Court Opinion

ID: 9553286
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:27:11.541752+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:30:38.785997
License: Public Domain

STRUCKMEYER, Chief Justice
(dissenting) .
I am unable to concur in the disposition of this cause.
The loss of the distal phalange of the left index finger is a scheduled injury, A.R.S. § 23-1044, subsec. B, par. 6, as is the partial loss of the use of a leg, A.R.S. § 23-1044, subsec. B, par. 21. Under a long line of decisions of this Court, Woods v. Industrial Commission, 91 Ariz. 14, 368 P.2d 758; Hurley v. Industrial Commission, 83 Ariz. 178, 318 P.2d 357; Crowder v. Industrial Commission, 81 Ariz. 396, 307 P. 2d 104; Morris v. Industrial Commission, 81 Ariz. 68, 299 P.2d 652; McKinney v. Industrial Commission, 78 Ariz. 264, 278 P.2d 887, the construction of § 23-1044, *326subsec. C, has been that the combination jo£ two scheduled injuries, whether oc'curring at the same time or at different times, brings the claim within subsection C of § 23-1044.
Subsection C provides that in cases not enumerated in subsection B (scheduled disabilities) the employee shall receive compensation according to fifty-five (55) per cent of the difference between his average monthly wages before the accident and the amount which represents his reduced monthly earning capacity resulting from the disability.
By subsection E where there is a previous disability, as the loss or partial loss of use of one .eye, one hand, one foot or otherwise, “the percentage of disability for a subsequent injury” (here, the partial loss of use of one leg) “shall be determined by computing the percentage of the entire disability and deducting therefrom the percentage of the previous disability as it ■existed at the time of the subsequent injury.” The Industrial Commission treated Wollum’s subsequent injury as a scheduled injury under subsection B and limited his .compensation to seven and one-half months. In doing so, the Commission disregarded the plain language of subsection C, apparently following Goodyear Aircraft Corp. v. Industrial Commission, 89 Ariz. 114, 358 P.2d 715.
In 1961, in Goodyear, we interpreted McKinney v. Industrial Commission, supra, to mean that the previous disability referred to in subsection E “refers to previous disability which affected earning capacity at the time of the subsequent injury.” This interpretation of McKinney cannot be supported by any of the language used therein. The holding in Goodyear adds a condition which the legislature did not make by limiting the previous disability to a disability which at the time of the subsequent injury affected the claimant’s earning capacity.
I believe that the Court erred in its pronouncement in Goodyear. Courts exist for the purpose of applying the language of the statute as the legislature enacted it. They do not exist for the purpose of superimposing on legislative language conditions no matter how desirable they may seem to be.
There is here a previous disability recognized by the statute as a scheduled loss (loss of part of a finger). There was a further scheduled loss in the partial loss of use of the claimant’s leg. While it may be that Wollum in his occupation as a steel worker did not have a loss of earning capacity as a result of the loss of the distal phalange of the left index finger, nevertheless the consequences of applying the construction of Goodyear in this case is to deny him a very substantial right. As an unscheduled permanent disability, if he were allowed the full benefit of the language of § 23-1044, subsec. C, without the *327court-imposed restriction, he would “receive during such disability compensation equal to fifty-five per cent of the difference between his average monthly wages before the accident and the amount which represents his reduced monthly earning capacity resulting from the disability” (emphasis supplied). This Court should not, in the guise of judicial construction, usurp the powers entrusted to another branch of the government by Article III of the Constitution of Arizona, A.R.S.
For the foregoing reasons, I dissent. '