{
  "id": 6137421,
  "name": "Joseph R. STRATTON v. DEATH AND PERMANENT TOTAL DISABILITY TRUST FUND",
  "name_abbreviation": "Stratton v. Death & Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund",
  "decision_date": "1989-05-24",
  "docket_number": "CA 88-414",
  "first_page": "86",
  "last_page": "89",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "28 Ark. App. 86"
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    {
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      "cite": "770 S.W.2d 678"
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    "name_abbreviation": "Ark. Ct. App.",
    "id": 13370,
    "name": "Arkansas Court of Appeals"
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      "cite": "270 Ark. 99",
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      "reporter": "Ark.",
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      "reporter": "Ark.",
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    {
      "cite": "253 Ark. 176",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ark.",
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        1627467
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      "weight": 3,
      "year": 1972,
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        {
          "page": "179",
          "parenthetical": "emphasis added"
        }
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    {
      "cite": "Ark. Code Ann. \u00a7 11-9-805",
      "category": "laws:leg_statute",
      "reporter": "Ark. Code Ann.",
      "year": 1987,
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    {
      "cite": "28 Ark. App. 73",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ark. App.",
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      "weight": 2,
      "year": 1989,
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    {
      "cite": "12 Ark. App. 238",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ark. App.",
      "case_ids": [
        6140986
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      "weight": 4,
      "year": 1984,
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  "analysis": {
    "cardinality": 434,
    "char_count": 7355,
    "ocr_confidence": 0.892,
    "pagerank": {
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T20:10:20.618919+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [
      "Jennings and Rogers, JJ., agree."
    ],
    "parties": [
      "Joseph R. STRATTON v. DEATH AND PERMANENT TOTAL DISABILITY TRUST FUND"
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Melvin Mayfield, Judge.\nThe crucial issue in this appeal from a decision of the Workers\u2019 Compensation Commission is whether the claimant, appellant Joseph R. Stratton, can proceed against the Death and Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund after entering into a joint petition settlement with his employer and its insurer. (Prior to Act 3 93 of 198 3, the name of the appellee Fund was the Death and Permanent Total Disability Bank Fund.)\nOn July 5, 1977, appellant suffered a compensable injury. On November 24,1986, he entered into a joint petition settlement with the employer and its insurance carrier which was approved by an administrative judge on November 25, 1986, after consideration of the answers to interrogatories filed with the petition by the claimant. The joint petition agreement provided in part:\nApproval of this Joint Petition will be final between the claimant and respondent, but claimant reserves all rights to benefits from the Death and Permanent Total Disability Bank Fund. However, the claimant recognizes that the decision in the case of Sayre v. State Second Injury Fund, 12 Ark. App. 238, 674 S.W.2d 941 (1984), may impede the claimant\u2019s right to proceed further against the Permanent Total Disability Bank Fund, . . .\nIn his answers to interrogatories, appellant also answered, \u201cYes,\u201d to the question, \u201cState whether you understand that settlement of this action may be construed by the Court to prohibit a further action against the Permanent Total Disability Bank Fund.\u201d\nThe order of the law judge approving the joint petition settlement contained the following provision:\nIT IS FURTHER ORDERED that upon payment of these sums by the respondent this claim shall be forever barred and the Arkansas Workers\u2019 Compensation Commission loses any and all jurisdiction.\nOn December 11, 1987, appellant\u2019s attorney requested a hearing before the Workers\u2019 Compensation Commission on the issue of the claimant\u2019s right to proceed against the appellee Fund. In January of 1988 the administrative law judge ruled by letter opinion that the Workers\u2019 Compensation Commission no longer had jurisdiction to take further action on the claim. Appellant then appealed that decision to the full Commission which held that the law judge had \u201cproperly refused to assume jurisdiction and take further action in this claim.\u201d On appeal to this court the appellant argues that the Commission erred as a matter of law in refusing to determine his right to receive benefits from the Fund.\nOn this day we have issued an opinion in the case of Ward v. Fayetteville City Hospital, 28 Ark. App. 73, 770 S.W.2d 668 (1989), which presents the same issue involved in the instant case, except there the appellant is attempting to proceed against the Second Injury Fund. However, the joint petition in Ward does not contain the language, which we have in this case, that attempts to reserve the claimant\u2019s right to proceed against the Fund. Thus it can be argued that the appellant\u2019s attempt in this case to reserve his rights to benefits from the Fund gives him standing to appeal the Commission\u2019s decision holding it had no jurisdiction over his claim. At any event, we hold here, as the majority does in Ward, that under Ark. Code Ann. \u00a7 11-9-805 (1987) the Commission\u2019s approval of a joint petition settlement eliminates its jurisdiction over \u201cany claim for the same injury or any results arising from it.\u201d See Sayre v. Second Injury Fund, 12 Ark. App. 238, 674 S.W.2d 941 (1984).\nIn addition to the decision in Sayre, we call attention to Jacob Hartz Seed Co. v. Thomas, 253 Ark. 176, 485 S.W.2d 200 (1972), where the court was discussing a joint petition settlement under Ark. Stat. Ann. \u00a7 81-1319(/) [now Ark. CodeAnn.\u00a7 11-9-805]. The court said:\nThe necessity for extreme caution in approving such settlements so clearly recognized by the commission\u2019s procedural rule lies in the fact that any award based thereon finally concludes all rights of the parties, even foreclosing any right of appeal from the order of approval. This is the only procedure under our act which leaves the claimant without any further remedy, regardless of subsequent developments.\n253 Ark. at 179 (emphasis added). We agree with the appellee that the language quoted above makes it clear that the finality of a joint petition settlement is viewed from the claimant\u2019s standpoint. It is the claimant\u2019s right to proceed further that is extinguished.\nThe statute under consideration here was also before the Arkansas Supreme Court in Cook v. Brown, 246 Ark. 11, 436 S.W.2d 482 (1969), where the court affirmed the Commission\u2019s refusal to set aside its approval of a joint petition settlement. The court said:\nOur statute is unambiguous. It is fortified by the wording of Ark. Stat. Ann. \u00a7 81-1326 (Repl. 1960). That section provides for the modification of awards generally; however, it specifically excepts from its provisions those awards made under \u00a7 81-1319(/).\n246 Ark. at 14. The purpose of the statute was explained in Bradford v. Ark. State Hospital, 270 Ark. 99, 603 S.W.2d 896 (Ark. App. 1980), when the court said:\nConceding entirely that one avowed and worth-while objective of Section 19(1) is to protect the claimant in joint petition settlements, it should be noted that there is another objective of Section 19, also to be valued, and that is the achieving of finality where the parties have reached a fair compromise \u2014 hence, the proviso that the Commission will have no further jurisdiction.\n270 Ark. at 105-06. The public\u2019s stake in this issue is explained by Larson as follows:\nThe public has ultimately borne the cost of compensation protection in the price of the product, and it has done so for the specific purpose of avoiding having the disabled victims of industry thrown on private charity or public relief. To this end, the public has enacted into law a scale of benefits that will forestall such destitution. It follows, then, that the employer and employee have no private right to thwart this objective by agreeing between them on a disposition of the claim that may, by giving the worker less than this amount, make him a potential public burden. The public interest is also thwarted when the employer and employee agree to a settlement which unnecessarily increases the cost of the product by giving the worker more than is due.\n3 Larson, Workmen\u2019s Compensation Law, \u00a7 82.41 (1988).\nThe appellee has arguments other than the interpretation of the statute involved. Particularly to be noted are those revolving around the amount of benefits that must be paid by the employer for permanent total disability before Trust Fund liability attaches; the allocation and characterization of the amounts to be paid under the joint petition settlement; and whether the claimant is in fact permanently totally disabled. However, we affirm the Commission\u2019s decision holding that the law judge had \u201cproperly refused to assume jurisdiction and take further action in this claim.\u201d This makes it unnecessary to discuss the other arguments advanced by the Fund.\nAffirmed.\nJennings and Rogers, JJ., agree.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Melvin Mayfield, Judge."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Jay N. Tolley, for appellant.",
      "David L. Pake, for appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "Joseph R. STRATTON v. DEATH AND PERMANENT TOTAL DISABILITY TRUST FUND\nCA 88-414\n770 S.W.2d 678\nCourt of Appeals of Arkansas Division II\nOpinion delivered May 24, 1989\n[Rehearing denied June 21, 1989.]\nJay N. Tolley, for appellant.\nDavid L. Pake, for appellee."
  },
  "file_name": "0086-01",
  "first_page_order": 110,
  "last_page_order": 113
}