Popst v. Industrial Accident Commission

THE COURT.

This is a proceeding in

certiorari,

having for its purpose the modification of an order of the Industrial Accident Commission whereby these petitioners, the parents of Lynn Popst, who died as the result of injuries sustained in the course of his employment, were awarded a certain amount as a death benefit under subdivision 2 of paragraph 3 of section 9 of the Workmen’s Compensation, Insurance and Safety Law (Stats. 1919, p. 917). The commission found that petitioners were partially dependent upon their son for their support at the time of his death, and that the “annual amount” that he so devoted to their support was four hundred dollars.

[1]

Nowhere in the Workmen’s Compensation, Insurance and Safety Law is any rule or basis prescribed for the determination of what shall be deemed to be the “annual amount” devoted by a deceased employee to the support of his dependents where, as here, the sums contributed to such support during the year preceding the demise of the injured employee have not been constant, either in amounts or times of payment. In the very nature of the case, the determination of what is such “annual amount,’’ when, as here, the support contributed by the injured employee has fluctuated considerably during the year preceding his demise, must largely rest in the sound discretion of the commission, based upon the evidence before it.

[2]

The deceased employee, Lynn Popst, was injured while in the employ of the Los Angeles Gas & Electric Corporation. During the greater portion of the year immediately preceding the accident he had been in the service of the United States navy. After his discharge from the navy he was unemployed for a considerable period. While in the navy he had contributed a much smaller sum to the support of his parents than during the comparatively short period that he was in the employ of the gas and- electric corporation^ Petitioners, who are dissatisfied with the amount allowed them by the commission in its award for partial dependency, say that the commission’s method of computing the

[599]

“annual amount” contributed by their son to their support was incorrect. But the commission did take evidence upon the subject; and it made its finding upon such evidence. Under the circumstances, the “annual amount” was not capable of any mathematically exact measurement. The-conclusion of the commission that, at the date of their son’s death, four hundred dollars was the annual amount contributed by him to his parents’ support, was the determination of a question of fact based upon evidence adduced before and considered by the commission.