237 N.W. 606 | Minn. | 1931
Ernest Larson, 24 years old, a son of relator, met death while in the employ of respondent A. Guthrie Company, in an accident in the course of and arising out of the employment. Relator, a farmer, claims compensation as a partial dependent. The referee found he was, but the commission, two to one, found:
"That at the time of the death of said Ernest Larson, and for many years prior thereto, neither the petitioner, Lauritz Larson, nor any other person derived a part of his support from the wages or services of said decedent, and that said Ernest Larson left no persons entitled to compensation as his dependents."
Respondents were therefore directed to pay $200 to the state treasurer pursuant to G. S. 1923 (1 Mason, 1927) § 4276. The finding quoted is challenged as contrary to the evidence. *34
The evidence shows that relator preëmpted 160 acres some 30 years ago, about six miles from Bagley. He has thereon fairly comfortable buildings for that vicinity — the original home being a one-room log house to which additions have been made from time to time. He is now 57 years old. His wife, a few years younger, is in poor health. The family now consists of a son 21 and a daughter 14 years old. The oldest son was accidentally killed a year before Ernest, and relator received $2,000 from the life insurance he carried. By the united labor of his family 23 acres of the land has been cleared and is cultivated. This and the rest of the farm is really too stony for farming; nor does it seem fit for hay land. So to keep a dairy herd, from which the family chiefly derived its support, an adjoining farm of 160 acres, having hay meadows and some cleared land for feed crops, has been rented for several years in the past. By these means and the insurance money mentioned relator now owns the farm, worth, aside from the buildings, five dollars an acre free of encumbrances. The buildings, farm machinery, tractor, separator, and automobile are of moderate value. Some $600 left of the insurance money is invested. He owes a bank a small amount and is indebted on some promissory notes he signed with his son Ernest.
Except for a month or two during the threshing season, Ernest lived and worked on the farm each year after he was old enough to work. His services were estimated at $50 a month. The father gave him small sums for spending and for clothes. Three or four days before his death he left home for temporary work, intending to return in time for haying. There can be no question but that relator in the past had received the value of his son Ernest's labor, except perhaps for two months each year. It must be realized that on land such as relator's, with a wife in poor health, his struggle for support might have failed had not his two older sons remained at home and contributed their services after attaining their majority. To assist regularly in improving and tilling a farm and maintaining a home thereon so as to feed and shelter the family must be considered labor from which the head of the family derives support. State ex rel. Fleckenstein Brg. Co. v. District Court,
"If such were the fact, in no proper sense could it be said that the parents regularly derived any part of their support from deceased, or that they were dependent upon him." State ex rel. Fleckenstein Brg. Co. v. District Court,
However, unless manifestly opposed to the evidence, the finding as to dependency must stand. Bartkey v. Sanitary Farm Dairies,
Respondents cite Neubauer v. Levy,
The decision of the commission is affirmed.