A. Any employee awarded compensation for disablement under the New Mexico Occupational Disease Disablement Law shall, previous to the due date of any installment of compensation provided for in the compensation order upon the order of the workers' compensation judge if requested by his employer or any other person bound by the compensation order, submit himself to medical examination by a physician licensed to practice medicine at a place designated by the person so demanding and which shall be reasonably convenient for the employee, and the employee may have a licensed physician present of his own election. The person requesting such examination shall, at the employee's request, bear the cost of transportation and necessary travel expense to and from the point of examination if the point of examination is more than twenty-five miles from the residence of the employee. The purpose of the examination shall be to determine whether the employee has recovered so that his earning power at any kind of work is restored, and the workers' compensation judge shall be empowered to hear evidence upon such issue. If it is disclosed upon such hearing that termination of disablement has taken place, the workers' compensation judge shall order termination of payment of compensation. If the employee in such cases refuses to submit to examination or obstructs the same, his right to payments shall be suspended until an examination has taken place, and no compensation shall be payable during the period of refusal.

B. The right of any employee or, in case of his death, of those entitled to receive payment or damages for injuries occasioned to him by the negligence or wrong of any person other than the employer as hereinafter defined, shall not be affected by the New Mexico Occupational Disease Disablement Law; but he or they, as the case may be, shall not be allowed to receive payment or recover damages therefor and also claim compensation from the employer hereunder, and in such case the receipt of compensation from the employer hereunder shall operate as an assignment to the employer, his or its insurer, guarantor or surety, as the case may be, of any cause of action, to the extent of the liability of the employer to the employee occasioned by such injury which the employee or his legal representative or others may have against any other party for such injuries or death.

C. Any employer who fails in any case covered by the New Mexico Occupational Disease Disablement Law to file undertaking of insurance, guaranty or security for the payment of compensation which may become due hereunder or, in lieu thereof, the certificate of the superintendent of insurance as herein provided within the time herein required, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) for any such offense.

History: 1941 Comp., § 57-1136, enacted by Laws 1945, ch. 135, § 36; 1953 Comp., § 59-11-37; Laws 1980, ch. 88, § 7; 1986, ch. 22, § 68; 1989, ch. 263, § 66.

Benefits payable for occupational disease. — The reference in this section to any kind of work does not change the provision that benefits are payable for disablement by reason of an occupational disease. Vincent v. United Nuclear-Homestake Partners, 1976-NMCA-105, 89 N.M. 704, 556 P.2d 1180, cert. denied, 90 N.M. 7, 558 P.2d 619.