Court Opinion

ID: 9725431
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:47:40.633046+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:15.231097
License: Public Domain

*51Gehl, J.
(dissenting). Sec. 102.01 (2), Stats. 1951, de-' fines “time of injury,” in case of disease, as “the last day of work for the last employer whose employment caused disability.” There is nothing ambiguous or indefinite in the definition. There has been no “last day of work” in this case; at the time of the hearing before the commission claimant was still employed at the same employment and without wage loss.
The commission found it necessary to define a term which is as clear and definite as one can be made, and applied an arbitrary definition which is completely at variance with that of the statute.
Had the commission defined the “last day of work” as the preceding Christmas Day, for instance, would we give the definition our blessing ? Why not ? The choice made by the commission bears as little resemblance to the statutory definition as would that which I suggest as a possibility.
I am unable to read out of any of the statutory provisions the authority or need for the commission’s construction. Nor do I find in any of the cases cited by the majority any suggestion that its construction be permitted, to say nothing of its being required.
A feeling of sympathy for the claimant and others similarly situated might, if there were no other means of affording them what appears to be merited relief, entice one to concede to the commission the right to supply what it believes to be an omission in the statutes. Even under those circumstances we should not recognize the power. There is, however, a means of supplying the relief and the omission — by the act of the legislature, whose exclusive function it is to amend the statute.
The commission did not give construction to an ambiguous statutory definition — it sought to amend it by inserting one which cannot, even by implication, be read out of it. Because I am unable to agree that it is the province of the court or an administrative agency to legislate, I respectfully dissent.