Gange Lumber Co. v. Rowley

Background

Gange Lumber Company, the employer, challenged a Department of Labor and Industries award to Rowley, a worker who suffered a job injury in 1937. Rowley received an initial award in 1938 that became final. A 1927 Washington law limited a worker’s right to file for later aggravation claims to three years. A 1941 amendment extended that limit to five years and added a proviso giving earlier claimants five years from the amendment’s effective date. Rowley filed in 1943 and relied on that proviso.

Reasoning

The Court considered whether applying the 1941 change to revive Rowley’s claim unlawfully deprived the employer of property without due process. The state fund is paid by employer premiums and future premiums are computed partly from each employer’s five-year cost experience and partly from the class rate (40% class, 60% employer, cap 160%). The employer argued the revived award would raise its future premiums and thus harm its property interests. The majority found that any premium increase was speculative on this record. The Court also stressed the Department always had power to reopen claims, so the employer’s liability was never finally extinguished. Because no substantial, certain injury was shown, the Court dismissed the appeal.

Real world impact

The individual award stands and the employer’s constitutional challenge failed. Employers may still face premium consequences in the future but those effects must be shown as substantial, not merely possible. The ruling is case-specific and does not decide broader constitutional limits on similar laws.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Douglas, joined by Justice Burton, said the injury was not speculative and would have affirmed; Justice Black called the challenge frivolous.