Court Opinion

ID: 9543636
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:47:32.144077+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:10:48.029931
License: Public Domain

BRAY, J.
I dissent. I cannot agree to an interpretation of the Workmen’s Compensation Act and of section 4702 of the Labor Code, which permits death benefits up to $6,000 only, where there are dependent minor children who are *675motherless or whose mother has remarried (and therefore is not a “surviving widow”) at the time of their father’s death, and up to $7,500, where there are dependent minor children who have a mother who is in nowise dependent upon their father. Taking the phrase “surviving widow with one or more dependent minor children” away from its context in section 4702 and from the Workmen’s Compensation Act, the majority finds that there is no ambiguity and hence no room for judicial interpretation. However, taking the section as a whole, it clearly appears that the awards can be made for dependency only. In subdivision (a) of the section it states that the death benefit shall in a ease of total dependency be determined as therein set forth, while in subdivision (b) the method is provided for determining it in a ease of partial dependency. Section 4703, which determines the right to a death benefit, uses the terms wholly dependent and partially dependent. Section 4701 (b) states that a death benefit shall be allowed to the ‘ ‘ dependents when the employee leaves any person dependent upon him for support.” (Emphasis added.) Article XX, section 21, of the California Constitution, which provides for enactment by the Legislature of a complete system of workmen’s compensation, states that it is to compensate the workmen and their dependents. Thus, taking the phrase under consideration here in context with the balance of the section and in conjunction with the rest of the act and the Constitution, it is obvious that the phrase is ambiguous and requires interpretation.
The majority opinion concedes that the surviving widow here is not dependent, and hence no award could be made to her; yet it intimates that because support of the children may reduce her ability to support herself, the Legislature intended that the award to the children should be increased. But how about children who are motherless at the time of their father’s deathÍ More should be awarded them than to children who have a mother to contribute to their care. It is unrealistic to hold that the Legislature intended to award a larger death benefit to children with a mother, than to motherless children. The “readjustment period,” say the majority, in effect, is longer for children with a mother than for motherless children. Patently this is not so. A common sense construction of the act should.be adopted by the courts rather than to read into the act a legislative intent that results in the anomalous result here. Such a construction results, in fact, although not in words, in making the widow here a *676dependent, which she admittedly is not. It is obvious that the Legislature intended to allow a death benefit up to $6,000 for dependent children alone, whether they were motherless or had a nondependent mother. If they had a dependent mother, the award could be up to $7,500, to be divided between the mother and children as the commission might see fit.