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Waste Management and Transportation Insurance Co. v. Estridge6/23/2005
05-16Waste Management has petitioned for review from the court of appeals' denial of its motion for rule on the clerk to accept an untimely record. We granted Waste Management's petition to consider the interpretation of Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-711 (Supp. 2003), a special statute that sets out how one appeals from an order rendered by the Workers' Compensation Commission.
In its brief in support of its motion for rule on the clerk, Waste Management raises two arguments. First, Waste Management asserts that extraordinary circumstances relating to the misleading, affirmative actions and words of the clerk of the Commission, coupled with the Commission's failure to follow either its own notification procedures or the notification procedures outlined by statute warrant allowing the record to be lodged. Second, Waste Management asks the court to consider whether payment of the Commission's filing fee is mandatory to invoke the court's jurisdiction, given the applicable statutes and rules governing workers' compensation appeals. We deny the motion.
Under the Workers' Compensation Act, a compensation order or award of the Commission shall become final unless a party to the dispute shall, within thirty days from receipt by him or her of the order or award, file notice of appeal to the court of appeals, which is designated as the forum for judicial review of those orders or awards. Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-711(b)(1) (Supp. 2003). The party initiates the appeal by filing the notice of appeal in the office of the Commission. § 11-9-711(b)(1)(A).
Under its certificate, the Commission shall send to the court of appeals all pertinent documents and papers, together with a transcript of evidence and the findings and orders, which shall become the record on review by the court of appeals. Id. The Commission may assess an appeal processing fee not to exceed $15.00. § 11-9-711(b)(1)(C).
In the present case, the Commission issued an opinion on July 12, 2004, affirming the Administrative Law Judge and awarding appellee Jack Estridge benefits. Waste Management sought to appeal the Commission's decision after it received the opinion on July 15, 2004; this made the thirty-day deadline for filing its notice of appeal fall on August 16, 2004.
However, Waste Management was then required to file its record on review within ninety days from the filing of its notice of appeal. The clerk of the court of appeals calculated that the time for filing the record was November 4, 2004, ninety days from the date Waste Management filed its notice of appeal on August 5, 2004. When the clerk refused to docket Waste Management's appeal, which was tendered to the clerk's office on November 8, 2004, Waste Management countered that its appeal was not commenced until Waste Management actually paid the $15.00 processing fee to the Commission on August 9, 2004. Under Waste Management's interpretation, the ninety-day deadline for filing the record would have been November 8, 2004, and its tendering of the record would have been timely. Waste Management is in error.
In its first argument on appeal, Waste Management attempts to place the blame for the delay, if any, on the Commission. For example, on September 24, 2004, Waste Management telephoned the Commission's clerk, who said that the record had been placed in line for completion, and Waste Management would receive written notification of the transcript's completion. On October 14, 2004, however, the Commission's clerk notified Estridge's attorney, not Waste Management's, that the record had been certified and was ready to be picked up. Although the letter notifying Estridge about the record reflected that a copy of the letter had b
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