d 1108, 1110, n. 11, explained that Crumby required the trial judge to rate (1) claimant's pre-existing unrelated impairments as well as (2) the impact, if any, the compensable injuries may have had upon claimant's pre-existing disability. ¶ 19 Further, we have implicitly recognized the derivative nature of claims against the Fund in our determinations that: 1) the right of an employee who is physically impaired to pursue a claim against the Fund arises when the employee sustains a work-related compensable injury, Loftis v. Multiple Injury Trust Fund, 2003 OK CIV APP 30, ¶ 16, 67 P.3d 924, 927 (approved for publication by the Oklahoma Supreme Court); 2) the Fund's payment obligation is triggered by the last payment of the employer's liability for the claimant's permanent disability, Multiple Injury Trust Fund v. Pullum, 2001 OK 115, ¶ 17, 37 P.3d 899, 907; and 3) the term action in the phrase for actions filed after October 31, 1999 in the 1999 amendment to § 172 referred to the claim filed against the employer on the subsequent injury and did not refer to the filing of a claim against the Fund. Autry v. Multiple Injury Trust Fund, 2001 OK 79, ¶ 13, 38 P.3d 213, 218. Accordingly, a claim against the Fund is a part of the primary claim against the employer and it is derivative in nature.