Gwendolyn Price v. Joseph Tanner, Commissioner of Labor of the State of Georgia

VANCE, Circuit Judge:

This appeal involves the issue whether a Georgia Workers’ Compensation statute, Ga.Code Ann. § 34-9-285, violates the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. Section 34-9-285 provides that where an employee is disabled by the aggravation of a pre-existing condition by an occupational disease, workers’ compensation benefits are limited to an amount representing the portion of disability attributable to the occupational disease. Georgia’s Workers’ Compensation Act, however, does not contain a similar provision limiting benefits…