Judges: JOHN L. HILL, Attorney General of Texas
Filed Date: 12/14/1977
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/6/2016
Honorable Cue D. Boykin Texas Industrial Accident Board Lyndon Baines Johnson Building P. O. Box 12757-Capitol Station Austin, Texas 78711
Re: Computation of benefits due a State employee with a specific injury under the workmen's compensation statutes.
Dear Mr. Boykin:
You inquire about the relationship between accrued sick leave and workmen's compensation benefits for State employees who sustain a specific injury. Article 8309g, which provides workmen's compensation insurance for State employees, adopts numerous provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Law. V.T.C.S. art. 8309g, § 15(a); see V.T.C.S. art. 6674s, § 7. Among the provisions adopted and made applicable to State employees is article 8306, section 12, which provides compensation for certain injuries. This section reads in pertinent part:
For the injuries enumerated in the following schedule the employee shall receive in lieu of all other compensation except medical aid, hospital services and medicines as elsewhere herein provided a weekly compensation equal to . . . [a percentage of weekly wages] for the respective periods stated herein. . . .
V.T.C.S. art. 8306, § 12. There follows a schedule detailing the number of weeks' compensation provided for various specific injuries, primarily the loss of limbs. For example, an employee who has lost a hand receives compensation for 150 weeks. Section 12 also provides compensation for loss of use of a limb and other partial incapacities.
Article 8309g provides that a State employee `is not entitled to weekly payments of compensation under this article until he has exhausted his accrued sick leave.' Sec. 12; Attorney General Opinion H-701 (1975). You ask whether this provision requires that the period of sick leave used by an employee who sustained a permanent specific injury be deducted from the weeks of compensation owing to him under article 8306, section 12. If this deduction is made, a State employee who has lost a hand in a job-related injury, and who takes three weeks of accrued sick leave, would receive 147 weeks of compensation under article 8306, section 12, instead of 150 weeks.
In our opinion, article 8309g, section 12 does not provide for the offsetting of sick leave and compensation for a specific injury. See City of Corpus Christi v. Herschbach,
Compensation for a permanent specific injury is not as closely tied to a period of incapacity. It is in the nature of liquidated damages, United Employers Casualty Co. v. Knight,
Recovery for a specific injury under article 8306, section 12 is to be `in lieu of all other compensation except medical aid. . . .' See Zurich General Accident Liability Ins. Co. v. Holmes,
Very truly yours,
John L. Hill Attorney General of Texas
APPROVED:
David M. Kendall First Assistant
C. Robert Heath Chairman Opinion Committee
Texas Emp. Ins. Assn. v. Patterson , 144 Tex. 573 ( 1946 )
City of Corpus Christi v. Herschbach , 536 S.W.2d 653 ( 1976 )
Stahl v. FIREMEN'S FUND INDEMNITY COMPANY , 295 S.W.2d 473 ( 1956 )
Muro v. Houston Fire and Casualty Insurance Co. , 310 S.W.2d 420 ( 1958 )