Opinion ID: 878585
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Determination of Weekly Benefit Rate

Text: Under section 92-703, R.C.M. 1947, now section 39-71-703, MCA disability is always to be determined by evaluation of the whole man. The disability rating is to be determined by comparing earning capacity absent injury with earning capacity given the injury. In this case, the trial court's determination that claimant is 25% disabled flies in the face of the evidence that claimant's actual rate of earnings fell by more than 50% under favorable conditions of subsequent employment. This evidence came in the form of an uncontradicted comparison of wage scales for claimant's pre-injury and post-injury employments as of April, 1974. We therefore hold as a matter of law that the evidence does not support a disability rating of less than 50%. The trial court relied on Olson v. Manion's Inc. (1973), 162 Mont. 197, 510 P.2d 6 to support a method of calculating weekly benefits by which the benefits would progressively decrease as inflation raised the wage of the claimant in his subsequent employment. This method is a misapplication of the law in Olson and directly contradicts later holdings of this Court that pre-injury and post-injury wages must be compared for the same period of time. Unreliability of post injury earnings may be due to a number of variables: 1. Increase in general wage levels since the accident. 2. Claimant's own maturity or training. 3. Longer hours worked by the claimant after the accident. 4. Payment of wages disproportionate to capacity to work out of sympathy to claimant. The ultimate objective of the disability test is by discounting the above variables to determine the wage that would have been paid in the open labor market under normal employment conditions to claimant as injured, taking wage levels, hours of work, and claimant's age and state of training as of exactly the same period used for calculating actual wages earned before the injury. Fermo v. Superline Products (1978), 175 Mont. 345, 349, 574 P.2d 251, 253 (emphasis added); see also Walker v. H.F. Johnson, Inc. (1978), 180 Mont. 405, 412, 591 P.2d 181, 185. The special concurrence in the first appeal of this matter pointed out, it would be patently unfair to compare wages in 1974 with wages in 1971. McDanold at 634 P.2d 181. Yet this is precisely what the Compensation Court did. The weekly benefit under the statute then applicable, 92-703 R.C.M. 1947, was 65% of the difference in earning capacity subject to a maximum of $55.00. In this case claimant is entitled to the maximum $55.00 times 180 weeks. Claimant's total entitlement is as follows: Temporary Total Disability June 24, 1971 - Dec. 22, 1971 26 weeks x $65.00 $ 1,690.00 Dec. 23, 1971 - Aug. 20, 1972 34 weeks x $60.00 $ 2,040.00 Aug. 21, 1972 - April 19, 1973 33 1/7 weeks x $55.00 $ 1,822.70 Permanent Partial Disability 180 weeks x $55.00 $ 9,900.00 __________ Total $15,452.70 ========== The case is remanded to the Workers' Compensation Court with directions to enter judgment in accordance with this opinion and to award reasonable costs and attorneys' fees. HASWELL, C.J., and HARRISON, WEBER and SHEA, JJ., concur.