MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2007 Regular Session
To: Insurance
By: Senator(s) Ross
AN ACT TO DISQUALIFY CERTAIN INCARCERATED WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIMANTS FROM ENTITLEMENT TO BENEFITS; TO AMEND SECTION 71-3-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO DELETE THE FOUND DEAD PRESUMPTION UNDER THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION LAW; TO AMEND SECTION 71-3-7, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO SPECIFICALLY INCLUDE INJURIES BY HEART ATTACK OR STROKE WITHIN THE APPORTIONMENT PROVISION; TO AMEND SECTION 71-3-17, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROHIBIT LOSS OF EARNING CAPACITY BENEFITS IN CASES WHERE AN INJURED WORKER VOLUNTARILY RETIRES, AND TO LIMIT AWARDS FOR SCHEDULED MEMBER INJURIES TO THE AMOUNT PROVIDED IN THE SCHEDULE OF BENEFITS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter to the contrary, an injured worker is not eligible to receive workers' compensation benefits or medical expenses for periods of time during which the worker is incarcerated for the commission of a crime unless the injured worker had been "found" to have a permanent and total loss of wage-earning capacity which was attributable to the work-related injury.
(2) As used in this section, an individual is not "incarcerated" if the individual is on parole or work release status.
(3) If upon appeal such conviction is overturned, the benefits suspended during the period of incarceration shall be reinstated.
SECTION 2. Section 71-3-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
71-3-3. Unless the context otherwise requires, the definitions which follow govern the construction and meaning of the terms used in this chapter:
(a) "Person" includes an individual, firm, voluntary association or a corporation.
(b) "Injury" means accidental injury or accidental death arising out of and in the course of employment without regard to fault which results from an untoward event or events, if contributed to or aggravated or accelerated by the employment in a significant manner. Untoward event includes events causing unexpected results. An untoward event or events shall not be presumed to have arisen out of and in the course of employment * * *. This definition includes injuries to artificial members, and also includes an injury caused by the willful act of a third person directed against an employee because of his employment while so employed and working on the job, and disability or death due to exposure to ionizing radiation from any process in employment involving the use of or direct contact with radium or radioactive substances with the use of or direct exposure to roentgen (X-rays) or ionizing radiation. In radiation cases only, the date of disablement shall be treated as the date of the accident. Occupational diseases, or the aggravation thereof, are excluded from the term "injury," provided that, except as otherwise specified, all provisions of this chapter apply equally to occupational diseases as well as injury.
(c) "Death," when mentioned as a basis for the right to compensation, means only death resulting from such an injury.
(d) "Employee" means any person, including a minor whether lawfully or unlawfully employed, in the service of an employer under any contract of hire or apprenticeship, written or oral, express or implied, provided that there shall be excluded therefrom all independent contractors and especially any individual performing service in, and at the time of, the sale of newspapers or magazines to ultimate consumers under an arrangement under which the newspapers or magazines are to be sold by the individual at a fixed price, the individual's compensation being based on the retention of the excess of such price over the amount at which the newspapers or magazines are charged to the individual, whether or not the individual is guaranteed a minimum amount of compensation for such service or is entitled to be credited with the unsold newspapers or magazines returned. A student of an educational institution who, as a part of such educational institution's curriculum, is receiving practical training at any facility, who is under the active and direct supervision of the personnel of the facility and/or an instructor of the educational institution, and who is not receiving wages as a consequence of participation in such practical training shall not be considered an employee of such facility on account of participation in such practical training.
(e) "Employer," except when otherwise expressly stated, includes a person, partnership, association, corporation and the legal representatives of a deceased employer, or the receiver or trustee of a person, partnership, association or corporation.
(f) "Carrier" means any person authorized in accordance with the provisions of this chapter to insure under this chapter and includes self-insurers.
(g) "Self-insurer" is an employer who has been authorized under the provisions of this chapter to carry his own liability on his covered employees without insuring in a stock or mutual carrier.
(h) "Commission" means the Workers' Compensation Commission.
(i) "Disability" means incapacity because of injury to earn the wages which the employee was receiving at the time of injury in the same or other employment, which incapacity and the extent thereof must be supported by medical findings.
(j) "Compensation" means the money allowance payable to an injured worker or his dependents as provided in this chapter, and includes funeral benefits provided therein.
(k) "Wages" includes the money rate at which the service rendered is recompensed under the contract of hiring in force at the time of injury, and also the reasonable value of board, rent, housing, lodging or similar advantage received from the employer and gratuities received in the course of employment from others than the employer. The term "wages" shall not include practical training received by students of an educational institution as a part of such educational institution's curriculum.
(l) "Child" shall include a posthumous child, a child legally adopted prior to the injury of the employee, a child in relation to whom the deceased employee stood in the place of a parent for at least one (1) year prior to the time of injury and a stepchild or acknowledged illegitimate child dependent upon the deceased, but does not include married children unless wholly dependent on him. "Grandchild" means a child as above defined of a child as above defined. "Brother" and "sister" include stepbrothers and stepsisters, half brothers and half sisters, and brothers and sisters by adoption, but does not include married brothers nor married sisters unless wholly dependent on the employee. "Child," "grandchild," "brother" and "sister" include only persons who are under eighteen (l8) years of age, and also persons who, though eighteen (l8) years of age or over, are wholly dependent upon the deceased employee and incapable of self-support by reason of mental or physical disability, and also a child eighteen (18) years of age or older, until his twenty-third birthday, who is dependent upon the deceased and is pursuing a full-time education.
(m) "Parent" includes stepparents and parents by adoption, parents-in-law or any person who for more than three (3) years prior to the death of the deceased employee stood in the place of a parent to him, or her, if dependent on the injured employee.
(n) The term "surviving spouse" includes the decedent's legal wife or husband, living with him or her or dependent for support upon him or her at the time of death or living apart for justifiable cause or by reason of desertion at such time, provided, however, such separation had not existed for more than three (3) years without an award for separate maintenance or alimony or the filing of a suit for separate maintenance or alimony in the proper court in this state. The term "surviving spouse" shall likewise include one not a legal wife or husband but who had entered into a ceremonial marriage with the decedent at least one (1) year prior to death and who, on the date of the decedent's death, stood in the relationship of a wife or husband, provided there was no living legal spouse who had protected her or his rights for support by affirmative action as hereinabove required. The term "surviving spouse" as contemplated in this chapter shall not apply to any person who has, since his or her separation from decedent, entered into a ceremonial marriage or lived in open adultery with another.
(o) The term "adoption" or "adopted" means legal adoption prior to the time of the injury.
(p) The singular includes the plural and the masculine includes the feminine and neuter.
(q) It is expressly provided, agreed and understood in determining beneficiaries under this section that a surviving spouse suffering a mental or physical handicap and children under the age of eighteen (18) years are presumed to be dependent.
(r) "Independent contractor" means any individual, firm or corporation who contracts to do a piece of work according to his own methods without being subject to the control of his employer except as to the results of the work, and who has the right to employ and direct the outcome of the workers independent of the employer and free from any superior authority in the employer to say how the specified work shall be done or what the laborers shall do as the work progresses, one who undertakes to produce a given result without being in any way controlled as to the methods by which he attains the result.
(s) "Average weekly wage for the state" means an amount determined by the commission as of October 1 of each year based upon wage and employment statistics reported to the commission by the Mississippi Employment Security Commission. Such amount shall be based upon data for the preceding twelve-month period and shall be effective from and after January 1 of the following year.
SECTION 3. Section 71-3-7, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
71-3-7. Compensation shall be payable for disability or death of an employee from injury or occupational disease arising out of and in the course of employment, without regard to fault as to the cause of the injury or occupational disease. An occupational disease shall be deemed to arise out of and in the course of employment when there is evidence that there is a direct causal connection between the work performed and the occupational disease.
Where a preexisting physical handicap, disease, or lesion is shown by medical findings to be a material contributing factor in the results following injury, including, but not limited to, injury by heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular or cerebral origin, the compensation which, but for this paragraph, would be payable shall be reduced by that proportion which such preexisting physical handicap, disease, or lesion contributed to the production of the results following the injury. Where the injury giving rise to apportionment under this provision is by heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular or cerebrovascular origin, a showing of preexisting occupational disability shall not be a prerequisite for apportionment.
(a) Apportionment shall not be applied until the claimant has reached maximum medical recovery.
(b) The employer or carrier does not have the power to determine the date of maximum medical recovery or percentage of apportionment. This must be done by the attorney-referee, subject to review by the commission as the ultimate finder of fact.
(c) After the date the claimant reaches maximum medical recovery, weekly compensation benefits and maximum recovery shall be reduced by that proportion which the preexisting physical handicap, disease, or lesion contributes to the results following injury.
(d) If maximum medical recovery has occurred before the hearing and order of the attorney-referee, credit for excess payments shall be allowed in future payments. Such allowances and method of accomplishment of the same shall be determined by the attorney-referee, subject to review by the commission. However, no actual repayment of such excess shall be made to the employer or carrier.
No compensation shall be payable if the intoxication of the employee was the proximate cause of the injury, or if it was the willful intention of the employee to injure or kill himself or another.
Every employer to whom this chapter applies shall be liable for and shall secure the payment to his employees of the compensation payable under its provisions.
In the case of an employer who is a subcontractor, the contractor shall be liable for and shall secure the payment of such compensation to employees of the subcontractor, unless the subcontractor has secured such payment.
SECTION 4. Section 71-3-17, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
71-3-17. Compensation for disability shall be paid to the employee as follows:
(a) Permanent total disability: In case of total disability adjudged to be permanent, sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66-2/3%) of the average weekly wages of the injured employee, subject to the maximum limitations as to weekly benefits as set up in this chapter, shall be paid to the employee not to exceed four hundred fifty (450) weeks or an amount greater than the multiple of four hundred fifty (450) weeks times sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66-2/3%) of the average weekly wage for the state. Loss of both hands, or both arms, or both feet, or both legs, or both eyes, or of any two (2) thereof shall constitute permanent total disability. In all other cases permanent total disability shall be determined in accordance with the facts. Injuries which fall within the schedule set forth in subsection (c), other than a loss of both hands, or both arms, or both legs, or both feet, or both eyes, or any two (2) thereof, shall be payable in accordance with the schedule and shall not be considered for permanent total disability benefits under this subsection.
(b) Temporary total disability: In case of disability, total in character but temporary in quality, sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66-2/3%) of the average weekly wages of the injured employee, subject to the maximum limitations as to weekly benefits as set up in this chapter, shall be paid to the employee during the continuance of such disability not to exceed four hundred fifty (450) weeks or an amount greater than the multiple of four hundred fifty (450) weeks times sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66-2/3%) of the average weekly wage for the state. Provided, however, if there arises a conflict in medical opinions of whether or not the claimant has reached maximum medical recovery and the claimant's benefits have terminated by the carrier, then the claimant may demand an immediate hearing before the commissioner upon five (5) days' notice to the carrier for a determination by the commission of whether or not in fact the claimant has reached maximum recovery.
(c) Permanent partial disability: In case of disability partial in character but permanent in quality, the compensation shall be sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66-2/3%) of the average weekly wages of the injured employee, subject to the maximum limitations as to weekly benefits as set up in this chapter, which shall be paid following compensation for temporary total disability paid in accordance with subsection (b) of this section, and shall be paid to the employee as follows:
Member Lost Number Weeks Compensation
(1) Arm 200
(2) Leg 175
(3) Hand 150
(4) Foot 125
(5) Eye 100
(6) Thumb 60
(7) First finger 35
(8) Great toe 30
(9) Second finger 30
(10) Third finger 20
(11) Toe other than great toe 10
(12) Fourth finger 15
(13) Testicle, one 50
(14) Testicle, both 150
(15) Breast, female, one 50
(16) Breast, female, both 150
(17) Loss of hearing: Compensation for loss of hearing of one (1) ear, forty (40) weeks. Compensation for loss of hearing of both ears, one hundred fifty (150) weeks.
(18) Phalanges: Compensation for loss of more than one (1) phalange of a digit shall be the same as for loss of the entire digit. Compensation for loss of the first phalange shall be one-half (1/2) of the compensation for loss of the entire digit.
(19) Amputated arm or leg: Compensation for an arm or leg, if amputated at or above wrist or ankle, shall be for the loss of the arm or leg.
(20) Binocular vision or percent of vision: Compensation for loss of binocular vision or for eighty percent (80%) or more of the vision of an eye shall be the same as for loss of the eye.
(21) Two (2) or more digits: Compensation for loss of two (2) or more digits, or one (1) or more phalanges of two (2) or more digits, of a hand or foot may be proportioned to the loss of the use of the hand or foot occasioned thereby, but shall not exceed the compensation for loss of a hand or foot.
(22) Total loss of use: Compensation for permanent total loss of use of a member shall be the same as for loss of the member.
(23) Partial loss or partial loss of use: Compensation for permanent partial loss or loss of use of a member may be for proportionate loss or loss of use of the member.
(24) Disfigurement: The commission, in its discretion, is authorized to award proper and equitable compensation for serious facial or head disfigurements not to exceed Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000.00). No such award shall be made until a lapse of one (1) year from the date of the injury resulting in such disfigurement.
(25) Other cases: In all other cases in this class of disability, the compensation shall be sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66-2/3%) of the difference between his average weekly wages, subject to the maximum limitations as to weekly benefits as set up in this chapter, and his wage-earning capacity thereafter in the same employment or otherwise, payable during the continuance of such partial disability, but subject to reconsideration of the degree of such impairment by the commission on its own motion or upon application of any party in interest. Such payments shall in no case be made for a longer period than four hundred fifty (450) weeks.
(26) In any case in which there shall be a loss of, or loss of use of, more than one (1) member or parts of more than one (1) member set forth in paragraphs (1) through (23) of this subsection, not amounting to permanent total disability, the award of compensation shall be for the loss of, or loss of use of, each such member or parts thereof, which awards shall run consecutively, except that where the injury affects only two (2) or more digits of the same hand or foot, paragraph (21) of this subsection shall apply.
(27) Except as provided in subsection (a) of this section, the permanent disability benefits due for an injury which falls within paragraphs (1) through (23) of this subsection shall be exclusive and in place of any other permanent disability benefits which might otherwise apply.
(d) In any case in which an injured worker has voluntarily elected to retire or otherwise withdraw from the labor market, and the injury for which compensation is claimed is not permanently and totally disabling, such employee shall not be entitled to any further permanent disability benefits as otherwise provided under this section from and after the date of his voluntary retirement or withdrawal from the labor force.
SECTION 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2007.