Court Opinion

ID: 9759835
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:29:00.6853+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:05.084200
License: Public Domain

VANCE, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority opinion permits an employee to retain voluntary payments made by an employer to the employee during the pendency of claim for compensation even though the voluntary payments were in excess of the amount the employee was entitled to receive as finally determined by the Compensation Board. This is justified upon the ground that to allow the employer a dollar-for-dollar credit of the excess voluntary overpayment against future payments under the award would in some instances, including this one, result in deprivation of a claimant of any compensation for some period of time. The fact is, however, that the claimant would not be deprived of any compensation, he would have simply received his compensation in advance of the date it was due.
Although this policy works to the benefit of the claimant in this particular case, I believe it will work to the detriment of all claimants generally in the long run. Most employers, when faced with the proposition that a voluntary payment on their part will occasion a risk that they cannot claim credit for any overpayment against future liability, may well simply decline to make any payment voluntarily during the pendency of a claim. This would penalize thousands of claimants who need compensation between the date of injury and the award of compensation, and who might otherwise have it except for this decision. When the competing factors are weighed, I believe the balance falls on the side of allowing dollar-for-dollar credit to the employer.
GANT and STEPHENSON, JJ., join in this dissent.