OAG 42-145.

• Case Date: June 25, 1942
• Court: Oregon

Oregon Attorney General Opinions 1942. OAG 42-145. 659OPINION NO. 42-145[20 Or. Op. Atty. Gen. 659]"Contribution" means the amount due the state industrial accident fund from employer, determined by multiplying his accrued payroll ayrfor fiscal period by his poll rate, plus an amount equal to one cent per man-day. The advance payments or deposits made to the accident commission in anticipation of a future payroll should not be included in computing experience rating until the payrolls have accrued.June 25, 1942.State Industrial Accident Commission.Gentlemen: In your letter of June 19, 1942, you state that your commission has received informal offers from employers subject to the workmen's compensation act, to prepay, or pay or deposit in advance, a portion of the amounts they would be required to contribute in accordance with sections 102-1736 and 102-1737, O. C. L. A., such prepayments to be made before July 1st, to entitle them to a more favorable experience rating for the next fiscal year under the provisions of section 102-1738, O. C. L. A. You then propound two questions: What is the meaning of the term "contribution", as employed in section 102-1738, O. C. L. A.; and, specifically, does this term include advance payments, or prepayments, made in anticipation of a future payroll for a following fiscal year? In answering your first question it may be observed that this term "contribution" is not defined in sections 102-1702 or 102-1703, O. C. L. A., the definitive sections of the Workmen's Compensation Law. It may also be observed that this term, as defined by Webster and as used in law, has several different connotations depending upon the context, for example, "contributions" in suretyship, contracts, insurance, or between joint tort feasors.660However, in referring to the Workmen's Compensation Law it will be seen that this term is used in over 20 different sections of the act, and I call your particular attention to the portions of the following sections: (all references to O. C. L. A.) Section 102-1736:

"Every employer subject to this act shall pay to the commission on or before the fifteenth day of each month a percentage of his total payroll for the preceding calendar month of workmen subject to this act according to and at the rates promulgated by the commission and shall pay to the state industrial accident fund on July 1, 1941, and annually thereafter a minimum fee in the sum of ten dollars ($10), which minimum fee shall be credited toward such employer's contribution for that year. * * *" (Italics ours.)

Section 102-1737:

"Every employer who hereby is required to make such payments to the commission hereby is authorized and required to retain from the moneys earned by such of his workmen subject to this act the sum of one (1) cent for each day or part of day such workman shall be employed and to pay the same so retained to the commission at the time his own payment

...