Court Opinion

ID: 9827660
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 17:44:42.910509+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:34.208528
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
The very strong and respectful motion for rehearing, filed herein by the appellee, has challenged a very careful consideration of the controlling propositions announced in our original opinion. The appellee’s motion earnestly requests this court to clarify its opinion on the proposition as to whether or not that part of the cause of action alleged by the appellant (Texas Employers’ Insurance Association) for the benefit of Mrs. Ritchie is not barred by limitation.
Of course, there is but one cause of action involved and the right of subro-gation in such cases is not an absolute one, but is contingent upon the happening of a future event, and, as already held with respect to the insurance carrier, such event is the payment, or assumption of payment by it of compensation insurance. In the case of a contested claim, this event would not occur as against the compensation carrier before final .judgment in favor of the injured employee is paid or assumed. Certainly the employee or his beneficiary in such a case (Mrs. Ritchie in the instant one) would not have a cause of action against the negligent third party any sooner than the maturity of a cause of action in favor of the insurance carrier. Depending upon circumstances, this right in favor of the beneficiary might arise concurrently with such right on the part of the carrier, but in no event sooner. From the standpoint of the beneficiary, Mrs. Ritchie, this is perhaps a sufficient answer to the question raised in so far as the record before us suggests any such question.
Our position or conclusion may be expressed in this language: Our original opinion attempts to make no distinction as, regards the question of limitation between, the cause of action asserted by appellant in its own right, and that asserted for the benefit of Mrs. Ritchie. The same reasons, which postpone or delay the time for limitation to begin to run against the insurance carrier apply with equal, if not greater,, force to the injured employee or beneficiary. The statute (Art. 8307, sec. 6a,. R.S.1925) makes the insurance carrier an-agent or trustee for the injured employee or beneficiary to bring and maintain the action against the negligent third party. The insurance carrier cannot maintain the action either for itself, or in its trust capacity for the employee or beneficiary,, until the amount of its liability for workmen’s compensation “has been paid or assumed.” This is so because otherwise there could be no apportionment of the cause of action or amount of recovery-*751thereon as between the insurance carrier in its own right and that of the injured employee or beneficiary represented by it as trustee. In fact, the very existence of any cause of action in the injured employee, or his beneficiary, may, under easily conceivable circumstances, be wholly contingent upon the amount of compensation paid or assumed by the insurance carrier. Mitchell et ux. v. Dillingham, Tex.Civ.App., 22 S.W.2d 971. Take'a situation, for instance, where the undisputed facts of the injury and damages showed an amount recoverable less than the compensation paid or assumed. In such cases, there never existed any cause of action against the third person in favor of the employee •or beneficiary. Plainly, we think; limitation could not begin to run against either the insurance carrier on the one hand, or •the employee or beneficiary on the other, until the fact of the amount of payment or assumption of the payment of compensation existed.
In the motion for rehearing, it is •earnestly insisted, in effect, that a construction of the statute in question which makes the time of payment or the assumption of liability for the payment of compensation the accrual of the cause of action, and, therefore, determinative of the beginning •of the running of limitation, introduces such an uncertainty that to avoid such .uncertainty, a construction should be adopted that the date of the finality of the judgment constitutes the maturity of the ■cause of action, and hence marks the beginning of the running of limitation.
We are unable to see that the construction contended for would render the time ■of the accrual of the cause of action more ■certain than the construction we have announced. The word “assumed” which the •.statute employs purportedly as the equivalent of “paid” must be given a more ■•comprehensive meaning than the mere fact •of the finality of a judgment in order to •effect the evident purposes of the law. No effect could be given to the word “assumed” instead of the word “paid” under that interpretation in cases where there was no recourse to the courts. For instance, suppose that immediately upon the occurrence of an accident, the insurance ■carrier recognized full liability and at once began payment of the maximum amount of compensation allowed by law to continue for 401 weeks. Can it be doubted that the insurance carrier in such case would have the right immediately to institute suit against the third party? We think not. But, if so, there being no payment or only payment of a small part or amount of the entire compensation, the word “assumed” must necessarily mean something entirely different from the finality of a judgment.
On the question of certainty of the commencement of the period of limitation emphasized by the appellant, and by way of argument in support of the rule announced by this court, let us suppose that a compensation case has reached the status of the final judgment against the insurer in the district court. How in such a case in the absence of any recognition of liability on the part of the insurance carrier does the .statute of limitation operate from that date (overruling of motion for new trial) up to the expiration of such time as the petition for writ of error may be sued out? Would limitation be running from such finality of the judgment as would result if no petition for writ of error was ever filed? Manifestly if the finality of the judgment be the test, then the judgment in the supposed case would be final or not according to the uncertain contingency of whether before the expiration of six months a writ of error should be perfected to the court of civil appeals. If within such time the perfection of the writ of error should result, then certainly no limitation would be running.
The rule contended for seems to us to involve far more uncertainty and indefiniteness as to the time the statute begins to run than the test announced in our original opinion; namely, when compensation is “paid” or “assumed.” Take the instant case for illustration: Although the insurance carrier had no legal right to file and have considered its motion for rehearing in the Supreme Court, let us suppose, as sometimes happens, that such motion had been granted. In that case we take it there would have been no contention that limitation began to run either at the time the application for writ of error was dismissed, or such motion was in fact overruled. Certain it is that whether with or without legal right, the appellant, while the motion for rehearing was pending, had neither paid nor taken any voluntary action implying an assumption of its liability to pay compensation insurance. As stated in our original opinion, the fact that such motion was being urged was a negation of *752any assumption of the obligation by the insurance carrier.
It seems to us that the words “paid or assumed”, as used in this subrogation statute, necessarily suggest the rule of limitation announced.
Hence, for the reasons assigned, the motion for rehearing is overruled.