Fed. Mut. Liab. Ins. Co. v. Indus. Accident Comm'n

SHAW, J. This is a proceeding to review an award in favor of Harriet Baldwin for the sum of $3,654.90, made on September 3, 1920, on account of the death of her son, Charles Frederick Baldwin, which occurred on January 23, 1920, from an injury to him arising out of, and in the course of, his employment. The Pacific Marine & Construction Company was the employer and the petitioner was [518]the insurance carrier of the employer. It was substituted for the employer and the award is against it as such carrier.

The commission found that the decedent left surviving him his mother, Harriet Baldwin, and that she was partially dependent upon him for support; that the annual amount devoted by him to the support of his mother was $1,218.30, and that the death benefit was $3,654.90.

The award was made under the Workmen’s Compensation, Insurance and Safety Act as revised and amended in 1917. It provides that in a case where an injury causes death to an employee and such employee leaves one or more persons partially dependent upon him for support, the said dependents shall be allowed one hundred dollars for funeral expenses and “in addition thereto a death benefit which shall amount to three times the annual amount devoted by the deceased to the support of the person or persons so partially dependent.” (Sec. 9, subd. 3, par. [c], cl. [2], Stats. 1917, p. 840.) The findings further show that for the year preceding his death the decedent was living with his mother, his sister Virginia, and his brother Gordon, as members of the same family and household, and boarded and lodged with them; that at the time of his death he was eighteen years of age and his brother Gordon was twenty years of age; that during that year he contributed to the support of his mother the sum of $1,218.30 as aforesaid, and that this included the expenses of his own board and lodging and thirty dollars for his own clothing. “It will be observed that the commission made no deduction for the expense of his clothing, board, and lodging. Its theory was that the language of the act authorizes an allowance in such eases not only for the amount devoted to the support of the person who is partially dependent upon the minor child, but also for the amount which such minor child contributes to the dependent person to be applied to his own support. The argument in support of this theory appears to be that the mother is primarily chargeable with the support of her minor children and that a contribution which one of those minor children makes to the support of himself and the mother is, in the contemplation of the law, money devoted to the support of the mother, as the statute expresses it. We can see no reason for such a construction of the statute. The language is plain and it limits the measure of