Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corp. v. Industrial Accident Commission

CONREY, P. J.

Petitioner is the insurance carrier for Bartlett Hayward Company, employer of respondent Pavlovich. Petitioner seeks to obtain annulment of a compensation award to Pavlovich for injuries received by him, which injuries arose out of and in the course of his employment. The accident occurred on the first day of September, 1922. Thereafter, and without any application to have the claim adjusted by the Industrial Accident Commission, the insurance carrier paid compensation on an assumed basis of liability, for a period of 244 weeks, and then discontinued further payments. It is the contention of petitioner that Pavlovich was barred from filing any claim after 245 weeks from the date of the injury; that is to say, after the fourteenth day of May, 1927. His application for adjustment of claim was not filed with the commission until June 7, 1927.

The commission, after finding the facts concerning the accident and injury and the voluntary payments made as above stated, found that “the injury caused permanent disability which is a new and further disability, and this action is not therefore barred within 245 weeks from the date of the injury, compensation having been paid thereon.”

It is conceded that a permanent injury is a “new and further disability” within the provision of the Workmen’s Compensation Act relating to new and further disability.

(Hutchinson Lumber Co.

v.

Industrial Acc. Com.,

77 Cal. App. 141 [246 Pac. 118];

General Accident etc. Corporation

v.

Industrial Acc. Com.,

77 Cal. App. 314 [246 Pac. 570].) The following provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1917 [Stats. 1917, p. 831], are pertinent to the question at issue:

[727]

“Section 11 (e) : The payment of compensation, or any part thereof, or agreement therefor, shall have the effect of extending the period within which proceedings for its collection may be commenced, six months from the date of the agreement or last payment of such compensation, or any part thereof, or the expiration of the period covered by any such payment;