Syfert Injury Law Firm

Your Trusted Partner in Personal Injury & Workers' Compensation

Call Now: 904-383-7448

2018 Georgia Code 34-9-245 | Car Wreck Lawyer

TITLE 34 LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Section 9. Workers' Compensation, 34-9-1 through 34-9-432.

ARTICLE 6 PAYMENT OF COMPENSATION

34-9-245. Repayment of overpayment by claimant.

Should the board find that a claimant has received an overpayment of income benefits from the employer, for any reason, the board shall have the authority to order repayment on terms acceptable to the parties or within the discretion of the board. No claim for reimbursement shall be allowed where the application for reimbursement is filed more than two years from the date such overpayment was made.

(Code 1981, §34-9-245, enacted by Ga. L. 1999, p. 817, § 6.)

Law reviews.

- For annual survey of workers' compensation law, see 58 Mercer L. Rev. 453 (2006). For survey article on workers' compensation law, see 60 Mercer L. Rev. 433 (2008).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

De novo standard of review.

- In reviewing a decision by the State Board of Workers' Compensation (board), the trial court correctly employed a de novo standard of review when determining whether O.C.G.A. § 34-9-245 was a statute of repose rather than a statute of limitation, as that matter involved a legal interpretation of a statute; the court was obligated to employ the "any evidence" standard when determining whether the findings by the board that an award of attorney fees to an insurer, a civil penalty assessment to an employee, and a referral of the matter to the Enforcement Division of the board were proper. Trax-Fax, Inc. v. Hobba, 277 Ga. App. 464, 627 S.E.2d 90 (2006).

Applicability.

- State Board of Workers' Compensation properly held that an employer was entitled to a credit for overpayments made to a claimant, but only for those made within the two years prior to the employer's request for reimbursement; O.C.G.A. § 34-9-245 was intended as a statute of repose, and thus giving the employer credit for overpayments made more than two years before its request for reimbursement would allow offsets against future payments when there was no legally cognizant basis for reimbursement. Renu Thrift Store, Inc. v. Figueroa, 286 Ga. App. 455, 649 S.E.2d 528 (2007), cert. dismissed, 2007 Ga. LEXIS 812 (Ga. 2007).

Statute of repose retroactively applied.

- O.C.G.A. § 34-9-245 is a statute of repose, rather than a statute of limitations, and can be applied retroactively, pursuant to the legislative intent and the wording of the statute; accordingly, an award of reimbursement of benefits paid to an employee was proper when the employee's accident occurred one year prior to the enactment of § 34-9-245, and preclusion of reimbursement for any overpayments made prior to the two-year period was proper. Trax-Fax, Inc. v. Hobba, 277 Ga. App. 464, 627 S.E.2d 90 (2006).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

ALR.

- Validity, and applicability to causes of action, of statute shortening limitation period or period of repose, 76 A.L.R.6th 31.

No results found for Georgia Code 34-9-245.