Delaware General Assembly


CHAPTER 299 - DELAWARE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION LAW SECOND INJURY FUND

AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 115 OF THE REVISED CODE OF DELAWARE, 1935, AS AMENDED, ENTITLED "DELAWARE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION LAW", BY EXTENDING THE PROVISIONS FOR PAYMENTS THEREUNDER, AND CREATING A FUND KNOWN AS "INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT BOARD SECOND INJURY FUND".

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:

Section 1. That 6080. Section 10, Subsection (e) of Chapter 175 of the Revised Code of Delaware, 1935, be amended by striking out and repealing all of said Subsection (e) and substituting in lieu thereof a new subsection to be known as 6080. Section 10, Subsection (e), as follows:

6080. Section 10 (e). Whenever a subsequent permanent injury occurs to an employee who has previously sustained a permanent injury, from any cause, whether in line of employment or otherwise, the employer for whom such injured employee was working at the time of such subsequent injury, shall be required to pay only that amount of compensation as would be due for such subsequent injury without regard to the effect of the prior injury. Provided, however, that whenever such subsequent permanent injury in connection with a previous permanent injury results in total disability as defined in subsection (c) of this Section, the employee shall be paid compensation for such total disability, as provided in sub-section (a) of this Section, for a period of five hundred (500) weeks, less the number of weeks he shall have been paid compensation for the said second permanent injury; such compensation to be paid out of a special fund known as "Industrial Accident Board Second Injury Fund" and created for such purpose in the following manner:

Every insurance carrier insuring employers who are or may be liable under this Chapter to pay for compensation for personal injuries to or death of their employees under the provisions of this Chapter shall pay annually, on or before January 30th of each year, to the Industrial Accident Board for the State of Delaware a sum equal to one-half (1/2) of one per centum (1%) on all Workmen's Compensation or Employer Liability premiums received by the carrier during the calendar year next preceding the due date of such payment. Every employer carrying his own risk and thereby insuring himself under the provisions of this Chapter, on or before January 30th of each year, shall pay to the Industrial Accident Board for the State of Delaware, a sum equal to one-half (1/2) of one per centum (1%) of the premium which said employer would have had to pay for the preceding year for Workmen's Compensation or Employer Liability insurance, said premium being in accordance with classifications and premium rates approved by the Board for the purpose of fixing compensation and insurance rates. Such sums shall be paid by the Industrial Accident Board to the State Treasurer, to be deposited in a special account known as "Industrial Accident Board Second Injury Fund", and which said funds shall not be a part of the General Fund of the State of Delaware, and any balance remaining in said account at the end of any fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund. Any carrier or employer who is a self-insurer who shall make payments to an employee for total disability under the provisions of this Subsection upon an award being made for the same by the Board, shall be entitled to reimbursement for said payments from the "Industrial Accident Board Second Injury Fund" herein created; provided, however, that these reimbursements to such carrier and employer carrying his own risk and thereby insuring himself shall be made upon a semi-annual basis, that is to say, on the fifteenth day of January and July of each year. The reimbursements shall be made upon warrants, on the Treasurer of the State of Delaware, signed by the Secretary of the Industrial Accident Board.

When the total amount of payments made by insurance carriers and/or employers who are self-insurers into the "Industrial Accident Board Second Injury Fund" equals or exceeds Thirty Thousand Dollars ($30,000.00), no further payments to said Fund shall be required to be made; but whenever, thereafter, the amount of such Fund shall be reduced below Twenty Thousand Dollars ($20,000.00) by reason of payments out in accordance with the provisions of this Subsection, then such payments to such 'Fund shall be resumed forthwith, and shall continue until such sum shall again amount to Thirty Thousand Dollars ($30,000.00).

Section 2. This Act shall ' become effective upon approval by the Governor of the State of Delaware, and all payments to be made by insurance carriers and/or employers who are self-insurers into the "Industrial Accident Board Second Injury Fund" shall be retroactive to January 1, 1945.

Approved April 13, 1945.