Court Opinion

ID: 9801054
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 08:45:24.452797+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:50:23.896181
License: Public Domain

Pfeifer, J.,
concurring. I write only to express my incredulity that this matter has reached this court. Ohio’s welfare and workers’ compensation systems heartlessly memorialized the difficult life of Frank Patterson with a cruel epitaph: “He Shouldn’t Have Tried.” Patterson attempted to live his life with some dignity. He did not take a handout — he was willing to work in order to receive public assistance. God knows it was not pleasant work — his on-the-job exposure to pigeon droppings caused his mortal illness. But “workfare” and its promise of improved self-esteem and self-reliance left Patterson dead and his widow with an insulting $33.11 per week. How poor off are we that this state cannot offer the families of work-relief employees killed on the job the same treatment as other workers killed on the job? Is death on work relief jobs so prevalent that the Department of Human Services cannot afford to reimburse the workers’ compensation fund for the cost of the benefits? Did the General Assembly really intend that the widow Patterson should survive on $1,721.72 per year? Would the extra seven thousand dollars a year Mrs. Patterson requests bust Ohio’s $16 billion budget? Or is our deficit not monetary but rather a shortfall in compassion and humanity?