Opinion ID: 1961022
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: is the employer entitled to credit for the sums paid ferguson's dependents under its pension and disability plan?

Text: Western Electric contends that if it is determined that Ferguson's death is compensable, then it is entitled to a credit of $14,428.08 paid by it under its plan for employee's pension, disability benefits and death benefits. Western Electric is a self insurer under the Mississippi Workmen's Compensation Act, and also afforded its employees sickness benefits, disability benefits, accidental death benefits, and pension benefits in accord with a pension plan funded solely by Western Electric. Section 8, paragraph 27 of the plan provides in part: In case any benefit or pension, which the Committee shall determine to be of the same general character as a payment provided by the Plan, shall be payable under any law now in force or hereafter enacted to any employee of the Company, to his beneficiaries or to his annuitant under such law, the excess only, if any, of the amount prescribed in the Plan above the amount of such payment prescribed by law shall be payable under the Plan; . . The pension plan was designed to provide a continuity of income to the employee or his dependents in the event of disability or death. Paragraph 27 was designed to prevent duplicate payments for the same injury or death. While we do not have any Mississippi cases involving credit for death benefits paid by employers, we held in Koestler's Bakery, Inc. v. Boland, 299 So.2d 205 (Miss. 1974) and in Taylor Construction Co. v. Harlow, 269 So.2d 337 (Miss. 1972), that payment of claimant's salary under the facts in those cases would be considered as having been made in lieu of, and as having included, the compensation payments, and credit should have been allowed for the payments. [1] Western Electric, through its pension plan, affords immediate continuity of income to an injured employee or to his dependents in the case of his death. Employers who willingly adopt this practice should be commended and encouraged rather than penalized. Employers should be permitted to claim the benefits of payments made voluntarily. To refuse credit would inevitably cause employers to be less generous. If Western Electric cannot receive credit for the death benefits paid to the dependents of Ferguson in this case, it will result in employees or their dependents being penalized because employers would seek a determination of compensability in order to avoid double payments for the same injury or death. Appellee responds to the argument of Western Electric by stating that a decision of this question is premature and would require this Court to make a decision on a matter that was neither dealt with nor developed fully below. We note that Western Electric in its answer to the motion to controvert raised the question before the administrative judge who denied credit for the death benefits paid by Western Electric. Appellee also responds by stating: In addition, Western Electric's argument on this point completely ignores the role that a labor union might play in forcing, through arms-length bargaining, the provisions of such benefits as are provided in the Western Electric employees' pension disability and death benefits plan. The plan was one hammered out in the open marketplace between a corporation and a union and Mrs. Ferguson respectfully submits that it would be beyond the scope of the record, the issues, the facts to issue a decision on this point raised by the appellant. This argument is not persuasive because in Koestler's Bakery, Inc. and Taylor Construction Co., supra, we considered the matter of credits when employers had made payments to injured employees. Further, Section 8, paragraph 27 of the disability and pension plan of Western Electric prevents duplicate payments for the same injury or death. AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART AND REMANDED TO THE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION COMMISSION FOR FURTHER PROCEEDINGS CONSISTENT WITH THIS OPINION. PATTERSON, C.J., SMITH and ROBERTSON, P. JJ., and WALKER, BROOM, LEE and COFER, JJ., concur. BOWLING, J., took no part.