Court Opinion

ID: 9738748
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:01:59.045398+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:08.239351
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring specially).
Appellant’s right to compensation should not be barred by his failure to file a formal claim within the statutory period for the following reasons:
1.Appellant was a seventeen-year-old Oklahoma boy, under the dominion and control of an Oklahoma employer, who was working for a combine operation in South Dakota. He did not select the forum for litigation and should not be bound by employer’s choice to proceed under the Kansas Workmen’s Compensation Authority; Kansas was the state where the contract of employment was entered into.
2. Employer, knowing that this boy was severely injured in South Dakota, failed to file a report of injury in South Dakota, as required by SDCL 62-6-2. If an Oklahoma employer-combiner wants to combine wheat in South Dakota, he should comply with the laws of this state. Employer should not reap a benefit from his own wrongdoing.
3. Appellant received $6,239.66 in benefits from insurer with absolutely no objection by employer, thereby acknowledging liability unto appellant. Insurer and employer elected to indemnify appellant for his injuries, since appellant had a compensa-ble injury under the laws of South Dakota.
4. Employers should not be permitted to lull unsuspecting injured workmen, especially minors, into believing that their claim is compensable and then yank the rug out from under them, leaving them with broken bones and memories of a body that once produced an honest day’s labor. Workmen’s compensation acts are enacted to alleviate hardships, not create them.