266 Pa. 84 | Pa. | 1920
Opinion by
This is an appeal from the Common Pleas of Allegheny County reversing an award commuting compensation payments by the workmen’s compensation board. The order was made On the petition of the widow without joinder of a legal representative of three minor children. The compensation agreement called for payment of fifty-five per cent of deceased’s wages. The authority of the board to commute compensation in which the minors have an interest and direct payment to the widow without protecting those interests is here challenged. The Compensation Act contemplates the payment of a percentage of the wages that an employee had received at intervals corresponding to the time at which he would have received his wages had he not been injured. Commutation is the exception to the rule, for the reason that lump sum payments are often quickly dissipated and do not afford the regular relief so necessary to the widow and orphans. Commutation is only permitted when it appears that the best interests of the employee and his dependents are to be served and when it will avoid undue hardship. Undoubtedly, in cases of death, the primary thought of the legislature was the care of the minor children who might otherwise be destitute, and the surviving widows. In the award of compensation, children receive first consideration and, to give full effect to the humane purposes of the act, their interests must always
We need not here determine the extent to which the widow’s interest considered alone might be commuted.
Upon careful consideration, we are of the opinion that the widow was not entitled to have the payments com
The decree of the court below is affirmed at the cost of the appellant.