Court Opinion

ID: 9585743
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:03:31.856874+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:47.239101
License: Public Domain

Hall, Justice,
dissenting.
The most basic rule of the Workmen’s Compensation Act is that it shall be liberally construed. The "... words of the statute... must be construed reasonably and liberally with a view of applying the beneficent provisions of the statute so as to effectuate its purposes, and to extend them to every class of workman and employee that can fairly be brought within the provisions of the Act.” Lee v. Claxton, 70 Ga. App. 226, 228 (28 SE2d 87) (1943).
*576I submit that the majority opinion gives the Act a very narrow and mechanical interpretation which is the antithesis of legal realism. The Court of Appeals’ opinion in Richmond County Hospital Authority v. McClain, 112 Ga. App. 209 (144 SE2d 565) (1965) conceded that there was no logical reason why hospital authorities should not be covered, and called upon the legislature to remedy the matter. One commentator’s explanation for the court’s failure to hold authorities to be subdivisions of the state was that it "might endanger their basic purpose of borrowing funds without violating the constitutional limitations on public indebtedness.” Field, Workmen’s Compensation, 22 Mer. L. Rev. 413, 415-416 (1971). By various amendments, compensation coverage at the time of the McLain decision had been extended ". . . among public employees, to leave only the employees of public authorities unprotected.” Field, Workmen’s Compensation, 19 Mer. L. Rev. 220, 221 (1968).
In 1970, the legislature added language to include as employers "instrumentalities and authorities” of the state. Ga. L. 1970, p. 235. This can only mean that the legislature by this amendment intended to include the only class of public employees who were unprotected. It requires no liberality of construction to reach this result. As noted by the Court of Appeals, these authorities were created by the General Assembly and are similar to a local housing authority which has been held by this court to be "an instrumentality of the State. . .” Knowles v. Housing Authority of Columbus, 212 Ga. 729, 730 (95 SE2d 659) (1956); Culbreth v. Southwest Ga. Housing Authority, 199 Ga. 183, 189 (33 SE2d 684) (1945).
I agree with the Court of Appeals that the 1975 Amendment also includes hospital authorities. Ga. L. 1975, p. 190. It covers "any... corporation engaged in any business.”1 The majority opinion adds the following *577additional qualifying language, "corporations governed by the Georgia Business Corporation Code — Chapter 22 et seq.” I cannot find this language in the Act as written by the General Assembly.
I am authorized to state that Chief Justice Nichols joins in this dissent.

 The words "any business” are also found in our long arm statute. Code Ann. § 24-113.1. This court has held that the words cover "the maximum extent permitted by procedural due process.” Coe & Payne Co. v. Wood-Mosaic Corp., 230 Ga. 58, 60 (195 SE2d 399) (1972).