Court Opinion

ID: 9623912
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:45:53.845702+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:36.551124
License: Public Domain

Judge PARKER
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion affirming the reduction in the credit and the increased attorney’s fee. The majority purports to recognize the mandate in Foster v. Western-Electric Co., 320 N.C. 113, 357 S.E.2d 670 (1987), but then superimposes a different interpretation upon the language of N.C.G.S. § 97-42. Nothing in the Court’s application of N.C.G.S. § 97-42 in Foster suggests that the Commission has any discretion to reduce the amount of an employer’s credit. To the contrary, the Court specifically stated:
[P]olicy considerations dictate that an employer such as defendant . . . should not be penalized by being denied full credit for the amount paid as against the amount which was subsequently determined to be due the employee under workers’ compensation.
Id. at 117, 357 S.E.2d at 673 (emphasis added). Read in light of this language in Foster, the words in N.C.G.S. § 97-42 “subject to the approval of the Industrial Commission” do not import discretion to allow or disallow a credit in whole or in part, but rather authorize review by the Commission to assure that (i) the payment by the employer qualifies as a matter of law for a credit and *418(ii) the amount deducted as a credit has in fact been paid to the employee by the employer.
In the present case the effect of the Commission’s action was to award plaintiff a duplicative payment of twenty-five percent of the benefits received under the employer’s sickness and disability plan in order to provide a pool of funds from which to pay plaintiff’s legal fee. Discussing the policy considerations in Foster the Court stated:
Finally, the Act disfavors duplicative payments for the same disability. We recognize also that allowing double recovery reduces the incentive to adopt private disability plans providing for immediate payment of benefits.
320 N.C. at 117, 357 S.E.2d at 673 (citation omitted).
Moreover, by allowing this duplicative payment to provide plaintiff’s legal fee, the Commission indirectly taxed defendant employer with an attorney’s fee award and thereby exceeded its statutory authority. The Commission specifically declined to assess plaintiff’s legal fee as part of the costs under N.C.G.S. § 97-88 stating, “[W]e do not find here the lack of merit in the defendants’ position that traditionally motivates the Commission to make a fee award under that section.” See Bowman v. Chair Co., 271 N.C. 702, 159 S.E.2d 378 (1967) (Absent specific statutory authority, the Commission has no power to award attorney’s fee.).
The countervailing policy arguments espoused by the Commission may be worthy of consideration; however, certain statements made by the Commission to support its decision are not supported by any evidence in the record. For example the Commission stated:
[W]e would note that employers create these plans out of motives other than covering possible compensation liability. Indeed, the credit is available only in instances the employer has paid other benefits believing compensation is not due. In most cases, the plans pay greater benefits than the Act requires for some period of time. As a matter of practical fact, many if not most employers recover money for their sickness and accident plans from their compensation carrier when the credit is allowed, and thus benefit financially from the success of plaintiff’s counsel, at least in the short run.
To the extent these comments are intended to be findings of fact, the record is devoid of any evidence upon which to find them.
*419For the foregoing reasons, I vote to reverse the portion of the opinion and award reducing the credit, in order to augment the attorney’s fee award.