Adlemen v. Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corp.

Thomas, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. • On the 5th of December, 1914, Morris Brenner, an employee of the Reliable Junk Company, of Hagerstown, Maryland, died as the result of an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment by said company.. His mother, Toba Brenner, and his sister, Mary Brenner,, filed a claim for compensation as dependents under the Act of 1914, Chapter BOO, known as the Workman’s Compensation Law, and the State Industrial Accident Commission, on April 7th, 1915, passed an order awarding them as partly dependent upon the deceased, the sum of $12.50 per week, which the Commission apportioned between the claimants, giving each of them $6.25 per week, payable weekly, for the-period of four years and thirty-two weeks from the. 5th day of December, 1914. On the 10th of June, 1916, the Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corporation, Limited, the insurer in the case, filed a ⁵⁷⁴ petition alleging that Mary Brenner was married to Nathan Adleman on the 19th of June, 1915, and that she had concealed her marriage from the petitioner until the 1st day of June, 1916, and praying that the compensation awarded her be abated by the Commission as of the 19th of June, 1915. After a hearing, at 'which the facts stated in the petition, except the alleged concealment of the marriage, were admitted, the Commission passed an order denying the relief prayed and dismissing the petition.

From that order1 the petitioner appealed to1 the Circuit Court for Washington County, and that Court on the 10th of January, 1917, passed an order reversing the order of the Commission and abating the compensation awarded Mary Brenner1 as of the 19th day of June, 1915. This appeal is from the order of the Circuit Court, and the single question involved is whether the subsequent marriage of a partly dependent sister of a deceased employee determines her right to' compensation awarded her by the Commission and authorizes the Commission to abate it. The answer to this question must, of course, be found in the provisions of the Act under which the award was made. The Commission took the view that it had no authority to grant the relief - prayed, while the Circuit Court held that under a proper construction of the Act the subsequent marriage of Mary Brenner determined her right to the compensation, and that the Commission, and the Circuit Court on appeal, were authorized tO' abate it.

The Act, after declaring its purpose to provide “sure and certain relief for workmen injured in extra-hazardous employments and their families and dependents * * * regardless of questions of fault and to the exclusion of every other remedy,” except as therein provided, and after providing for a commission to administer the law, declares in section 14: “Every employer, subject to the provisions of this Act, shall pay or provide as required herein compensation according to the schedules of this Act for the disability or death of his employe resulting from an accidental personal injury sus ⁵⁷⁵ tamed by the employe arising out of and in 1he course of bis employment, without regard to fault as a cause of such injury,” etc. Other sections of the Act require the employer to secure the payment of the compensation referred to in Section 14, and provide how he may do1 so. Section 35 declares, that, “Each employe (or in ease of death his family or dependents), entitled to receive compensation under this Act shall receive the same in accordance with the following schedule, and except as in this! Act otherwise provided, such payment shall he in lieu of any and all rights of action whatsoever against any person whomsoever.” After providing for permanent and temporary total disability and permanent and temporary partial disability, this section contains the following provisions for cases where' the injury causes the death of the employe within two years: “If there are wholly dependent persons at the time of the death, the payment shall he fifty per cent, of the average weekly wages (of the employe), and to continue for the remainder of the period between the date of the death and eight years, after the date of the injury, and not to amount to more than a maximum of four thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, nor less than a mimimum of one thousand dollars.” “If there are partly dependent persons, at the time of the death, the payment shall he fifty per cent, of the average weekly wages, and to continue for all of such portion of the period of eight years after the date of the injury, as tho Commission in each case may determine, and -not to amount to more than a maximum of three thousand dollars.” “The following persons shall be presumed to be wholly dependent for support upon a deceased employe: A wife or invalid husband (‘invalid’ meaning one physically or mentally incapacitated from earning), a child or children under the age of sixteen years (or over said age if physically or mentally incapacitated from earning) living with or dependent upon the parent at the time of the injury or death.” ⁵⁷⁶ “In all other cases, questions of dependency, in whole or in part, shall be determined in accordance1 with the facts in each particular case existing at the time of the injury resulting in the death of such employee, but no person shall be considered as dependent unless such person be a father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, stepchild or grandchild, or brothei’ or sister of the deceased employee, including those otherwise specified in this section.” Under these sections, where the employee, engaged in any one of the employments covered by the Act, dies as the result of an “aceidntal personal injury * * * arising out of and in the course of his employment,” within two years, leaving at the time of his death persons within the class mentioned who were, at the time of the injury, partly dependent upon him, the Act imposes upon the employer a liability to pay to such dependents fifty per cent, of the average weekly wages of the employee, to continue for all or such portion of the period of eight years after the date of the injury as the Commission may determine, not to amount to more than a maximum of three thousand dollars. Except as to those presumed to be wholly dependent, the question of dependency, in whole or in part, and the portion of the period of eight years after the date of the injury during which fifty per .cent, of the average weekly wages of the employee is to be paid to those partly dependent, is left to the determination of the Commission, but when so determined the obligation of the employer to pay, and the right of the beneficiaries to receive the compensation provided, becomes definite and certain.

This obligation to- pay and the right to receive are not, by the terms of the Act, made conditional upon the beneficiary remaining unmarried, or dependent upon his or her subsequent state of dependency, and nowhere in the Act is there found express authority to the Commission to abate the compensation. The relief to the dependents of the deceased employee provided by the Act is in lieu of that afforded by the common law, and sub-section 11 of section 62 of the ⁵⁷⁷ Act defines “Beneficiary” as “a husband, wife, child, children or dependents of an employee in whom shall vest a right to receive payment under the Act.” The Act defines the duties and powers of the Commission, and in the absence of a clear grant of such power, we would not be justified in holding that it is authorized to abate compensation expressly provided by the Act as “sure and certain relief”