Court Opinion

ID: 9632604
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:20:11.478076+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:19.597063
License: Public Domain

HOLOHAN, Chief Justice,
dissenting:
The use of statutory schedules to compensate injured workmen has been a system much criticized by legal scholars. Despite such learned objection, the system remains an active part of the workman compensation law of this state.
The issue presented by this case is not new to this court. Over twenty years ago in a case raising the identical point urged in this case, this court held that the term “partial loss of use” in the context of A.R.S. § 23-1044(B)(21) refers to a percentage of physical functional disability and not partial loss of capability to do the job formerly done by the injured workman. Weiss v. Industrial Commission, 87 Ariz. 21, 347 P.2d 578 (1959). This court in Weiss pointed out that since the inception of the act in 1925 the uniform interpretation of the statutory language had been that the statutory language “partial loss of use” meant a percentage of physical functional disability. It is understandable that the Court of Appeals felt compelled to follow an interpretation which has been the law of this state for over fifty years.
The wise counsel offered by the court in Weiss bears repeating:
It must be understood that what the petitioner prays for is not an initial construction of an ambiguous statutory term, but rather a change in the law as it has been understood and applied for more than three decades.... As we see it, the question is not what meaning can be put on the statutory words, but whether this Court by judicial fiat should make a change in the law under the guise of a statutory construction. Such would be an unwarranted encroachment upon the province of the legislature.
Id., 87 Ariz. at 24-25, 347 P.2d at 580-581.
Has the court today ignored the sound principles of Weiss to achieve a result?
I dissent from the opinion of the court. I would approve the opinion of the Court of Appeals.