State v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board

Opinion

SCOTT, Acting P. J. In these three consolidated cases the petitioner, State of California, Department of Industrial Relations (hereafter State), challenges the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (hereafter WCAB) determination that parents of deceased workers are dependents entitled to death benefits. The decedents, stewardesses employed by Pan American World Airways, were killed in a 1974 airplane crash in Indonesia. The three women left no spouses and no children. The parents of each claim partial dependency.

The statutes governing death benefits are found in Labor Code sections 4700-4709. Labor Code section 4701 provides that when an industrial injury causes death “either with or without disability, the employer shall be liable, in addition to any other benefits provided by this division, for:... (b) A death benefit, to be allowed to the dependents when the employee leaves any person dependent upon him for support.”

At the time of the deaths, Labor Code section 4702 provided for a death benefit “in cases of total dependency” of $40,000 except in the [676]case of a surviving widow and one or more dependent minor children, in which case the death benefit shall be $45,000. That section further provided that “[i]n cases of partial dependency the death benefit shall be a sum equal to four times the amount annually devoted to the support of the dependents by the employee, not to exceed the sum of forty thousand dollars ($40,000).” (The figures are now $50,000 and $5.5,000.)

Labor Code section 4706.5, subdivision (a) provides that “[wjhenever any fatal injury is suffered by an employee under such circumstances as to entitle the employee to compensation benefits, but for his or her death, and such employee does not leave surviving any person entitled to a dependency death benefit, the employer shall pay a sum to the Department of Industrial Relations equal to the total dependency death benefit that would be payable to a surviving spouse with no dependent minor children.” By virtue of this section the State claims entitlement to death benefits resulting from the deaths of the stewardesses. The State contests the award to the parents, contending that the parents have failed to establish partial dependency, thus entitling the State to the benefits.

In 1975 the parents of each of the three deceased stewardesses filed applications for death benefits. The employer, Pan American World Airways, and its insurance carrier, the Travelers Insurance Company, entered into stipulations with each set of parents on March 4, 1976, stating that the parents were partially dependent by virtue of having received a specified sum per year in “direct support and associated benefits.” The sums per year were $2,500 in one case and $3,250 and $5,560 in the other two cases. The employer and the carrier stipulated to awards of four times those amounts (Lab. Code, § 4702) and to attorneys’ fees for the applicants’ attorneys.