Opinion ID: 1187223
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dispute Between Canutt and Hartford Accident Indemnity Company

Text: Plaintiff had paid lost income benefits under the PIP coverage to Canutt for the period from April 1 to October 27, 1974. Canutt had requested temporary total disability compensation benefits under the Workmen's Compensation Law from April 8, 1974, and Hartford refused to pay such compensation. Eventually, on October 24, 1974, a workmen's compensation referee ordered Hartford to pay to Canutt compensation for temporary total disability from April 8, 1974, until terminated as provided by law. Thereafter Hartford paid to Canutt $2,284.80, representing the sum he should have received for compensation for temporary total disability from April 8, 1974, to October 27, 1974. Hartford now contends that it should receive that sum back from Canutt because of the fact that he received PIP benefits for lost income during the same period of time. ORS 743.810, with respect to PIP benefits, provides in pertinent part as follows: 743.810 The benefits    with respect to: (1) The insured    shall be primary, but such benefits    may be reduced or eliminated    if the injured person is entitled to receive under the laws of this state    workmen's compensation benefits   .    The effect of this statute would have been to relieve plaintiff from paying full lost income benefits from and after April 8, 1974, had Hartford commenced payment of compensation for temporary total disability on that date. The short answer to Hartford's contention is that plaintiff received no benefits except those to which he was entitled under his policy with plaintiff and under the Workmen's Compensation Law. The longer answer is to point out that in a case of what amounts to conceded liability, where the claimant has over $8,000 in supportable special damages and is paid the policy limits of $10,000 in settlement of his claim, we may infer that when plaintiff recovered the full amount of lost income benefits it paid to Canutt, this was equivalent to an out-of-pocket loss to Canutt. Moreover, had Hartford commenced the payment of compensation for temporary total disability on April 8, 1974, Canutt would not by reason of ORS 743.810 have been entitled to PIP benefits for lost income for the period from April 8, 1974, to October 27, 1974. This would have drastically reduced the amount of plaintiff's claim and therefore have increased the claim of Canutt and his attorneys in dollars under ORS 656.593(1). The failure of Hartford to pay the compensation for temporary total disability, which it should have paid under the Workmen's Compensation Law, has certainly not been to the benefit of Canutt. In such circumstances we find there was no double recovery as urged by Hartford. Affirmed.