Court Opinion

ID: 9760283
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:46:21.629228+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:10.389474
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing or in the Alternative to Transfer to the Supreme Court.
PER CURIAM.
Appellant suggests that we have held first, the Workmen’s Compensation Limitation provision is one extinguishing the right, rather than being a statute of repose, or a pure statute of limitations, and that thereby our decision is in conflict with the holding of the Supreme Court in Wentz v. Price Candy Co., 352 Mo. 1, 175 S.W.2d 852, and, second, that our opinion is in direct conflict with the holdings of the St. Louis Court of Appeals in Mussler v. American Car & Foundry Co., 149 S.W.2d 429, and Parker v. St. Louis Car Co., Mo.App., 145 S.W.2d 482.
The Workmen’s Compensation Act, the Wrongful Death Statute and others, create new and different causes of action not known to the common law. The limitation in the Workmen’s Compensation Act is phrased this way: “No proceedings for compensation under this chapter shall be maintained * * * ”, V.A.M.S. § 287.430, while the Wrongful Death Statute says it this way: “Every action * * * shall be commenced * * * ”. V.A.M.S. § 537.100. Section 516.300, V.A.M.S., a section of the chapter on Statutes of Limitations, provides: “The provisions of sections 516.010 to 516.370 shall not extend to any action which is or shall be otherwise limited by any statute; but such action shall be brought within the time limited by such statute”.
We think the majority rule is that such statutes are generally held to be a condition imposed upon the right itself, rather than a mere Statute of Limitations. The Missouri Supreme Court has held both ways on this question, at least by dicta. The matter was recently discussed and three leading cases, namely, Cytron, Wentz and Baysinger were analyzed in Frazee v *45Partney, 314 S.W.2d 915, 918, as follows: “Our death act creates a new and different cause of action not known to the common law. Cummins v. Kansas City Public Service Co., Banc, 334 Mo. 672, 66 S.W.2d 920. There has been considerable discussion in our cases as to whether the one-year limitation therein is a condition imposed upon the right itself, so that the very right ceases to exist after one year, or whether it is merely a statute of limitation. For the former view see: Barker v. Hannibal & St. Joseph R. Co., 91 Mo. 86, 14 S.W. 280; Baysinger v. Hanser, 355 Mo. 1042, 199 S.W.2d 644; Packard v. Hannibal & St. Joseph R. Co., 181 Mo. 421, 80 S.W. 951; Chandler v. Chicago & A. R. Co., 251 Mo. 592, 158 S.W. 35, and see, generally, for this view 25 C.J.S. Death § 53b, pp. 1158-1159. The contrary view appears to have been taken in Cytron v. St. Louis Transit Co., Banc, 205 Mo. 692, 104 S.W. 109, and in Wentz v. Price Candy Co., 352 Mo. 1, 175 S.W.2d 852. In the Cytron case the question actually involved was whether (after one year) the court should have permitted the filing of an amended petition which sought to add the mother as a plaintiff in a suit instituted by the father alone, for the death of a minor; it was held that the proposed amendment did not change the cause of action and that such was permissible even after the limitation had expired. In the Wentz case the court was primarily concerned only with the limitation section of the Workmen’s Compensation Act (now, in substance, § 287.430), considerably different in wording and meaning from that of the death statute. (On this see the discussion in State ex rel. Bier v. Bigger, [352 Mo. 502, 178 S.W.2d 347] quoted hereinafter.) However, the court discussed the death act by way of analogy, and its statements appear to be broad enough to constitute, by decision or dicta, a determination that the limitations of both acts are merely limitations upon the remedy, or statutes of ‘limitation and repose.’ The sole question involved there was whether an amendment extending the period for filing claims from six months to one year was applicable to an accrued claim, and such was held proper in the case of a pure statute of limitation, affecting the remedy only. The Baysinger case, supra, 199 S.W.2d 644, took the contrary view without discussing the Wentz case, and, so far as we have found, it is the last direct word of this court on the subject. We have determined that in this case we need not attempt to rescue that particular phase of the law from the morass into which it seems to have fallen; perhaps, for practical purposes, the distinction is more academic than real.” The opinion then proceeds to apply the statute.
We believe that it is unnecessary in our case to squarely determine whether the Workmen’s Compensation Limitation Statute is one which extinguishes the right or is one of repose, that is, a true statute of limitations. Under either interpretation we think the claim was not timely filed.
With respect to the second point our facts are different from those in the two St. Louis Court of Appeals cases which appellant claims are in conflict with ours. In each of those cases the claimant received medical attention before expiration of the limitation time period, whereas, in our case he neither filed a claim nor received any medical attention until after the limitation period of one year had expired. Stated differently, in the St. Louis cases notice of the injury was timely given and such fact was recognized within the limitation period by the employer through the furnishing of medical aid, whereas in our case there was no notice, no claim and no receipt of medical attention until after expiration of the one year period of limitation. We are of the opinion that the holdings in the St. Louis cases are not necessarily controlling with respect to our facts which are different.
The Motion for Rehearing or in the Alternative for Transfer to the Supreme Court is, therefore, overruled.