State ex rel. DeTorio v. Industrial Commission
State ex rel. DeTorio v. Industrial Commission
Opinion of the Court
Relator’s petition in mandamus filed in the Court of Appeals attacks the constitutionality of Section 1465-44a, General Code. That statute creates four boards of claims with power to investigate, hear and determine such claims as are referred to them by the Industrial Commission of Ohio. Such boards of claims have no jurisdiction over claims for additional awards under Section 35, Article II of the Constitution
In his petition the relator alleges that he sustained a compensable injury in the course of his employment by The Reeves Manufacturing Company, a subscriber to the Workmen’s Compensation Fund; that compensation was awarded and paid by the Industrial Commission until May 31, 1937, for temporary total disability; that thereafter he filed an application for further compensation; and that the Industrial Commission refused to hear the latter application but referred the same to the Canton Board of Claims for determination under provision of Section 1465-44a, General Code. The petition then alleges the unconstitutionality of the statute as being in violation of Section 35, Article II of the Constitution, and prays for a writ of mandamus requiring the Industrial Commission, instead of such board of claims, to hear and determine the relator’s claim for further compensation. The Court of Appeals granted a peremptory writ on the ground of the unconstitutionality of the statute, whereupon the Industrial Commission appealed the cause to this court for review.
It is urged by relator that the language used in Section 35, Article II of the Constitution, permits the establishment of but one board to execute and administer the purpose of the Workmen’s Compensation Fund and that such purpose was executed in the establishment of the Industrial Commission. Such contention challenges the broad purposes underlying the Workmen’s Compensation Law.
A survey reveals that workmen’s compensation laws have been enacted in practically all the states of the
The constitutional amendment of 1912 did not set forth specifically all the provisions requisite and necessary for the proper administration of the Workmen’s Compensation Law. Section 35, of Article II of the Constitution, states: “Laws may be passed establishing a board which may be empowered,” etc. It was recognized that statutes establishing such a system or a board would need to be amended from time to time in order to accomplish their true purpose. In Fassig v. State, ex rel. Turner, Atty. Genl., 95 Ohio St., 232, 247, 116 N. E., 104, Judge Johnson, referring to the law as it existed at that time, wrote as follows: “It must be remembered that this act was passed in the exercise of the police power, fortified by the grant of power contained in the amendment to the Constitution in question, which in itself is but an assertion of the police power.” In the same opinion Judge Johnson quotes with approval the following by Mr. Justice Matthews,
Concededly the object of the statute is to obviate delay in the settlement of claims. In this respect it follows the general spirit of the Workmen’s Compensation Law, which was to obviate vexatious delays in suits for damages for injuries. In that spirit it comes within the general objective of the constitutional grant. If, as in other jurisdictions, an industrial commission could have been established in this state under the general police power of the commonwealth, can it be said that by virtue of a grant for such purpose in the Constitution the sources of such power have been exhausted? To agree with such contention would be to admit that the Legislature of a state having no consti
It is contended by relator that the statute places the four boards of claims on a parity with the Industrial Commission, thereby creating five boards instead of only one as intended by the Constitution. But the statute does not place such boards on a parity in all respects with the Industrial Commission. Compared with the general powers and functions of the commission the duties of these boards of claims are limited. First and foremost they may only investigate, hear and determine such claims as are referred to them by the Industrial Commission. Second, the boards of claims created by the' statute are not authorized to execute and administer any purposes and functions, of the Industrial Commission except such as are expressly enumerated in Section 1465-44a, General Code. The statute expressly provides that such boards shall have no jurisdiction of claims for additional awards under Section 35, Article II of the Constitution, or applications for rehearing under Section 1465-90, General Code. Under the further provision of the statute such boards do not even have the power of selecting their own office equipment or employees. Accordingly, it may be said that the boards of claims established under Section 1465-44a, General Code, are not on a parity in all respects with the Industrial Commission. It appears that instead of being placed on a status of equality in all respects with the Industrial Commission, such boards of claims were established primarily to facilitate the investigating, hearing and deciding of such claims only as are referred to them by the Industrial Commission itself. The real purpose of their
Unless a statute is clearly in conflict with the Constitution it will be deemed a valid exercise of legislative power. We fail to find such conflict in this case. Since, under the general police power of the state, the statute here in question could have been enacted without the aid of a constitutional grant, and since the general police power was not exhausted by such constitutional grant, we are unable to find Section 1465-44a, General Code, in conflict with the general purpose of the Workmen’s Compensation Law as authorized by the Constitution.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals wall be reversed.
Judgment reversed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. I regret that I am unable to concur with the majority members of the court in the judgment in this case, because I am in sympathy with the general objectives which the legislation under consideration seeks to attain, namely, the prompt and efficient determination of claims under the Workmen’s Compensation Law. However, I feel that it contravenes the constitutional grant of power to the Legislature on this subject. We are dealing only with a question of power and not of policy.
In fact, the majority opinion tacitly, if not expressly, concedes that the Legislature, in adopting Section 1465-44u, General Code, exceeded the powers granted to it by Section 35, Article II of the Constitution, but Claims that the Legislature was justified in so doing on the theory that the constitutional grant of authority to create the Industrial Commission and clothe it with power to administer the Workmen’s
This argument might have force if it were not for the fact that the sovereign power of the state, the people themselves, in the adoption of the constitutional amendment authorizing the Workmen’s' Compensation Law, undertook to and did, very specifically, define the field in which the Legislature was authorized to act in setting up the machinery for workmen’s compensation. In so doing, the people effectually denied the Legislature power to act outside the limits set by the Constitution, else there was no purpose whatever in placing any grant of power in the Constitution. There was' not only a grant but also a limitation of power. When there is a grant of power coupled with á specification of the manner of its exercise, additional power may not be assumed and exercised and the constitutional limitations disregarded. When jurisdictional power is assumed and exercised by the people through the Constitution on any subject, it cannot be exercised by the Legislature so as to increase such power in the absence of express authority conferred upon it to do so. City of Elyria v. Vandemark, 100 Ohio St., 365, 371, 372, 126 N. E., 314. If the Legislature, under the police power, could exceed the grant of power given by the Constitution it was futile and foolish to even mention it in the Constitution. I still believe that when and so long as the Constitution speaks it speaks effectively.
The Constitution, Section 35, Article II, as amended, effective January 1, 1924, broadly and clearly says: “Laws may be passed establishing a board [the Industrial Commission] which maybe empowered to classify all occupations according to their degree of hazard, to fix rates of contribution to such fund according to such classification, and to collect, administer and distribute such fund, and to determine all rights of claimants
A vital and most important feature of the Constitu- ■ tion providing for a board (the Industrial Commission) is that the same body and authority, the commission itself, shall have the power to fix rates of contribution, collect' the fund, determine the rights of claimants thereto and disburse the fund. The act in question destroys this unity and gives other boards full authority to determine claims and disburse the fund, without review or any control by the authority having the responsibility of the collection of the fund. Stress is laid in the majority opinion on the fact that these boards have no authority or jurisdiction on the rehearing of claims and that this feature of the law retains a supervisory power in the commission. But this provides no protection to the fund because, if the boards are sufficiently liberal in the allowance of claims and
If the Legislature has the power to create additional boards clothed with power to hear and finally determine claims', there is no denying its power to multiply such boards at will even to the creation of one such board for each county in the state. I think such a construction does violence to the provisions of the Constitution and the will of the people who so carefully framed it. It is my view that the advantages sought to be secured by this section of the G-eneral Code could well be attained by other methods' which would lessen the expense of hearings and, at the same time, preserve to the commission the finality of determination as to claims and the awards .thereon, thus securing and maintaining uniformity of decision and administration. In so doing, the Constitution would not be infringed.
I concur in paragraph one of the syllabus but dissent from paragraph two of the syllabus, and from the judgment.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.