260 P. 614 | Kan. | 1927
Lead Opinion
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This controversy presents the question whether both mother and minor daughter of a deceased workman are entitled to recover under the workmen’s compensation act, both during the deceased’s lifetime having been dependent on him for support. Compensation was allowed both and the employer appeals.
The deceased, Terrence Winchester, was employed as a common
The statute reads:
“(;) ‘Dependents’ means such members of the workman’s family as were wholly or in part dependent upon the workman at the time of the accident. ‘Members of a family’ for the purpose of this act, means only widow or husband, as the case may be, and children; or if no widow, husband, or children, then parents or grandparents; or if no parents or grandparents, then grandchildren; or if no grandchildren, then brothers and sisters.” (R. S. 44-508.)
The defendant contends that the wording and punctuation of the statute is so clear and unequivocal that any other interpretation than to preclude the parents of a deceased workman, when a minor child is entitled to compensation, would do violence to plain and unambiguous language; that the widow or husband, as the case may be, and children are in one class, while the parents or grandparents are in another. We cannot concur in the defendant’s contention.
“In the enactment of the compensation law, the legislature recognized that the common-law remedies for injuries sustained in certain hazardous industries were inadequate, unscientific and unjust and therefore, a statute was provided by which a more equitable adjustment of such loss could be made under a system which was intended largely to eliminate controversy and litigation and place the burden of accidental injuries incident to such employment upon the industries themselves or rather upon the consumers of. the products of such industries.” (McRoberts v. Zinc Co., 93 Kan. 364, 144 Pac. 247.)
Three main elements were considered — compensation, dependents, and the workman’s family. Compensation was made to depend mainly on the average earnings of the injured workman for periods preceding his injury. Maximum and minimum limitations were placed on the average of such earnings. Effort was made to transmit
A contention that the decisions in Ellis v. Coal Co., 100 Kan. 187, 163 Pac. 654, and Stokes v. Morris & Co., 107 Kan. 232, 191 Pac. 264, support the defendant’s theory, cannot be sustained. What was said in those cases is not applicable here. Nor can we follow the Alabama supreme court in construction of a similar statute of that state in the case of Ex Parte Todd Shipbuilding and Dry Docks Co.,
The judgment is affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting): This is purely a statutory matter. The legislature determined the public policy and established the standard of justice for this class of cases. By carefully chosen emphatic language, effort was made to exclude the very interpretation which the opinion adopts, and I am not able to agree with it.