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Spanish Peaks Mental Health Center v. Huffaker3/21/1996
Petitioners, Spanish Peaks Mental Health Center and Colorado Compensation Insurance Authority, seek review of a final order of the Industrial Claim Appeals Office (Panel) that denied their claim for an offset against the permanent total disability benefit award for disability retirement benefits that claimant, Robert Huffaker, receives from the Public Employees' Retirement Association (PERA). We affirm.
The relevant facts are undisputed. At the time of his injury, claimant worked for two different employers. He worked full-time as a staff psychiatrist at the Colorado State Hospital (CSH) in Pueblo and was employed as a part-time staff psychiatrist at Spanish Peaks Mental Health Center. He earned $1,446.90 per week at CSH and $395.77 weekly at Spanish Peaks.
In May 1987, claimant was injured in the course and scope of his employment with Spanish Peaks when a mentally ill patient shot him. Spanish Peaks admitted liability for temporary disability and paid benefits based only upon claimant's wages at Spanish Peaks.
In November 1992, claimant was granted a disability retirement from the CSH and began receiving PERA disability retirement benefits in the amount of $3,387.40 per month. All of the contributions to the PERA pension fund were paid by claimant and the CSH; none were made by Spanish Peaks.
Petitioners filed a final admission of liability on April 19, 1994. They admitted that claimant was permanently and totally disabled. In determining claimant's disability benefit, petitioners for the first time calculated his average weekly wage by combining his weekly income from both CSH and Spanish Peaks. Based on these combined wages, petitioners determined that claimant's weekly workers' compensation disability benefit amount was $351.68, the statutory maximum.
However, the petitioners then claimed a statutory offset against claimant's workers' compensation benefit in the amount of $466.85 per week as a result of the benefits due claimant pursuant to his PERA retirement. Thus, if allowed, the offset would have precluded receipt of any workers' compensation benefits.
Although claimant did not object to the new calculation of the average weekly wage using the combined weekly wages, he did object to application of the offset. After a hearing, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) determined that § 8-51-101(1)(d)(I), C.R.S. (1986 Repl. Vol. 3B) (now codified as § 8-42-103(1)(d)(I), C.R.S. (1995 Cum. Supp.)) permits an offset when a "pension plan" has been "financed in whole or in part by the employer." The ALJ concluded that, because Spanish Peaks did not contribute to the claimant's PERA account, it could not claim the benefit of the statutory offset. The Panel affirmed.
Petitioners contend that the ALJ erred in disallowing the PERA offset. We disagree.
In general, in the absence of a statute, a claimant may receive benefits from a pension plan and from a workers' compensation award simultaneously. See 4 A. Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law § 97.41(c) (1995). Colorado, however, has adopted such an offset statute. As applicable here that statute, § 8-51-101(1)(d), C.R.S. (1986 Repl. Vol. 3B), provided:
In cases where it is determined that periodic disability benefits are payable to an employee under the provisions of a pension plan financed in whole or in part by the employer, hereinafter called 'Employer
Pension Plan,' the aggregate benefits payable for. . . permanent total disability pursuant to this section, shall be reduced, but not below zero. . . .
That statute further provided that the reduction may be made "only in an amount proportional to the emp
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