Court Opinion

ID: 9851874
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:20:51.509678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:18.463189
License: Public Domain

Deen, Judge,
dissenting. While I agree with the result reached by Judge Jordan’s dissent, and with the philosophy of Judge Hall’s special concurrence, I do not think St. Paul Mercury Ind. Co. v. Idov, 88 Ga. App. 697 (77 SE2d 327) must be overruled in order to arrive at the conclusion that in this case the claimant’s wages should be figured on the basis of what he was earning at the time, which includes his employment with both American Courier and Advocate Press. In fact, Idov supports the claimant’s view. When Idov was before the court the issue was whether or not the board could consider any wages paid in any other job than that on which the employee was injured. The answer was in the affirmative, based on the premise that there be concurrent similar employment and that "similar” meant from the standpoint of insurance risk. This clearly appears from the statement: "There is nothing connected with a clothing store which would make it a more hazardous occupation than that of selling liquor, so far as appears from the record.” Id., p. 698. (Emphasis supplied.) The appellant’s argument was based on the contention that insurance rates vary according to the hazard involved, a matter of common knowledge, and that it would be unfair to allow the claimant to take credit for the income from two jobs where one of them might be extremely hazardous and therefore subject to a higher rate of premium than would have been charged had only the other been involved. "Similar employment” should be construed to mean similar in risk rather than identical in duties. The two employments involved here meet this criterion — as a matter of fact, the injury connected job involved picking up and delivering materials by automobile, and the other job also involved delivering materials on occasion, but it also involved supervising and packaging, a job no more hazardous than that in which he was injured.
Suppose a man is employed by two aircraft factories in the capacity of inspector. In one he inspects parts on the assembly line. In the other he inspects the same parts during experimental test-flying of the plane. Let us say the duties are very similar — but the risk is not. I think the hazard criterion is the only one which *142can be logically applied in these situations. It was the one applied in Idov, and should be applied here to give this claimant a salary base representing the total weekly wages paid him by both companies.
Nor do I see where overruling the Idov case would reach the goal anticipated in the concurring opinion. This case merely established that there are situations where base salary may be computed by adding in wages not paid by the employer who is a party to the claim. If this case were overruled the only result would be that the board could in no instances consider total earnings in arriving at compensation.