Opinion ID: 1543653
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ladner v. Aroostook County Action Program

Text: On June 8, 1987, Arthur Ladner injured his lower back while working. Hartford accepted the claim and filed a memorandum of payment on June 22, 1987, paying Ladner $154.45 per week. On July 15, 1987, Hartford filed a notice of controversy contesting Ladner's claim of ongoing total disability. Ladner retained Dunleavy on July 17, 1987, and chose to have Dunleavy represent him at an informal conference held before the commissioner on August 7, 1987. Neither Hartford, nor any other party adverse to Ladner, was represented by counsel at this conference. Ladner had taken another job on August 3, 1987. The commissioner therefore recommended that Hartford pay Ladner two weeks of total disability and ongoing partial disability at 15%. Both parties accepted this recommendation. Hartford filed a memorandum of payment on August 12, 1987, sending Ladner a check for two weeks total disability and a form for discontinuance of total disability benefits. Hartford subsequently tried to negotiate a lump sum payment of $2,515 for the ongoing partial disability, which would have brought Ladner's total receipt of benefits for the injury to $3,750. On August 24, 1987, however, Dunleavy filed a petition for award on Ladner's behalf that implicitly rejected the settlement offer, corrected an error in Hartford's previous memorandum of payment regarding Ladner's ongoing disability, and again requested ongoing partial disability benefits. Hartford did not file an answer to the petition, but filed an open-ended memorandum of payment providing ongoing partial disability benefits to Ladner at $34.74 per week. Dunleavy unilaterally dismissed his petition for award without a formal hearing. On September 25, 1987, Dunleavy sent Hartford a $2,453 bill for services rendered Ladner between July 17 and September 25. By this time, Ladner had received slightly over $1,575 in benefits from the Hartford; Dunleavy's bill for $2,453 was thus more than 1.5 times the amount of benefits Ladner had received. Hartford refused to pay this bill on the ground that it was excessive. By November 10, 1987, Dunleavy's very detailed bill had swelled to $3,488, even though there had been no subsequent controversies or problems with Ladner's receipt of benefits. Hartford again refused to pay the bill and complained to the Commission about Dunleavy's fees and billing practices. Six months later on May 18, 1988, Dunleavy filed a motion for award of fees and disbursements claiming $4,409 in attorney fees and $140 in disbursements. By this time, Ladner had received a total of some $3,000 in weekly benefits. On July 12, 1988, the hearing commissioner awarded Dunleavy a fee of $350. In response to Dunleavy's subsequent petition for findings of fact and conclusions of law, the commissioner found that: Essentially, this case was resolved at the informal conference in all respects except with regard to some minor matters concerning the way in which the employee was to be paid ongoing partial compensation. The parties had reached an agreement as to all substantive aspects of the case within seven days of the informal conference.... Judged by any objective standard, this case presented no complex or difficult issues. Nor does it appear that the parties had any real dispute regarding the employee's entitlement to compensation payments after the informal conference. The services rendered by ... Mr. Dunleavy helped to reduce to writing, and on proper forms, the essence of the agreements reached by the parties at the informal conference. The attorney's fee claimed by the employee's attorney, in the total sum of almost $4,500.00, far exceeds the amount of recovery obtained by the employee to date. On its face, the fee is excessive and unreasonable. This is particularly true in light of the fact that the employee's attorney is an experienced Workers' Compensation litigator who, in the course of his regular practice, should deal with these matters routinely and without extra effort. The Commission determines that the sum of $350.00 is a fair and reasonable sum to be paid to the employee's attorneys for their efforts in behalf of the employee. On appeal to the Appellate Division, Dunleavy argued that the commissioner's factual findings were insufficient to inform Dunleavy of his ability under sections 110(2) and 94-B(3) to bill Ladner for services rendered. On April 7, 1989, the Appellate Division affirmed the commissioner's decision, declaring: we conclude that the commissioner adequately explained the reasoning behind his award of attorneys fees and that there is no uncertainty either as to the employee prevailing in this matter or as to the amount of the award to which he was entitled. Dunleavy's motion for award of fees only addressed fees to be paid by Hartford; Dunleavy never moved for any award of fees to be paid by Ladner. Indeed, in a letter to the commissioner on June 13, 1988, Dunleavy claimed that his client Ladner had prevailed in this case and that the issue becomes how much of the bill is the insurer's responsibility. We construe 39 M.R.S.A. § 110(2) to mean that the insurer owes the full bill. Dunleavy Law Offices interprets the seven day informal rule to mean only that the insurer cannot be billed prior to seven days after an informal conference. Once a prevail is established, however, the entire bill is the responsibility of the insurer. That simply is not the law as laid down by the Workers' Compensation Act. Under 39 M.R.S.A. § 94-B(3), the employee retains the right to secure legal counsel during the informal conference period, but if no adverse party is represented by counsel in that period the employee must retain counsel at his own expense. See n. 4 above. In those circumstances the employer or insurer becomes liable for the attorney fee for a prevailing employee only for the period after the informal conference period. As noted earlier, section 110(2) reiterates that [t]he employer may not be assessed costs of an attorney's fee attributable to services rendered prior to one week after an informal conference under section 94-B ... unless a party adverse to the employee was so represented at that stage. Dunleavy did indeed represent Ladner at the informal conference held on August 6, 1987, and no party adverse to Ladner was represented by counsel at that conference. Ladner did, then, assume some financial responsibility for that representation, and under sections 110(2) and 94-B(3) was responsible for the expense of his counsel incurred up to one week after the informal conference period. The commissioner awarded a fee in the amount of $350 to cover the entire services rendered by Dunleavy in connection with Ladner's claim and assessed that entire fee against Hartford. That was error to the extent that Hartford is required to pay Ladner's counsel fee for services during the informal conference period. Hartford, however, has not appealed, and obviously Dunleavy is not aggrieved by that order except as to its amount. Implicit in sections 94-B and 110(2) is the authority of the Commission to regulate the amount of the fee payable to the attorney for the prevailing employee, whether the employer or insurer is liable for the fee or the employee must take it out of his workers' compensation benefits. Either way, the amount of the fee impacts directly on the total cost of the workers' compensation system and on the employee's net recovery under the Act. In view of the comprehensive nature of our statutory workers' compensation system, we cannot infer a legislative intent that an injured employee who prevails before the Commission must go to fee arbitration or to a plenary court suit to fix the fee he owes his own attorney for services under the Act. In setting $350 as the total fee that could reasonably be charged by Dunleavy for all services rendered Ladner on his workers' compensation claim, the commissioner foreclosed Dunleavy from collecting from the employee any more than the $350 Hartford is ordered to pay Dunleavy. The Appellate Division affirmed the commissioner's finding that any larger total fee would be excessive and unreasonable, and so do we. Finally, we find no merit in Dunleavy's contention that the section 110(2) definition of prevail is unconstitutionally vague. A statute is void for vagueness only when it sets guidelines which force men of general intelligence to guess at its meaning, leaving them without assurance that their behavior complies with legal requirements and forcing courts to be uncertain in their interpretation of the law. Maine Milk Producers, Inc., v. Commissioner of Agriculture, Food, & Rural Resources, 483 A.2d 1213, 1220 (Me.1984). See also State v. Cropley, 544 A.2d 302, 304 (Me.1988); City of Portland v. Jacobsky, 496 A.2d 646, 649 (Me.1985). Dunleavy concedes that Ladner prevailed according to the definition provided in section 110(2)(A). According to the clear language of that section, Dunleavy could not charge Ladner a fee except as allowed under section 94-B(3) or section 83(7). We have construed without any difficulty those sections so far as here relevant. An attack on a statute for facial unconstitutionality due to vagueness will not be supported merely because some hypothetical situations may require future judicial interpretation of the statutory language. Maine Milk Producers, 483 A.2d at 1220. The entry is: Decision of the Appellate Division of the Workers' Compensation Commission in WCC-89-141, Ayotte v. United Services, Inc., et al., affirmed. Decision of the Appellate Division of the Workers' Compensation Commission in WCC-89-156, Ladner v. Aroostook County Action Program et al., affirmed. All concurring.