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Bishop v. Wilson Quality Homes5/26/1998
NOTICE: THIS OPINION HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION IN THE PERMANENT LAW REPORTS. UNTIL RELEASED, IT IS SUBJECT TO REVISION OR WITHDRAWAL.
BISHOP v. WILSON QUALITY HOMES
___P.2d___
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
ON CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS, DIVISION II
The claimant in a Workers' Compensation case received an award for temporary total disability benefits, which the respondent, Wilson Quality Homes, appealed. The award was sustained and mandate issued. The claimant sought and received an order from the Workers' Compensation Court certifying the award to the district court pursuant to 85 O.S.Supp.1998, ยง 42. The claimant subsequently moved to change the name of the respondent to "William 'Bill' Wilson d/b/a Wilson Quality Homes." The Workers' Compensation Court denied the motion. When the claimant appealed, the Court of Civil Appeals reversed and remanded.
CERTIORARI PREVIOUSLY GRANTED; OPINION OF THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS VACATED; ORDER OF THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION COURT SUSTAINED.
On November 19, 1993, the petitioner, John Bishop, filed a Form 3, "Employee's First Notice of Accidental Injury and Claim for Compensation," with the Workers' Compensation Court seeking compensation for a work-related injury to his back on September 28, 1993, naming as his employer, "Wilson Quality Homes and/or Gross Construction." The order of June 10, 1994, awarding temporary total disability benefits found that Bishop was an employee of Gross Construction, which had no Workers' Compensation coverage, and that Gross Construction was a subcontractor of Wilson Quality Homes, which had secondary liability. Wilson Quality Homes appealed. A three-Judge panel affirmed the award. The Court of Civil Appeals sustained the award by the three-Judge panel and mandate subsequently issued.
When neither Gross Construction nor Wilson Quality Homes paid the award, Bishop obtained a Judgment and Certification of Unpaid Award on April 3, 1996. On May 8, 1996, Bishop filed another Form 3, this time naming "William 'Bill' Wilson" for the same injury in an attempt to obtain an order with Wilson's name on it as the respondent. The attempt was unsuccessful because the Form 3 was given the same court number as Bishop's original claim and placed in the original file. Bishop then attempted to have the final orders awarding compensation corrected nunc pro tunc to reflect the respondent's name as " William 'Bill' Wilson d/b/a Wilson Quality Homes." The Workers' Compensation Court denied the request, and Bishop appealed. The Court of Civil Appeals vacated and remanded with instructions to conduct a hearing to determine whether Bishop's contention that William "Bill" Wilson was simply doing business as Wilson Quality Homes is true, and to afford the respondent an opportunity to answer. This Court has previously granted certiorari.
The issue is whether under these facts, an order nunc pro tunc can properly issue. In a Memo Brief to the Workers' Compensation Court Bishop stated that it had been brought to the attention of counsel that any efforts to collect and satisfy the judgment through the district court process would be unsuccessful as the full name of the respondent was not included within the order. Bishop characterized the proposed order as a correction or substitution of the name of the respondent. Wilson Quality Homes characterized this as adding another party retroactively to the present lawsuit. The respondent argued that common law post-judgment nunc pro tunc proceedings do not apply to the Workers' Compensation Court because it is a creature of statute, and is bound by specific guidelines for ad
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