Court Opinion

ID: 9676783
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:32:54.421176+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:50.870858
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION TO CORRECT JUDGMENT
Roberds, P. J.,
dissenting in part.
Section 6998-19 (d) and (e), Miss. Code 1942, 5-A Recompiled, is indeed a statutory novelty in that it imposes a duty upon a defendant to initiate the question of his own liability, and upon failure to do so lays a penalty upon him of ten percent. Such a penal statute surely should be construed strictly in its application. The majority opinion holds that this penalty should be applied to all installments up to the time of the award by the Commission. The penalty is directed at the failure of the employer to give notice he will controvert the right to compensation. Logically, the penalty should not continue past the time the employer makes known that he is controverting the claim. That would meet the object of the statute. To impose a ten percent penalty on all amounts that may be found owing to the time the final award is made is not only burdensome in the extreme, but puts a premium on all delays in the hearing of the matter. The vision of collecting ten percent on the final award will naturally induce many claimants to find compelling reasons for delaying the final award in these compensation cases.