Market Street Railway Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

WASTE, J.

This is a proceeding in review to determine the legality of a death benefit allowed by the respondent Commission to a father and mother, the partial dependents of a street-car conductor in the employ of the petitioner. It was stipulated before the Commission that the injury which caused the death of the employee arose out of and occurred in the course of his employment. Some six years before his death the decedent left Calgary, Canada, where his parents resided, and came to San Francisco and obtained employment. Thereafter, and until his death, it was his custom to send to his parents in Canada, for their support, monthly sums, the total contribution from this source being about three hundred dollars a year. He had acquired a piece of real property in Canada which rented for fifty dollars a

[180]

month. This amount he appears to have also regularly-turned over to his parents. The son sold this property in March, 1922, receiving in payment nine hundred dollars in cash and a mortgage for the remainder of the purchase price. He gave the nine hundred dollars to the father, who used a portion of the money for the payment of hills and placed five hundred dollars of the amount in bank, together with other funds he had on deposit. His total deposits in two banks at that time amounted to about eleven hundred dollars or twelve hundred dollars. These bank accounts appear to have been in the sole and exclusive control of the father of the decedent, who deposited and withdrew varying amounts at different times. No fixed sums were regularly withdrawn, recourse to the bank accounts being had as any occasion required. For the nine months after making this sale the son continued as before to send his parents sums averaging about twenty-five dollars a month. He was killed in December, 1922. The parents had more than one thousand dollars in bank when he died. They then closed the bank accounts and came to San Francisco.

The Commission found the applicants to be partially dependent upon the deceased employee for support. Petitioner contends that the finding as to who constituted the dependents of the decedent, and the extent of their dependency, is not supported by the evidence, and is not in accordance with the facts existing at the time of the death of the employee. We find evidence in the record to sustain' the finding, and the determination of the Commission in that regard must be taken as final and binding, in so far as this inquiry is concerned. (Workmen’s Compensation Act, sec. 67c [Stats. 1917, p. 876].)