Court Opinion

ID: 9851872
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:20:51.505211+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:18.458954
License: Public Domain

Hall, Presiding Judge,
concurring. In my opinion, the "concurrent similar employment doctrine” should be abolished. I agree with the view stated by a leading authority on workmen’s compensation that the fact that one industry may ultimately be harmed by being required to bear part of the burden of an injury produced *138by another "is so remote and theoretical that it hardly seems to offset the very real injustice of relegating a disabled man accustomed to full earnings to a benefit level below that of destitution because of the circumstances that he happened to earn his living in two 'dissimilar’ jobs.” 2 Larson Workmen’s Compensation, 88.210, § 60.31.
This raises the issue of whether the court should adhere to its previous opinion in Idov, supra, under the doctrine of stare decisis or reinterpret the Workmen’s Compensation Act and overrule Idov. "It is true that 'stare decisis’ is a matter of judicial policy rather than judicial power. In this regard the common law is not immutable, but flexible, and upon its own principles adapts itself to varying conditions. However, even those who regard 'stare decisis’ with something less than enthusiasm recognize that the principle has even greater weight where the precedent relates to interpretation of a statute. Once the court interprets the statute, 'the interpretation . . . has become an integral part of the statute.’ Gulf C. & S. F. R. Co. v. Moser, 275 U. S. 133, 136 (48 SC 49, 72 LE 200); Winters v. New York, 333 U. S. 507, 514 (68 SC 665, 92 LE 840). This having been done, any subsequent 'reinterpretation’ would be no different in effect from a judicial alteration of language that the General Assembly itself placed in the statute. The principle is 'particularly applicable-where an amendment is presented to the legislature and . . . the statute is amended in other particulars.’ 50 AmJur 319, Statutes, §326.” Walker v. Walker, 122 Ga. App. 545 (178 SE2d 46).
While the Workmen’s Compensation Act has been amended numerous times in the past seventeen years, the interpretation of the Act given by this Court in Idov has never been changed. For these reasons, it is my opinion that the proper body to reinterpret the Act is the General Assembly of Georgia.