O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 34-9-285 (2019)

Noncompensable disease or infirmity

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)

Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.

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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.

History

(Code 1933, § 114-805, enacted by Ga. L. 1946, p. 103.)

Annotations

Code Commission notes. - Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1988, ‘‘way’’ was substituted for ‘‘wise’’ in the first sentence. Law reviews. - For article discussing

apportioning disability losses in cases of psychological injury, see 16 Ga. St. B. J. 18 (1979).

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: con-

struction and effect of provisions in relation to new or new and further disability, 72 ALR 1125.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 4 cases, 1985–1992 · leading case: Price v. Lithonia Lighting Co., 343 S.E.2d 688 (Ga. 1986).

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Price v. Lithonia Lighting Co., 343 S.E.2d 688 (Ga. 1986). · cites it 28× “Where an occupational disease aggravates, or is aggravated by a noncompensable disease or infirmity, § 34-9-285 provides that the workers' compensation award will be "limited only to such proportion of the compensation that would be payable if the occupational disease were the…”

Gwendolyn Price v. Joseph Tanner, Comm'r of Labor of the State of Georgia, 855 F.2d 820 (11th Cir. 1988). · cites it 3× “VANCE, Circuit Judge: This appeal involves the issue whether a Georgia Workers’ Compensation statute, Ga.Code Ann. § 34-9-285, violates the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Whitaker v. Fieldcrest Mills, Inc., 330 S.E.2d 761 (Ga. Ct. App. 1985). · cites it 6× “Where a totally disabled employee seeks compensation for an occupational disease, which is not the sole cause for the disabling impairment, the benefits properly are reduced by the proportion of any non-compensable cause (s) of the impairment, and it requires indulging a fiction…”

SMB Stage Line, Inc. v. Leach, 418 S.E.2d 791 (Ga. Ct. App. 1992). · cites it 2× “While Georgia law does provide for apportionment of benefits in the case of an occupational disease aggravated by a noncompensable infirmity and vice versa, OCGA § 34-9-285, there exists no comparable statutory apportionment requirement for other work-related injuries or…”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.