Court Opinion

ID: 9637887
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:25:24.190295+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:01.738041
License: Public Domain

RUDMAN, Justice,
with whom DANA and LIPEZ, JJ. join, dissenting.
1 respectfully dissent. Implicit in the court’s decision is the assumption that our Legislature was either unaware of or did not consider multi-employer pension plans when it enacted section 62-B in 1985 as part of an emergency effort to reduce “the costs to employers of providing workers’ compensation for their employees without unfairly removing the protections offered to those employees under the Workers’ Compensation Act.” L.D. 1634, Statement of Fact (112th Legis.1985). The legislative debates reflect that the purpose for the amendment was to reduce workers’ compensation costs and to prevent injured employees from receiving a double recovery of workers’ compensation and retirement benefits. 2 Legis.Ree. 1184-85 (1st Reg.Sess.1985).1 We have previously *878recognized the purposes of the enactment of section 62-B: (1) “to reduce insurance premiums and prevent carriers from withdrawing business from the state,” Jordan v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 651 A.2d 358, 360-61 (Me.1994); (2) “to ensure a minimum income during the period of an employee’s incapacity,” id.; (3) to “prevent a double recovery of both retirement and compensation benefits,” id.; (4) “to prevent the stacking of benefits,” Berry v. H.R. Beal & Sons, 649 A.2d 1101, 1103 (Me.1994) (citations omitted); and (5) “to alleviate the burden on employers who are required to pay into the workers’ compensation and social security systems.” id.
Section 62-B provides in pertinent part:
B. “Employee benefit plan” means a self-insurance disability plan, wage continuation plan, disability insurance plan and a pension or retirement plan which is funded or paid for by the employer in whole or in part. It does not include disability insurance under the United States Social Security Act.
3. Coordination of benefits. Benefit payments subject to this section shall be reduced in accordance with the following provisions.
A. The employer’s obligation to pay weekly compensation under section 54-B or 55-B shall be reduced by:
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(2) The after tax amount of the payments received or being received under an employee benefit plan provided by the same employer by whom benefits under section 54-B or 55-B are payable if the employee did not contribute directly to the plan;
(3) The proportional amount, based upon the ratio of the employer’s contributions to the total contributions, of the after tax amount of the payments received or being received by the employee under an employee benefit plan provided by the same employer by whom benefits under section 54-B or 55-B are payable if the employee did contribute directly to the plan.
39 M.R.S.A. § 62-B (1989).
The “employee benefit plan” from which Berube is receiving benefits was funded and paid for by Rust in part. Berube made no contribution to the plan. Rust is paying benefits to Berube under sections 54-B or 55-B. The term “employee benefit plan” is a defined term. The term refers to a pension or retirement plan funded in whole or in part by the employer. Subsection 3 mandates that benefit payments be reduced and specifies how the reduction is to be calculated when the employee made a contribution to the plan and when an employee did not. Clearly, the Legislature knew how to provide for a proportional reduction if it intended one. Thus, a plain reading of the statute mandates that Rust’s weekly obligation be reduced by “the after tax amount of the payments received or being received by Be-rube.”
There is no ambiguity in section 62-B. The statute’s language is plain and should be followed in order that the purposes for which the statute was enacted be achieved. We need not defer to the interpretation of a single commissioner when the meaning of a statutory provision is plain when viewed in the entirety of the legislative scheme. It is both illogical and unnecessary in the face of the plain language of the statute to conclude that the Legislature intended to treat multi-employer pension plans any differently than plans provided by a single employer.
I would vacate the decision of the Workers’ Compensation Commission.

. ... [T]he Workers’ Compensation System was never really meant to supplement retirement. It was meant as wage replacement.
... [R]egardless of whether a person is at partial incapacity or total incapacity, there will always be a way for that particular person to get two-thirds of his total wages and that is what the Workers’ Compensation System was meant to be and that is what it does. What this Bill does is prevent double dipping....
2 Legis.Ree. 1184-85 (1985) (Statement of Sen. Dutremble),
... I think it is one of the most progressive steps that the Legislature has taken as far as *878Workers Compensation is concerned, income averaging or including the income of other sources that people are receiving when determining a wage replacement.... I think this is a good coordination of benefits that people are receiving and accountability during tough times that people expect. We are not saying that people should be denied less than that, we are just saying that particular program, when you are setting that particular level, you should include it whether it is Social Security, or whether it is another type of program that people are receiving assistance from, not just Social Security, and that figure should come up to and not exceed that particular level.
2 Legis.Rec. 1185 (1985) (Statement of Sen. Bal-dacci).