Where an occupational disease is aggravated by any other disease or infirmity not itself compensable or where disability or death from any other cause not itself compensable is aggravated, prolonged, accelerated, or in any other way contributed to by an occupational disease, the compensation payable shall be reduced and limited only to such proportion of the compensation that would be payable if the occupational disease were the sole cause of the disability or death as such occupational disease, as the causative factor, bears to all the causes of such disability or death. Compensation shall be adjusted by reducing the number of weekly payments or the amounts of such payments as, in the circumstances of the particular case, may be determined by the board.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Section constitutional.

- O.C.G.A. § 34-9-285, in authorizing disparate treatment of occupational diseases and other injuries compensable under the Workers' Compensation Act, O.C.G.A. § 34-9-1 et seq., does not violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection. Price v. Lithonia Lighting Co., 256 Ga. 49, 343 S.E.2d 688 (1986).

O.C.G.A. § 34-9-285 is rationally related to a legitimate state interest and does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause. Price v. Tanner, 855 F.2d 820 (11th Cir. 1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1081, 109 S. Ct. 1534, 103 L. Ed. 2d 839 (1989).

Partial disability.

- The law does not contemplate such a thing as partial disability in the occupational disease statute, except when, under the provisions of Ga. L. 1946, p. 103, the condition results in part from an occupational disease and in part from some other condition not compensable, in which event the compensation is reduced proportionately. Yates v. United States Rubber Co., 100 Ga. App. 583, 112 S.E.2d 182 (1959).

No apportionment between work-related and congenital causes.

- Workers' Compensation Act, O.C.G.A. § 34-9-1 et seq., does not provide for apportionment of benefits between work-related and congenital causes. SMB Stage Line v. Leach, 204 Ga. App. 229, 418 S.E.2d 791 (1992).

Cited in Whitaker v. Fieldcrest Mills, Inc., 174 Ga. App. 533, 330 S.E.2d 761 (1985).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 82 Am. Jur. 2d, Workers' Compensation, § 311 et seq.

ALR.

- Workmen's compensation: construction and effect of provisions in relation to new or new and further disability, 72 A.L.R. 1125.

Syfert Injury Law Firm

2018 Georgia Code 34-9-285 | Car Wreck Lawyer

TITLE 34 LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

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

ARTICLE 8 COMPENSATION FOR OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE

34-9-285. Noncompensable disease or infirmity.

Code Commission notes.

Law reviews.