Opinion ID: 2634086
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Special Indemnity Statutes

Text: ¶ 13 The Fund was originally created in the Special Indemnity Fund Act, 1943 Okla. Sess. Laws, p. 258-260, now codified at 85 O.S.2001, §§ 171-176, as amended. [2] The special indemnity statutes were enacted to encourage employment of physically impaired persons defined in § 171. The statutes protect employers from the responsibility to compensate a physically impaired person for disability resulting from the combination of the previous impairment and the subsequent impairment caused by an on-the-job injury. Special Indemnity Fund v. Bonner, 1947 OK 144, ¶ 7, 198 Okla. 491, 180 P.2d 191, 192; Special Indemnity Fund v. Figgins, 1992 OK 59, ¶ 6, 831 P.2d 1379, 1382-1383. ¶ 14 The applicable version of § 172 [3] provided: A. If an employee who is a physically impaired person receives an accidental personal injury compensable under the Workers' Compensation Act which results in additional permanent disability so that the degree of disability caused by the combination of both disabilities is materially greater than that which would have resulted from the subsequent injury alone, the employee shall receive compensation on the basis of the combined disabilities. . . . Provided the employer shall be liable only for the degree of' percent of disability which would have resulted from the latter injury if there had been no preexisting impairment. After payments by the employer or his insurance carrier, if any, have ceased, the remainder of such compensation shall be paid out of the Special Indemnity Fund. . . . 85 O.S.Supp.1986, § 172 (A). These provisions apportion between the employer and the Fund the responsibility for compensating a physically impaired person who sustains a work-related injury. They assure the employer will be responsible only for the disability resulting from the injury and the Fund will be responsible for the disability resulting from the combined previous impairment and the subsequent impairment. The above-quoted provisions remain, in substance, in the most current version of § 172, although the class of employees entitled to receive Fund benefits has been reduced. [4]