Court Opinion

ID: 9614000
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:21:37.006587+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:33.462005
License: Public Domain

ALMA WILSON, Justice,
concurring specially:
The “notice of injury” statute in the Workers’ Compensation Act substantially changed with the 1986 repeal and rewrite. The notice provision in 85 O.S.Supp.1986, *1368§ 24.21 is applicable to claims for temporary disability, while the notice in repealed 85 O.S.1981, § 242 applied to any claim under the Workers’ Compensation Act. *1369Even though this appeal is from a denial of temporary disability, the majority opinion erroneously treats 85 O.S.Supp.1986, § 24.2 as if it were a re-enactment of 85 O.S.1981, § 24, amended to extend the time to give notice and to delete the phrase relating to prejudice to the employer.
The notice provision in 85 O.S.Supp.1986, § 24.2 is a prerequisite to a claim for temporary disability benefits. Comparison of the language in the repealed § 24 with that in § 24.2 reveals the Legislature did far more than extend the time for notice from thirty to sixty days and delete the “no prejudice to employer” as a grounds to excuse the failure to give notice. Most significantly, 85 O.S.Supp.1986, § 24.2(A) does not require a prescribed notice to the employer and the Administrator of the Workers’ Compensation Court as did the repealed § 24. Rather, § 24.2 requires some notice, oral or written, be given to the employer only or, in lieu thereof, some medical treatment for the injured employee by a licensed physician within sixty days of the injury; and in § 24.2(B) the informal notice or medical treatment requirement is expressly related to temporary total disability payments. That is, § 24.2(B) mandates that penalties shall be imposed against the employer’s insurer and in favor of the employee if temporary disability payments are not timely commenced upon notice of the injury to the employer.
Other statutory changes enacted in the 1986 amendments support a reading of § 24.2 as imposing a notice requirement upon a claim for temporary total disability.3 The notice form prescribed in repealed § 24 is now contained in 85 O.S.Supp.1986, § 26,4 as the prescribed form to commence a claim under the Workers’ Compensation Act. That is, this prescribed form is no longer required to be filed with the Administrator of the Workers’ Compensation Court within the sixty day notice limitation period in § 24.2. This prescribed form is now required to invoke the jurisdiction of the Workers’ Compensation Court over any claim which may be filed pursuant to the Workers’ Compensation Act.5 The two-year limitation period within which such a *1370claim may be filed is set forth in 85 O.S. Supp.1986, § 43.6 The notice prescribed by § 24.2 is not a condition precedent to the filing of a claim within the two-year limitation period in § 43. The notice in § 24.2 triggers the due date for payment of temporary disability benefits. Title 85 O.S. Supp.1986, § 22(5).7
I agree with the majority that § 24.2 is not a statute of limitations and that the time for giving notice to the employer begins to run from the time the injuries become apparent. B.K. Daniel Motor Company v. Washington, 530 P.2d 1016, 1019 (Okla.1974). Even though the application of § 24 was at issue in B.K. Daniel Motor Company v. Washington, the language pertinent to the calculation of the notice time period in repealed § 24 and § 24.2 is similar and Washington’s claim was for temporary disability compensation, as in the instant case. Application of the “awareness rule” to calculate the sixty day notice time period is consistent with the statutory language in § 24.2 which requires notice within sixty days “of the date the injury occurs ...” and in § 24 which required notice within thirty days “after the injury....” In contrast, the statute of limitations, § 43, forever bars a claim unless filed within two years “after the date of the accidental injury....” The rationale applied to the limitation period in § 43 in McDonald v. TIME-DC, Inc., 773 P.2d 1252 (Okla.1989) is not applicable to the different language of § 24.2, as espoused by the dissent.
A. The right to claim compensation under the Workers’ Compensation Act shall be forever barred unless, within two (2) years after the date of the accidental injury or death, a claim for compensation is filed with the Workers' Compensation Court. Provided however, a claim may be filed within two (2) years of the last payment of any compensation or remuneration paid in lieu of compensation or medical treatment which was authorized by the employer or insurance carrier _ (Emphasis added.)
This claim is for temporary and permanent disability compensation and medical payments. The matter of compensation for temporary disability from December 7, 1987 until February 9, 1988, was heard by the Workers’ Compensation Court, reserving the issues of permanent disability and medical payments. The Workers’ Compensation Court found “... that claimant sustained an accidental personal injury arising out of, and in the course of claimant’s employment ...” and “... that claimant failed to show this Court good cause to excuse his failure to comply with 85 O.S. Section 24.2.” Whereupon, the court denied “... claimant’s claim for compensation ...” without any reference to the claim for permanent disability compensation. The remand will allow all compensa-ble claims to be heard. Accordingly, I concur specially.

. Title 85 O.S.Supp.1986, § 24.2, added by 1986 Okla.Sess.Laws, ch. 222, § 15, provides that the claim shall be barred unless the employer is notified of the injury or the employee receives medical treatment within sixty days. Meaning of “the claim” is clarified in the penalty provisions to be the claim for weekly temporary disability benefits due at the time of the hearing. Section 24.2 states:
A. Unless an employee gives oral or written notice to the employer within sixty (60) days of the date an injury occurs or the employee receives medical attention from a licensed physician during the sixty-day period from the date an injury occurred, the claim shall be forever barred, unless, in the discretion of the trial judge, good cause is shown by the employee to the court to excuse such failure of notice or treatment. Provided, for an occupational disease or repeated trauma, notice shall be given to the employer within the statutory period for occupational disease set out in Section 43 of Title 85 of the Oklahoma Statutes. .
B. If the employer has notice of the injury and the injury is not disputed and the insurer of the employer does not commence weekly temporary total disability benefit payments within the time provided for by law, the insurer of the employer shall pay to the employee a penalty of fifteen percent (15%) of the weekly benefits due at the time of the hearing. (Emphasis added.)
Section 24.2, was amended by 1990 Okla.Sess. Laws, ch. 283, § 12, changing (B) and adding (C) and (D), which subsections now read:
B. If the employer has notice of the injury and the injury is not disputed, and weekly temporary total disability benefit payments are not commenced within twenty (20) days or if subsequent installment of temporary total disability benefits is not made within ten (10) days after it becomes due, the insurer of the employer shall pay to the employee a penalty of fifteen percent (15%) of the unpaid or delayed weekly benefits. This penalty may be imposed by the Court for good cause shown on a case by case basis.
C. The Administrator, on the basis of information collected, may ask the Court to impose the penalty provided in subsection B of this section.
D. Any penalty imposed pursuant to subsections B or C of this section shall not be reported or used for rate-making purposes. (Emphasis added.)

. The broader language of Title 85 O.S.1981, § 24, repealed by 1986 Okla.Sess.Laws, ch. 222, § 32, did not limit the notice to temporary disability benefits. Section 24, which embraced any claim under the Workers’ Compensation Act, states:
A. Notice of an injury for which compensation is payable under the Workers’ Compensation Act shall be given to the Administrator and to the employer within thirty (30) days after the injury, unless said injury be an occupational disease, in which case notice of injury shall be given to the Administrator and to the employer within eighteen (18) months from the date of last hazardous exposure or within three (3) months following the claimant's disablement to which he attributes the cause to be an occupational disease. Such notice may be given by any person claiming to be entitled to compensation, or by someone on his behalf. It shall be given to the Administrator by sending it by mail, by registered letter, addressed to the Administrator at his office. It shall be given to the employer by delivering it to him or sending it by mail, by registered letter, addressed to the employer at his or its last-known place of residence; provided, that, if the employer be a partnership then such notice be given to any agent or officer thereof upon whom legal process may be served, or any agent in charge of the business in the place where the injury occurred. The failure to give such notice, unless excused by the Administrator either on the ground that notice for some sufficient reason could not have been given or on the ground that the insurance carrier or employer, as the case may be has not been prejudiced thereby, shall be a bar to any claim under the Workers’ Compensation Act.
B. The Administrator shall provide printed forms to be used by the injured employee.
Such notice of injury to be filed by the employee with the Administrator shall be verified subject to the laws of perjury of this state and shall be styled: In re: Claim of the_ (the name of the employee) and shall include in addition to any other requirements the following information:
1. The name and social security number of the employee;
2. The name of the employer;
3. The judicial district of the county of residence of the employee at the time of the injury;
4. The address of the principal place of business of the employer;
5. The judicial district of the county where the injury occurred; and
6. The judicial district of the county where the injured employee wants the claim docketed.
Every employer who has received a notice of injury shall file a written response within twenty (20) days with the Administrator. (Emphasis added.)

. General rules of statutory construction are applicable to workers’ compensation statutes: 1) A statute should be construed bearing in mind the evils intended to be avoided and the remedy afforded; 2) Statutes should be construed to render the provisions consistent and harmonious and to give intelligent effect to each; and, 3) legislative intent will be presumed for the benefit of those affected and not to their injury. AMF Tubescope Company v. Hatchel, 547 P.2d 374, 379 (Okla.1976).
Application of these rules require judicial restriction of § 24.2 to claims for temporary disability benefits. Any other reading of § 24.2 would impose a two-tier statute of limitations hurdle on an injured worker claiming permanent disability benefits.

. In 85 O.S.Supp.1986, § 26, the Legislature amended § 26 by adding a new subsection A. Section 26, as amended, reads, in part:
A. The Administrator shall provide printed notice forms to be used by the injured employee. Notice of injury Med by the employee with the Administrator shall be verified subject to the laws of perjury of this state and shall be styled: In re: Claim of the_ (the name of the employee) and shall include in addition to any other requirements the following information:
1. The name and social security number of the employee;
2. The name of the employer;
3. The judicial district of the county of residence of the employee at the time of the injury;
4. The address of the principal place of business of the employer;
5. The judicial district of the county where the injury occurred; and
6. The judicial district of the county where the injured employee wants the claim docketed.
B. Any time after the expiration of the first seven (7) days of disability on the part of the injured employee, a claim for compensation may be presented to the Administrator. ...
(Emphasis added.)

.Since adoption, the notice requirement in repealed § 24 has been held as non-jurisdictional. Wood v. Oklahoma Osteopathic Hospital, 512 P.2d 135, 136 (Okla.1973), and McConnell v. Y.M.C.A. of Greater Oklahoma, 515 P.2d 575, 577 (Okla.1973). Prior to the 1986 amendments, there was no prescribed form for jurisdictional pleading filed with the Workers' Compensation Court. Mullman at 184 Okla. 318, 87 P.2d 162 (1938). The form prescribed in repealed § 24 is now prescribed in § 26.

. This Court reconciled a conflict between now repealed § 24 and 85 O.S.1971, § 43, in AMF Tubescope Company v. Hatchel, 547 P.2d 374, 379-380 (Okla.1976). Application of both § 24 and § 43 to Hatchel’s claim for permanent partial disability was not questioned. Facially both statutes reached claims for permanent and temporary disability benefits. 85 O.S.Supp.1986, § 43, reads in part:

. Title 85 O.S.1981, § 22(5) and 85 O.S.Supp. 1986, § 22(5), both provide that temporary disability shall be payable on the tenth day after notice of injury. The 1981 version of § 22 stated in part: "... The first payment of temporary disability compensation shall become due on the tenth day after the employer has received notice of injury as specified in Section 24 ...” The 1986 version contains this identical language, except it refers to § 24.2.