Citation Numbers: 22 N.E.2d 330, 281 N.Y. 176
Judges: HUBBS, J.
Filed Date: 7/11/1939
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 1/12/2023
An award has been made in three cases against the insurance carrier, Lloyds Insurance Company of America, for the sum of $1,000 in each case. The order, in each case, directed a payment by the carrier of $500 into the special fund and $500 into the vocational rehabilitation fund, as provided in section 15, subdivisions 8 and 9, of the Workmen's Compensation Law (Cons. Laws, ch. 67). Now that the carrier is in liquidation the question has arisen whether claims for these funds have a preference on the ground that they are claims of the State, and are entitled to the preference given to the sovereign. The Appellate Division, by a divided vote, has held that no preference should be allowed.
Section 15, subdivisions 8 and 9, of the Workmen's Compensation Law provides that there shall be a special fund to which the employer or his carrier shall contribute $500 in every case where there is an accidental death, but no one who can claim the compensation; and to another fund, the vocational rehabilitation fund, an additional $500 in such cases; and that the funds shall be in the custody of the Commissioner of Taxation and Finance. The funds are provided for additional compensation to those who become permanently disabled totally after having been permanently partially disabled; and for those who can be fitted for remunerative occupations. These are the funds to which the money would go, and for which a preference is sought.
While the law states what use is to be made of the funds, there is no guaranty that these uses alone will be made of the funds. Certain expenses of the Department of Education are paid out of the funds. By chapter
Further, it cannot be said that the payments provided for are not payments in furtherance of State or governmental functions. The State has an interest in the welfare of its injured employees. (Phenix Indemnity Co. v. Staten Island R.T. Ry.Co.,
It is urged that the case of Matter of General IndemnityCorp. (
The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed and that of the Special Term affirmed, without costs.
CRANE, Ch. J., LEHMAN, LOUGHRAN, FINCH and RIPPEY, JJ., concur; O'BRIEN, J., taking no part.
Ordered accordingly.