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COLLINS v. KING3/20/1996
xcept for medical or rehabilitative reasons." Defendants add that if the disability payments are used for a plaintiff's living expenses while away from work, then the benefits are used for custodial care. Thus, a broad or liberal construction of the statute is sought by defendants in order to prevent the double payments allowed by the collateral source rule. As such, evidence of collateral source payments would be admissible to a jury, as was done in this case.
II. Statutory Construction
Our scope of review in this case is on error. State v. Azneer, 526 N.W.2d 298, 299 (Iowa 1995). In interpreting a statute we necessarily begin with the statute's language. Mallard v. United States Dist. Ct., 490 U.S. 296, 300-301, 109 S.Ct. 1814, 1817, 104 L.Ed.2d 318, 326 (1989). Unless the contrary appears, statutory words are presumed to be used in their ordinary and usual sense and with the meaning commonly attributed to them. State v. Ahitow, 544 N.W.2d 270, 272 (Iowa 1996); Schafer v. Cocklin, 504 N.W.2d 454, 455 (Iowa 1993). Words of the statute are given their plain and ordinary meaning, absent legislative definition or particular and appropriate meaning in the law. Ahitow, 544 N.W.2d at 272; State v. Simmons, 500 N.W.2d 58, 59 (Iowa 1993).
Applying these rules it is clear that "disability payments" come from a source separate and distinct from "medical care, rehabilitation services or custodial care." No definition of these words has been cited that would include disability payments. We have also long accepted the maxim that express mention of one thing in a statute implies exclusion of others. Lacina v. Maxwell, 501 N.W.2d 531, 533 (Iowa 1993); In re Estate of Mills, 374 N.W.2d 675, 677 (Iowa 1985); In re Estate of Wilson, 202 N.W.2d 41, 44 (Iowa 1972). Application of this statutory rule clearly implies that the legislature was not including "loss of earnings," which is what disability income payments are for, in the statute when it specifically mentioned economic losses for "necessary medical care, rehabilitation services, and custodial care" as being statutorily excepted from the Iowa collateral source rule.
Moreover, statutes will not be construed as taking away common law rights existing at the time of enactment unless that result is "imperatively" required by the language of the statute. Kapadia v. Preferred Risk Mut. Ins. Co., 418 N.W.2d 848, 851 (Iowa 1988); Ford v. Venard, 340 N.W.2d 270, 273 (Iowa 1983); Pearson v. Robinson, 318 N.W.2d 188, 191 (Iowa 1982). Short of an imperative, there is very little in the statutory language to support defendant's argument.
III. Conclusion
We hold that Iowa Code section 668.14 does not apply to disability income payments erroneously deducted.
This case is reversed and remanded to the district court for correction of the judgment by entry of an additur for disability income payments received by plaintiff.
REVERSED AND REMANDED. [545 NW2d Page 313]
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