Court Opinion

ID: 9443154
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:12:34.918635+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:23.572265
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
In Junior Oil Co. v. Byrd, 204 Ky. 375, at page 381, 264 S.W. 846, at page 848, it was held that the Workman’s Compensation Act of Kentucky recognizes the right of an employer and employee, who has not accepted the provisions of the Act, to make an agreement, “even after an accident, for compensation in accordance with the terms of the act, and as if the employee had made his election at the time and in the manner prescribed in the act.” Such an agreement after the accident is thus a valid and recognized method of electing to accept the provisions of the Act. Section 342.065 Kentucky Revised Statutes makes a minor sui juris for the purposes of the Act. In Elkhorn Coal Corp. v. Diets, 225 Ky. 753, at page 758, 9 S.W.2d 1100, at page 1103, the Court held “This means that his minority does not affect any agreement that he may make.” The fact that the infant had accepted the act in that case was immaterial. Such an acceptance was invalidated in that case by Section 4911 Kentucky Statutes, now Section 342.170 Kentucky Revised Statutes. I am of the opinion that Section 342.065 places an infant on the same legal plane as an adult for the purposes of the Act, and that if an adult is held to have elected to accept the provisions of the Act by accepting compensation after the accident, an infant acting in the same manner should be considered as having made the same election.
Under the foregoing authorities, I am unable to agree with the ruling made on this issue in the majority opinion.