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MAXEY v. TYSON5/19/1999
usly with each other and with the entire workers' compensation law, it is clear that the Legislature meant for the claimant's recovery to be restricted to the appropriate scheduled amount, regardless of whether the respondent is an employer, insurance carrier, or the Second Injury Fund.
Case law addressing scheduled injuries supports our finding that a claimant who has sustained a scheduled injury but is less than permanently, totally disabled is not entitled to wage-loss disability benefits. Fed. Compress & Wholesale v. Risper, 55 Ark. App. 300, 935 S.W.2d 279 (1996), involved an eye injury. It was not clear from the Commission's opinion that it had not considered the claimant's eye injury when determining the amount of wage-loss benefits to which he was entitled. We pointed out that an eye injury was a scheduled injury, which should not have been considered when determining claimant's wage-loss benefits. We reversed and remanded for the Commission to determine the extent of the claimant's wage-loss benefits without giving any consideration whatsoever to his scheduled eye injury or his noncompensable lumbar injury, which may also have been considered to some extent by the Commission.
In Ward, supra, we held that a claimant who has settled his claim with the employer cannot then proceed against the Second Injury Fund. In other words, we held that the statute controlled the claimant's entitlement to compensation, rather than the source of the compensation.
For these reasons we reverse the Commission's order that the Second Injury Fund is liable for wage-loss benefits to the claimant and hold that the claimant is not entitled to wage-loss benefits in addition to the compensation she received for her scheduled injury.
Affirmed on direct appeal; reversed on cross-appeal.
NEAL and CRABTREE, JJ., agree.
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