Okla. Stat. tit. 85A, § 85A-32: Permanent total disability awards

A. If an employee who is a "physically impaired person"

receives an accidental personal injury compensable under the

Administrative Workers' Compensation Act which results in additional

permanent disability so that the degree of disability caused by the

combination of both disabilities results in disability materially

greater than that which would have resulted from the subsequent

injury alone, the employee may proceed against the Multiple Injury

Trust Fund for permanent total disability. Only disability due to

an injury to the body as a whole at a subsequent employer shall be

combinable with a prior body disability, except that disability to a

member may be combined with disability to the body as a whole. If

such combined disabilities constitute permanent total disability, as

defined in Section 2 of this title, the employee shall receive full

compensation as provided by law for the disability resulting

directly and specifically from the subsequent injury. In addition,

the employee shall receive compensation for permanent total

disability if the combination of injuries renders the employee

permanently and totally disabled. The employer shall be liable only

for the degree of percent of disability which would have resulted

from the subsequent injury if there had been no preexisting

impairment. The compensation rate for permanent total disability

awards from the Multiple Injury Trust Fund shall be the compensation

rate for permanent partial disability paid by the employer in the

last combinable compensable injury.

B. Permanent total disability awards from the Multiple Injury

Trust Fund shall be payable in periodic installments for a period of

eight (8) years or until the employee reaches sixty-five (65) years

of age, whichever period is longer.

C. Permanent total disability awards from the Multiple Injury

Trust Fund shall accrue from the file date of the order of the

Workers' Compensation Commission finding the claimant to be

permanently and totally disabled.

D. Before a physically impaired person can proceed against the

Multiple Injury Trust Fund, the previously adjudicated compensable

permanent partial disability adjudged and determined by the Workers'

Compensation Court, the Workers' Compensation Court of Existing

Claims or the Workers' Compensation Commission and the permanent

partial disability from the last injury must exceed fifty percent

(50%) to the body as a whole. However, amputations and loss of use

of a scheduled member qualifying as previous impairment under

paragraph 2 of subsection A of Section 30 of this title shall be

considered in lieu of previously adjudicated compensable permanent

partial disability.

E. Awards under this section shall abate upon the death, from

any cause, of the employee.

F. Reopening any prior claim other than the last injury claim

against the employer shall not give a claimant the right to

additional Multiple Injury Trust Fund benefits.

G. The Multiple Injury Trust Fund shall have authority to

compromise a claim for less than the indicated amount of permanent

total disability. Orders shall be paid in periodic installments

beginning on the date of the award, unless commuted to a lump-sum

payment or payments, by agreement of the claimant and the Multiple

Injury Trust Fund. All offers made by the Multiple Injury Trust

Fund pursuant to this section shall be conveyed by the claimant's

attorney to the claimant within five (5) days of receipt of the

offer.

H. If an order is entered finding an employee to be permanently

totally disabled as a result of combined disability, and such order

is the result of a compromised settlement, the employee is

thereafter prohibited from making an additional claim against the

Multiple Injury Trust Fund. An attorney for a claimant against the

Multiple Injury Trust Fund shall be entitled to a fee equal to

offer.

H. If an order is entered finding an employee to be permanently

totally disabled as a result of combined disability, and such order

is the result of a compromised settlement, the employee is

thereafter prohibited from making an additional claim against the

Multiple Injury Trust Fund. An attorney for a claimant against the

Multiple Injury Trust Fund shall be entitled to a fee equal to

twenty percent (20%) of permanent disability benefits awarded. The

attorney fee shall be paid in periodic installments by the attorney

receiving every fifth check. All benefits awarded to the attorney

shall be vested at the time the award becomes final.

I. In the event a claimant receiving benefits for permanent and

total disability from the Multiple Injury Trust Fund dies as a

result of his or her injury before the award has been fully paid,

payments shall continue to the surviving spouse for five (5) years

or upon remarriage, whichever occurs first. In no event shall

payments to the surviving spouse extend beyond the period of

benefits awarded to the claimant.