Court Opinion

ID: 9578031
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:40:50.179796+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:22:24.834247
License: Public Domain

*410Felton, C. J.,
dissenting. Code § 114-404, in my opinion, provides for a maximum payment of compensation to compensate for total and permanent incapacity to work. The section has always been so construed and if that construction is not correct the law does not cover total and permanent incapacity. The other sections and decisions dealing with temporary total and permanent partial incapacity bear out this view.
Code § 114-404 does not mean that the compensation therein provided for is to cover total incapacity which lasts for the number of weeks stated. It means that if an employee is permanently and totally incapacitated to work for the rest of his life he shall be entitled to a limited amount of compensation which is permitted to be paid in instalments over a period of time presumably in the interest of the injured employee. The provision for the payment of the compensation in instalments over a limited period does not alter the fact that one limited sum is provided for a total and permanent incapacity in the same kind of employment. An employee is bound by an adjudication of total and permanent incapacity and if he accepts the compensation payable thereunder, he is forever barred from collecting additional compensation, partial or total, from any employer. To1 hold otherwise would be to encourage and invite frauds of the worst kind. • Code § 114-410 provides against double recovery for partial permanent disability when two successive injuries add up to permanent total disability and Code § 114-408 provides against double recovery for partial permanent injuries. It is inconceivable to me that the law would limit an employee who was totally incapacitated for life to a maximum amount and permit one who was adjudicated to be totally and permanently incapacitated and who was paid the maximum to go back to work and recover additional compensation for a second partial or total disability. If an employee obtains the benefit of an award for total and permanent disability he is bound by it. The employer who pays it is bound by it and is protected by it. A second or other employer is likewise protected or the purposes of the law are defeated. Code § 114-404 contemplates that the maximum compensation shall be paid to an employee who is totally and permanently incapacitated for life and there can be but one such disability. If an employee obtains such award for an adjudicated total and permanent incapacity, *411it is binding on him whether the adjudication is correct or not. If the witnesses, board and courts erred, he has reaped the fruits of the erroneous award and is estopped to deny its correctness.