2021 Georgia Code
Title 34 - Labor and Industrial Relations
Chapter 9 - Workers' Compensation
Article 6 - Payment of Compensation
Part 2 - Method of Payment
§ 34-9-225. Effect of Written Receipt of Widow or Widower, Minor, or Guardian Upon Liability of Employer; Determination of Obligation of Employer to Rival Claimants

1. Whenever payment of compensation, in accordance with the terms of this chapter, is made to a widow or widower for her or his use or for her or his use and the use of the child or children, the written receipt thereon of such widow or widower shall release and discharge the employer.
2. Whenever payment in accordance with the terms of this chapter is made to any employee 18 years of age or over, the written receipt of such person shall release and discharge the employer. In cases where a person under the age of 18 years shall be entitled to receive a sum or sums amounting in the aggregate to not more than $300.00 as compensation for injuries or as a distributive share by virtue of this chapter, the father or mother as natural guardian or the legally appointed conservator of such person shall be authorized and empowered to receive such moneys for the use and benefit of such person and to receipt therefor; and the release or discharge by such father or mother as natural guardian or by the legally appointed conservator shall be in full and complete discharge of all claims or demands of such person thereunder.
3. Whenever payment of over $300.00, in accordance with the terms of this chapter, is provided for a person under 18 years of age or for a person over 18 who is physically or mentally incapable of earning, the payment shall be made to his or her duly and legally appointed conservator or to some suitable person or corporation appointed as trustee by the superior court as provided in Code Section 34-9-223; and the receipt of such conservator or such trustee shall release and discharge the employer.
4. Payment of death benefits by an employer in good faith to a dependent having a claim inferior to that of another or other dependents shall release and discharge the employer unless such dependent or dependents having a superior claim shall have given notice of his or their claim. In case the employer is in doubt as to the respective rights of rival claimants, he may apply to the board to decide between them.

(Ga. L. 1920, p. 167, § 46; Code 1933, § 114-420; Ga. L. 2004, p. 631, § 34; Ga. L. 2011, p. 551, § 4/SB 134.)

- For article recommending more consistency in age requirements of laws pertaining to the welfare of minors, see 6 Ga. St. B.J. 189 (1969).

Provisions of subsection (b) and (c) of this section, by their express terms, apply only to payments to be made to a natural or legal guardian of a minor under 18 years of age, or to a minor child over 18 physically or mentally incapable of earning. Porter v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 46 Ga. App. 86, 166 S.E. 675 (1932).

- Payment to a guardian relieves the employer of all liability. This is true although the minor employee may have been working in violation of some "child-labor law or other similar statute," and although the employer at the time of the inquiry did not have ten or more employees. Griggs v. Zimmerman, 50 Ga. App. 24, 177 S.E. 86 (1934).

There was a necessary implication from the language of this section that the parents of an injured minor employee were deprived of their common-law right to recover for the loss of the minor's services when the duly constituted guardian of the minor previously received compensation under an award by the board for the injuries sustained by the minor. Griggs v. Zimmerman, 50 Ga. App. 24, 177 S.E. 86 (1934).

Cited in Rourke v. U.S. Fid. & Guar. Co., 187 Ga. 636, 1 S.E.2d 728 (1939); Webb v. General Accident, Fire & Life Ins. Co., 72 Ga. App. 127, 33 S.E.2d 273 (1945); McDonald v. Travelers Ins. Co., 81 Ga. App. 614, 59 S.E.2d 537 (1950).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

ALR.

- Survival of right to compensation under Workmen's Compensation Acts upon the death of the person entitled to the award, 15 A.L.R. 821; 24 A.L.R. 441; 29 A.L.R. 1426; 51 A.L.R. 1446; 87 A.L.R. 864; 95 A.L.R. 254.

Rights and remedies of persons in deferred or secondary class of beneficiaries of death benefits under Workmen's Compensation Acts as affected by acts or omissions of one in primary class of beneficiaries, 105 A.L.R. 1232.