Baker v. Industrial Accident Commission

[731]

THOMPSON, J.

This is a proceeding to review the award of the Industrial Accident Commission wherein it is found that the petitioner was not a dependent of David Keeley, deceased, within the meaning of section 14 of the Workmen's Compensation, Insurance and Safety Act of California.

The Industrial Accident Commission found that David Keeley was drowned December 17, 1933, while he was engaged in the course of his employment with the Sacramento River Lines; that the Firemen’s Fund Indemnity Company was then the insurer of his employer, and that “The evidence does not establish that the applicants herein were dependents of said deceased.” There is no finding that the petitioner, Lillian Baker, is the surviving daughter of David Keeley or that she is “physically or mentally incapacitated from earning”, or dependent for support upon the deceased, or that she was living with him at the time of his death, or that there is “no surviving dependent parent”. Compensation was denied the petitioner. A petition for rehearing was also denied. From the order denying compensation to the petitioner she has brought this proceeding.

It is contended that David Kili Ionakana, who is a Hawaiian, is the father of the petitioner. It is assumed that David Kili Ionakana is the same person as David Keeley, deceased. We are pointed to no evidence, and a careful examination of the entire record discloses no evidence that the identity of these two individuals is the same. The petitioner was born June 23, 1908. Prior to her birth, her mother was living with one Brewster, to whom she was not then married. The mother of petitioner did not marry Ionakana until 1913. At the time of the petitioner’s birth in 1908, her birth certificate was certified by the attending physician and filed, in which Albert W. Brewster was named as her father. She was also designated therein as a “white” child. It is true that after this application for an award of indemnity was filed with the commission in 1934, the same physician signed a statement that when he certified to the birth certificate of this petitioner, he was “sure there was some mistake in names” and that David K. Ionakana acknowledged to him that he was the father of the child. It also appears that the mother of petitioner filed a suit for divorce against David Kili Ionakana in 1918, in