Court Opinion

ID: 9757488
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:42:41.915252+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:39.836047
License: Public Domain

*647On Motion For Rehearing
Henderson, J.
On motion for reargument the appellee contends that payment of attorneys’ fees is controlled solely by Section 58, Article 101 of the Code, not by Section 50. Section 58 provides that “no person shall charge or collect any compensation for legal services in connection with any claims arising under this Article * * * unless the same be approved by the Commission. When so approved, such claim or claims shall become a lien upon the compensation awarded, but shall be paid therefrom only in the manner fixed by the Commission. * * Under this section both the amount of the fee and the manner of its payment are within the control of the Commission. But it is clear that if a lump sum payment is ordered, as in the instant case, the authority stems from Section 50, which, as stated in the appellant’s brief, “is the section controlling in the case at bar”. Cf. Howard Contracting Co. v. Yeager, 184 Md. 503, 41 A. 2d 494, and Petillo v. Stein, supra. The appellant, on the other hand, did not challenge the amount of the fee or the fact that it was allowed in a lump sum, but “the Commission’s failure to allow a discount from the terminal payment due under the award to the claimant”. In short, the issue was whether the claimant or the self-insurer should bear the cost of converting future payments into their present worth. It is within the power of the Commission to allow a fee out of current payments, or to commute into a lump sum by reducing the fee claimed to the extent of the discount, or to allow the fee claimed without discount, but in the latter case the discount cannot be charged to the employer or insurer, as that would be tantamount to an increase in the claimant’s award. The motion is denied.