Court Opinion

ID: 9796980
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 04:10:07.141557+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:51:52.667087
License: Public Domain

WATT, J.
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
T1 I find little fault with the majority's interpretation of 85 0.8. Supp.1986 § 48 (B)1 and its conclusion that the five year limitations period under the statute begins to run either from the date of the filing of a claim or from the date of the last compensatory payment. The issue was settled by Special Indemnity Fund v. Carlile, 1997 OK CIV APP 14, 939 P.2d 26, accorded precedential value pursuant to this Court's release of the opinion for publication in the official reporter.2 Carlile holds, as does the majority opinion, that a claim filed under § 48(B) is timely when filed "less than five years from the date of filing of the claim or last payment of compensation."
[2 I dissent to that portion of the opinion requiring remand for a factual determination of the date upon which the last compensatory payment was made. The uncontested and unquestioned facts demonstrate without doubt that: 1) the order awarding benefits was filed on July 29, 1992; 2) the maximum number of weeks for which compensation was awarded totaled 170 weeks; 3) under the order, the employer's last payment would have been made in November of 1995; and 4) no claim was filed against the petitioner, Multiple Injury Trust Fund, until April of 2005, some ten years after the last payment and five years outside the five year statutory limitation. There are no allegations that all payments were not made or that the payments were not made timely. Under these facts, the ordered remand for a factual determination on the date of last payment is a waste of judicial resources. I would vacate the Court of Civil Appeals' opinion and reinstate the trial tribunal's order.

. Title 43 0.S. Supp.1986 § 43(B) providing:
"When a claim for compensation has been filed with the Administrator as herein provided, unless the claimant shall in good faith request a hearing and final determination thereon within five (5) years from the date of filing thereof or within five (5) years from the date of last payment of compensation or wages in lieu thereof, same shall be barred as the basis of any claim for compensation under the Workers' Compensation Act and shall be dismissed by the Court for want of prosecution, which action shall operate as a final adjudication of the right to claim compensation thereunder. Provided, that any claims heretofore filed and pending on the effective date of the Workers' Compensation Act before the State Industrial Court shall likewise be barred after the expiration of five (5) years from the filing date or within five (5) years from the date of last payment of compensation or wages in lieu thereof."

. Title 20 0.$.2001 § 30.5; Rule 1.200(c)(2), Supreme Court Rules, 12 0.$.2001, Ch. 15, App.1; Horvat v. State of Oklahoma, ex rel. Dept. of Corrections, 2004 OK 52, ¶ 2, 94 P.3d 80; West v. State ex rel. Oklahoma Tax Comm'n, 1999 OK 12, ¶ 1, 979 P.2d 262.