Mullins v. Leggett & Platt

Margie Mullins sustained a workplace injury during the course of her employment with Leggett and Platt. Mullins settled her workers’ compensation claim after negotiating with Leggett & Platt’s insurance carrier, CCMSI. The Chief Administrative Law Judge (CALJ) approved the award, which included weekly permanent-partial disability benefits, and Mullins’s election to accelerate the payment of her attorney’s fee to a lump-sum amount. This payment reduced Mullins’s weekly benefit amount pro-rata. But, in calculating Mullins’s weekly benefits remaining after deduction of the attorney’s fee, CCMSI applied a multiplier reflecting the future periodic payment of the attorney’s fee commuted to a present value. Mullins filed a motion for determination, disputing CCMSI’s calculation. The CALJ denied the motion, concluding that the statutory text and accompanying administrative regulations supported CCMSI’s calculation. The Workers’ Compensation Board and the Court of Appeals upheld the CALJ’s ruling. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that Mullins failed to establish that CCMSI acted contrary to law or failed to correctly reduce her weekly benefits.