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Hamilton v. Ford6/1/1999
ployee's] earnings until his sales contract with [the employer] expired having remained approximately the same), then Section 18 of the Workmen's Compensation Act made it the duty of the [employer] to file a copy of this settlement agreement with the Industrial Commission, and this provision of the Act was not complied with by the [employer].
Under the circumstances of this case, it seems to us that the [employer] is estopped from being advantaged by reason of the fact that the [employee] did not formally file his claim with the Industrial Commission within one year from the date of the accident, especially when this Court has recognized the weight of authority to be that, under certain circumstances, an employer may waive the filing by an employee of a claim in any form whatever. Lowther, 206 S.C. at 291-92, 33 S.E.2d at 891.
The issue was revisited in Halks v. Rust Eng'g Co., 208 S.C. 39, 36 S.E.2d 852 (1946). Halks, an employee of Rust Engineering Company, suffered an admitted work related accident on April 21, 1941, when the scaffold on which he was working collapsed and he fell about twenty feet to the concrete below. Halks spent over a month in the hospital. The insurance carrier's claims adjuster visited Halks in the hospital and the parties entered into an agreement "in the usual form which provided for the payment of compensation from the date of the injury 'until terminated in accordance with the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Law.'" Id. at 42, 36 S.E.2d at 853. The Industrial Commission approved the agreement and awarded compensation for temporary total disability.
On May 29, 1941, one day before Halks left the hospital, the employee's attorney requested the case be docketed and set "'for an early hearing.'" Id. at 42, 36 S.E.2d at 853. The Commission, noting Halks was drawing temporary total disability, responded a hearing would be premature because Halks was still in the hospital. The carrier discontinued the payments on October 6, 1941, based on Halks's doctor's statement that Halks could return to work. Although Halks refused to sign a final settlement receipt, the carrier closed the case. In a letter dated October 3, 1942, the carrier informed the Commission that all compensation due had been paid. On August 12, 1943, Halks wrote the Commission requesting further compensation.
At the hearing before the Commissioner, the employer and carrier objected to the jurisdiction of the Commission on the ground any further claim by Halks was barred because more than a year had elapsed since the date of the last payment of compensation. The Commissioner overruled the objection and awarded Halks compensation. The Full Commission and the Circuit Court affirmed the award.
On appeal, the employer argued that, because it had closed the employee's file when it made the last payment of compensation in January of 1942, any further claim for compensation was barred except on the ground of a change in condition under Section 46 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, which provided "'no such review shall be made after twelve months from the date of the last payment of compensation.'" Id. at 44, 36 S.E.2d at 854. The employer made no contention there was a failure to comply with Section 24(a) of the Act, which required a claim for compensation to be filed within one year after the accident. Halks asserted he was not seeking review of an award on the ground of a change in condition, but was seeking compensation on his original claim. The Court held:
"[Halks's] claim in the instant case included not only compensation for temporary total disability, but also for any permanent disability or disfigurement. This claim has never reached a final hearin
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