Alaska Industrial Board v. Chugach Electric Ass'n

In this case, which arises under the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Alaska, two questions are presented on appeal. The first of these is whether, under the circumstances of this case, the Alaska Industrial Board had jurisdiction to reopen a previously-rejected claim for a temporary total disability award. The second is whether, if the board had such jurisdiction, it correctly granted such an award for injuries arising from the same accident in which a lump-sum award for permanent total disability had previously been granted.

The following facts, essential to a consideration of these questions, are not in dispute. On September 21, 1950, Carl E. Jenkins received serious injuries when he came into contact with a high voltage electric line while in the course of his employment. His employer was Chugach Electric Association which had insured its liability under the act with General Accident Fire & Life Assurance Corporation.

As a result of the accident, it was necessary to amputate Jenkins’ left arm near the shoulder, his right leg below the knee, and four toes of his left foot. These amputations were made in a series of three surgical operations, the last of which was performed on…

(dissenting).

I dissent from the majority opinion’s harsh and unjust conclusion resulting from its failure to apply to the relationship between the statutory provisions for total permanent and total temporary disability, the same liberal rule of interpretation of the Supreme Court and this court, 1 that the maj ority opinion does in considering the statute’s time limitations.

It is obvious and admitted by the majority opinion that an employee’s loss of two limbs, here a hand and a foot, does not create his total disability to work. There are many employments for a person with one good hand who can walk with an artificial leg or for one who has two good hands and a wheel chair.

Hence the statement of the statute that such loss “shall constitute total and permanent disability and be compensated according to the provisions of this act with reference to total and permanent disability’’ can well be construed liberally as providing no more than that one having such an injury shall receive a certain amount of money in any event. Since such a liberal construction would leave to the injured man after the amputation the right to claim compensation *202 for the actual continuing temporary…

(dissenting).

What Judge Denman has pointed out in his footnote, 4, namely, that the lump-sum payment under the Alaska statute is in no way related to the wage scale of the injured workman, has convinced me that it is not proper to apply here what the majority opinion calls a “basic principle of all workmen’s compensation”, that is, that “benefits relate to loss of earning capacity and not to physical injury as such.” My difficulty is in seeing how we can read a “basic principle” into a statute like this one which bears evidence of having been drawn on a very different theory.

The majority opinion says: “One may have a permanently injured arm and a temporarily injured leg.” Just as self-evident is the proposition that one may have a permanently injured arm and leg and a temporarily injured leg, or he may lose an arm and a leg and have a temporarily injured leg. That is this case.

The opinion further says: “The individual receiving such an award [i. e., for loss of an arm and a leg] may actually be able to continue some work.” I have not been able to find in the statute anything which says that if that ability to continue to do some work is temporarily impaired by injury of the…