State ex rel. Williams v. Industrial Commission
State ex rel. Williams v. Industrial Commission
Concurring Opinion
In the matter of State ex rel. Williams v. Industrial Commission, I concur in the conclusions reached by members of the court who favor sustaining the demurrer to the petition; yet I am unable to reach the same conclusion in State ex rel. Rudd v. Industrial Commission, post, 67, 156 N. E., 107, this day decided, for in that case a different situation arises.
Rudd’s employer was a contributor to the fund at the time that Rudd received his injury. The employer has since become insolvent. Should Rudd be deprived of his right to share in the fund for the additional award? Rudd has already received compensation, and this controversy relates to his right to an additional award for the reason that he was hurt because of the failure of his employer to comply with a lawful requirement.
In my judgment, Rudd’s right to share in the fund, both for compensation and for the additional award, became fixed at the time of his injury. He had a perfect right, when his employer was a contributor to the fund, to share therein; and if, under recent constitutional amendments, the additional award is allowed because his employer
While the state may take away a right given by statute, the rights incident to the performance by the employer of certain lawful requirements were in full force and effect at the date of Rudd’s injury, and he should not be deprived thereof. It is not sufficient to say that if Rudd’s employer has become insolvent, solvent employers will therefore have to pay for Rudd’s employer’s failure to comply with a lawful requirement. All contributing employers participate in payment of claims for injuries to employes of other participating employers. The case is not the same as if Rudd’s employer had failed to participate at all in the fund. By his contributing to the fund at the time of Rudd’s injury, Rudd’s right in the fund became fixed, and he should not be deprived thereof.
My concurrence in the case of Industrial Commission v. Madden, 115 Ohio St., 230, 152 N. E., 662, was based upon the fact that the Industrial Commission received and kept the premium for which the employer was in default, that, as stated in the
Entertaining these views, it is my conclusion that the demurrer to the petition in the Rudd case should be overruled.
Opinion of the Court
The injury occurred on October 6, 1923. The amended relief Section 1465-75, General Code, evidently extends relief to those employes of employers who were such on or “at any time after January 1, 1923.” Said amended act provides that, after certain findings are made by the commission under that act, if the Attorney General certifies “that the amount found by the com
Reargument was asked by this court upon one question only: Whether compensation, under the provisions of the amended act of 1925, may be paid out of said surplus fund, to employes injured prior to its passage, where the employer is insolvent and has not contributed either to the creation of the fund or the surplus. Four members of this court, to-wit, Judges Marshall, Day, Robinson and Kinkade hold that compensation cannot be paid out of the surplus fund, as stipulated in the act, and that in that respect Section 1465-75, General Code,' as amended, is unconstitutional and violative of the due process clause found in Articles Y and XIY of the Amendments to the federal Constitution. Three members of the court, to-wit, Judges Allen, Jones and Matthias, are of opinion that the act is valid under the general provisions of Section 35, Article II, of the state Constitution, and that the amended act is clearly an extension of the state’s police power in safeguarding the lives of employes against the hazards of industry; that the due process clause does not restrict the state’s right to impose reasonable obligations requiring solvent employers to contribute to the compensation of employes of insolvent employers whose premiums are unpaid and uncollectible by the Attorney General. If it be conceded that the fund
“It is established by a series of cases that an ulterior public advantage may justify a comparatively insignificant taking of private property for what, in its immediate purpose, is a private use.” Noble State Bank v. Haskell, 219 U. S., 104, 110, 31 S. Ct., 186, 187 (55 L. Ed., 112, 32 L. R. A. [N. S.], 1062, Ann. Cas., 1912A, 487).
In such cases there would be no unwarranted and unreasonable exercise of the state’s police power in that feature of our workmen’s compensation laws. If undue burdens are hereafter imposed, and legislative powers are found to be arbitrarily and unreasonably exercised in their imposition, we will consider such a situation when it arises.
In the case of Mountain Timber Co. v. Washington, 243 U. S., 219, 245, 37 S. Ct., 260, 267 (61 L. Ed., 685, Ann. Cas., 1917D, 642), wherein the constitutional validity of the Workmen’s Compensation Law of Washington was before the federal court, Mr. Justice Pitney said:
“In Noble State Bank v. Haskell, 219 U. S., 104 [31 S. Ct., 186, 55 L. Ed., 112, 32 L. R. A. (N. S.), 1062, Ann. Cas., 1912A, 487], this court sustained an Oklahoma statute which levied upon every bank existing under the laws of the state an assessment of a percentage of the bank’s average deposits, for
The Haskell case was cited in support of the validity of the Ohio Compensation Law in State, ex rel. Yaple, v. Creamer, Treas., 85 Ohio St., 349, 97 N. E., 602, 39 L. R. A. (N. S.), 694, and in Fassig v. State, ex rel. Turner, Atty. Gen., 95 Ohio St., 250, 116 N. E., 104.
Under the Workmen’s Compensation Law enacted pursuant to our state Constitution, the burdens are placed upon the hazards of industry rather than upon the individual. Whether the burden may be considered as having been imposed under the exercise of the police power, or as a measure of taxation upon business occupations, the principles announced in Timber Co. v. Washington, supra, apply. In the course of his opinion in that case Mr. Justice Pitney, quoting from a former case, said, at page 238 (37 S. Ct., 265):
“Neither the (Fourteenth) Amendment — broad and comprehensive as it is — nor any other amendment, was designed to interfere with the power of the state, sometimes termed its police power, to prescribe regulations to promote the health, peace, morals, education, and good order of the people, and to legislate so as to increase the industries of the state, develop its resources, and add to its wealth and prosperity.”
And on page 243 (37 S. Ct., 267) alluding to the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, as affecting Workmen’s Compensation Laws, he said:
“And if, as we have held in New York Central R. R. Co. v. White [243 U. S., 188, 37 S. Ct., 247,
If the argument that only those who contribute to and create the fund and surplus may participate in its benefits be tenable, then the entire structure of our Workmen’s Compensation Act would be endangered, since the paid premiums which create the fund and surplus must necessarily be applied to losses occurring prior and subsequent to such contribution. After the premiums are paid into the fund by the employer under the act, the fund becomes the property of the state, and is held in trust for the payment of compensation to such injured employes as the state may designate.
In the companion case (State, ex rel. Rudd, v. Industrial Commission, post, 67, 156 N. E., 107), the Attorney General in his brief seems to concede that our workmen’s compensation scheme would be endangered; that denial of payment of compensation to employes of insolvent employers “would defeat our entire system of compensation.” Under our system of fixing premiums for employers, the premiums are based upon an estimated pay
Under our workmen’s compensation system, injuries sustained by an employe of an employer, beginning operation in 1927, are compensable from a fund created before the employer started operations; that is to say, if A becomes an employer on January 2, 1927, and on March 2, 1927, his workman is killed in the course of his employment, the émploye’s dependents are compensated out of a fund substantially resulting from premiums paid by old employers prior to 1927. And, if the commission has been derelict in the collection of premiums from A, a duty enjoined upon it by Section 1465-75, General Code, and A meanwhile becomes insolvent, A’s employes are not and should not be chargeable with such dereliction. Industrial Commission v. Madden, 115 Ohio St., 230, 152 N. E., 662.
The pole star of our constitutional provisions relating to workmen’s compensation is the welfare of its workmen. Section 35, Article II, of our organic
If an employer becomes insolvent and does not pay his premium into the insurance fund, this does not deprive his employe or his dependents of the right to compensation. We so held in Industrial Commission v. Madden, 115 Ohio St., 230, 152 N. E., 662. In that case the Callahan Company had neither furnished its pay roll nor paid premiums for coverage of its employes at the time of Madden’s injury and death; the company claiming that it had abandoned its operations before he was killed. Madden’s dependents filed their application for compensation. It developed that, notwithstanding its failure to contribute to the fund, the company continued its operations up to the time that Madden was killed. In the meanwhile the company became insolvent. The dependents’ application for compensation was finally refused by the commission, for the reason that it thought the law did not warrant compensation from the state insurance fund to “the dependents of a killed employe of an
“Under the provisions of that section it is the duty of the Industrial Commission to require payment of premiums or the furnishing of bond covering the same. Such delinquencies do not deprive an employe injured during such period of the benefit of the act.”
Whether such premium was paid voluntarily, or collected by suit, would not affect the right of the employe to recover compensation. The employe has no authority to bring suit for the collection of premiums; the state has. Section 1465-60, General Code, provides that every employer, employing three or more workmen,- is subject to the provisions of the act. If the employer has failed to furnish his pay roll and has failed to pay the premium, the state is authorized to collect the premium in an action brought against the employer “in the name of the state” (Section 1465-75, General Code), and the judgment obtained therein is given the same preference as a judgment rendered for taxes. So
Finally, as a controlling reason why the claim of the employer, that its property is taken without due process, cannot be sustained, is the concession that the state insurance fund does not belong to the employer. Such being the fact, due process is not available to the employer, for his property is not taken. The employer, having paid his premium to the state, has acquired not only insurance, but has also obtained immunity from suit — has obtained his quid pro quo — meanwhile the fund is held in trust by the state, solely for the benefit of injured workmen and their dependents.
We do not consider that any question of loan is involved; therefore we do not discuss it. This case and State, ex rel. Rudd, v. Industrial Commission, supra, were submitted and heard together, and additional reasons for support of the view herein taken may be found in the opinion in the Rudd case.
The demurrer might well be overruled for another reason, though not one decisive of the merits of the legal controversy. No contributing employer is now complaining, nor is any made a party to this action. The state moots the due process claim in such employer’s behalf. There is here no taking of the state’s property or fund in invitum, for the state has voluntarily yielded its fund or surplus, by appropriate legislation, for the payment of these claims for compensation.
This court has always adhered to that rule.
Unlike some jurisdictions, we are not empowered to give advisory opinions as to the constitutional validity of laws if future eventualities should occur. Furthermore, the petition does not disclose that the taking of the employers’ contributions, if it be a taking, may not be “comparatively insignificant” and justified by an “ulterior public advantage.” Noble State Bank v. Haskell, supra.
Since the vote of six judges is required by the Ohio Constitution before a law can be declared unconstitutional and void in a case originating in this court, and as there are but four judges holding the statutory clause under consideration void, it follows that the constitutional validity of the statute is sustained, and the demurrer should be overruled and the peremptory writ allowed.
Writ allowed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. I dissent from the judgment of the court, and, in declaring my reasons for my dissent, shall take no notice of the claim that the statute is retroactive in its operation. Whatever unconstitutionality may exist on that ground will be speedily cured by the lapse of
The immediate and inevitable effect of the recent amendment to Section 1465-75, General Code, is to require solvent employers to compensate industrial accidents to employes of insolvent employers, to require solvent employers to pay a larger semiannual payment into the fund, and to submit to a larger premium rate, because certain employers neglect and refuse to contribute to the fund and escape direct responsibility for industrial accidents on the ground of insolvency.
It should be stated at the outset that no one at this time, after fourteen years experience with workmen’s compensation, questions the beneficence of its provisions, and no one denies the authority of the state in the exercise of the police power to impose assessments and by civil process collect from solvent employers such ratable sums as will provide a reasonable insurance fund to compensate industrial accidents. Numerous cases have been decided by the courts of last resort of the states of the Union, and by the Supreme Court of the United States, which fully establish the constitutionality of such statutes, but no court, so far as the reported decisions disclose, has ever been called upon to decide whether or not solvent employers can be compelled to respond for the delinquencies of insolvent employers.
I regard the judgment in this case and the opinion in support of it to be morally, economically, logically, and legally unsound. We are of course only concerned with its legal unsoundness. The authorities cited are the leading authorities which have
No one contends that the state insurance fund belongs to the employers. It is a trust fund created for the benefit of certain persons, and the only question is as to who are or may be made proper beneficiaries of that fund. If the fund does not belong to the employers, a fortiori it does not belong to the state. No part of it has been raised by taxation. The state has no rights in it and no control over it except the right under a proper exercise of the police power to provide for the creation of a commission to administer the fund. So long as the fund is administered for the benefit of workmen of employers who have contributed to the fund, it has every characteristic and quality of insurance, but, when distributed in part to persons who have no interest in the fund, and who have not contributed directly or indirectly to it, it partakes of the nature of a charity. "Workmen’s compensation as heretofore administered is in no sense a charity, but, on the other hand, is an insurance, which is justified on the theory that the burdens of industrial accidents should be charged against the industries whose hazards have created the burdens.
If a statute which permits the fund to be applied to the payment of claims of injured workmen whose employers do not contribute to the fund is valid and constitutional, then by the same token it would be constitutional to permit the wages of employes of insolvent and noncontributing employers to be paid out of a fund created for such purpose by assessments levied upon solvent and contributing employers. The instant case does not turn upon the soundness and validity of workmen’s compensation laws. It turns upon the character of the state insurance fund, upon whether or not that fund can be diverted from the uses for which it was provided, and upon whether or not it can be distributed to benefit persons who had no part in creating it.
It is apparently the basis of the opinion that the taking from the fund to pay the . claims of employes of insolvent employers is “comparatively insignificant.” Neither the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution nor Section 19 of the Ohio Bill of Rights
It is further stated in the opinion that it cannot be determined in advance that the fund will ever suffer a loss by such advancements; that there is always the possibility that the money may be recovered from the insolvent employer. It is a complete answer to this proposition that an enforced loan is in no wise different from a compulsory taking.
The legal question involved being in its last analysis one of due process, and the claims of counsel in this case being in large measure grounded upon the claim that it is only a loan of the funds, it becomes important to look into the fundamental causes out of which the doctrine of due process has evolved. Prior to 1628, the English monarchs had a pernicious habit of borrowing money from English nobles for the purpose of maintaining a navy, such loans being called “ship money,” the same being necessary because, while the military forces could be maintained under feudal practices, there was no means of raising money to maintain a navy except by loans called ship money. It was found to be exceedingly unhealthy for a wealthy
The law which would take from solvent contributors to the state insurance fund to pay benefits to insolvent employers is unsound from an economic standpoint. The very law which was found to be legally constitutional in Noble State Bank v. Haskell, supra, was after only a few years experience repealed, because it so far encouraged
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The State, ex rel. Williams v. Industrial Commission of Ohio
- Status
- Published