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77 Ga. App. 424

48 S.E.2d 780

Kell v. Bridges

Court of Appeals of Georgia

Decided July 16, 1948

Court of Appeals of Georgia · decided 1948-07-16

Relies on 66 Ga. App. 377 - Royal Indemnity Co. v. Agnew.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1948-07-16

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently May 1987

5 state decisions

2019481950196019701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Townsend, J.

¶1 “The test as to whether a claimant is so ‘mentally incompetent’ under the Workmen’s Compensation Act (Code, § 114-306) as to toll the running of the statute of limitations is this: Is his mind so unsound, or is he so weak in his mind, or so imbecile, no matter from what cause, that he can not manage the ordinary affairs of life?” Royal Indemnity Co. v. Agnew, 66 Ga. App. 377 (1) (18 S. E. 2d, 57).

¶2 When the claimant in a workmen’s compensation case files his claim more than one year after the accident, and upon the hearing there is evidence adduced that would authorize the finding of fact that the claimant was mentally incompetent under the rule just stated, it is not only within the power, but it is the duty of the Workmen’s Compensation *425 Board to pass on. this issue in order to determine whether the claim is barred. See Royal Indemnity Co. v. Agnew, supra.

Decided July 16, 1948.

¶3 While the evidence in the instant case does not demand the finding that the mental incompetency of the claimant was sufficient to toll the statute of limitations, it authorizes such a finding.

¶4 The judgment of the superior court, reversing the award of the Board of Workmen’s Compensation, and remanding the case to it with direction to pass upon the issue of whether the mental incompetency of the claimant tolled the statute of limitations, and the other issues involved in the case, is without error.

¶5 Judgment affirmed.

MacIntyre, P. J., and Gardner, J., concur. *426 William A. Thomas, for plaintiff.
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