218 Mass. 278 | Mass. | 1914
At the time Walter Murphy was injured he was fifteen years of age and was earning $5.67 a week, all of which he had been turning over to his father, Daniel Murphy. The latter’s family consisted of his wife and nine minor children, including Walter. Of these children three were at work “earning in the aggregate $21.67 per week, which was turned over to the father.” The father earned about $10.50 a week, and these sums constituted the entire income of the family and were all “needed and used for their support, there being no surplus remaining.” The father maintained his son Walter, furnishing him board, lodging and clothing, which cost at least $2.50 a week. The only question is whether the father is entitled to $4 a week minimum compensation, or some fraction thereof. The insurance company claims “that in determining the amount of compensation the fact should be considered that the father paid the expense of the son’s maintenance to the extent of at least $2.50 per week and, therefore, could not have been dependent to the full extent of the earnings of the son.” The claimant maintains “that this cost of maintenance should not be deducted from the earnings of the deceased in arriving at the amount contributed by him to the claimant weekly, in calculating the extent of the partial dependency.”
The Industrial Accident Board, in rendering its decision, after finding that inasmuch as the sum contributed by Walter was the entire “weekly wage” of the son and not a fractional part thereof “the father is entitled, as such partial dependent, to the full minimum weekly compensation of $4 a week, and not to a fractional part of $4 a week,” uses the following language as explanatory of the grounds of its decision:
“The workmen’s compensation act, Section 6, Part II, provides
We adopt the reasoning of the board; and there is not much more to be said.
This statute was the beginning of a new kind of legislation and
Decree affirmed.