Dunn v. Industrial Commission

831 P.2d 839, 171 Ariz. 463, 101 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 95, 1991 Ariz. App. LEXIS 318
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 29, 1991
DocketNo. 2 CA-IC 91-0019
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 831 P.2d 839 (Dunn v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dunn v. Industrial Commission, 831 P.2d 839, 171 Ariz. 463, 101 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 95, 1991 Ariz. App. LEXIS 318 (Ark. 1991).

Opinions

OPINION

ROLL, Presiding Judge.

Petitioners appeal from the administrative law judge’s award dismissing their claim for lack of jurisdiction. For the following reasons, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Decedent James Dunn sustained an industrial injury to his right leg in 1975 and successfully claimed for workers’ compensation benefits. At the time of the injury, Dunn was married to Marilyn Bracker Dunn. Dunn and Marilyn Dunn divorced in 1978. Dunn later married Rose Marie Bruner Garber Dunn and they had one child. Rose Dunn has two children from a previous marriage who were partially dependent upon Dunn for their support. James Dunn died in September 1989, allegedly as a complication from the industrial injury; however, the parties have stipulated that medical causation is not at issue at this time. Rose Dunn and her children filed a death benefit claim in August 1990 which was denied. A formal hearing was held, at which the administrative law judge (ALJ) dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction because none of the petitioners was a statutory dependent at the time of James Dunn’s 1975 injury.

ISSUES ON APPEAL

The sole issue on appeal is whether dependency is to be determined as of the date of injury or the date of death.

DATE OF INJURY REQUIREMENT

A. Spouse’s Claim.

Rose argues that the AU’s interpretation of the dependency statute was in error. The AU ruled that Rose was precluded from entitlements guaranteed by the provisions of the death benefits statute because she and James were not married at the time of his injury. The death benefits statute provides in part that “[i]n the case of an injury causing death, the compensation therefor shall be known as a death benefit, and shall be payable ... [t]o the widow or widower____” A.R.S. § 23-1046(A)(3). The dependency statute, A.R.S. § 23-1064, specifies those takers who are conclusively presumed dependent for purposes of eligibility and those for whom dependency must be established.1

[465]*465Rose argues that these two statutes should not be read in conjunction despite clear case law to the contrary. In Magma Copper Co. v. Naglich, 60 Ariz. 43, 131 P.2d 357 (1942), our supreme court held that a survivor must be dependent upon the deceased employee to qualify for death benefits. We are therefore prohibited from reading the death benefits statute in isolation and must conclude that the two provisions are in pari materia. Kasprowiz v. Industrial Commission, 14 Ariz.App. 75, 480 P.2d 992 (1971). Although Rose raises the issue anew, there is no “question that [the two provisions] must be construed together,” Tipton v. Industrial Commission, 2 Ariz.App. 339, 340, 409 P.2d 55, 56 (1965), and that Rose may not claim an entitlement based on the death benefits statute alone.

Alternatively, Rose suggests that even if these provisions must be interpreted together, the AU still erred in requiring that she and James be married at the time of injury. A.R.S. § 23-1064(A)(1) states that a wife is conclusively presumed dependent “upon a husband whom she has not voluntarily abandoned at the time of the injury.” In Rose’s view, a wife could be conclusively presumed dependent if she had either married and not abandoned her husband at the time of injury or was not yet married at the time of injury. Therefore, under this argument, Rose would be conclusively presumed dependent.

Division One of this court has stated that “a reading of this statute readily reveals that the crucial time for the conclusive presumption to be effective is at the time of injury.” Coover v. Industrial Commission, 14 Ariz.App. 409, 411, 484 P.2d 21, 23 (1971). This is because beneficiaries do not take “as a matter of law resulting from their relationship as natural children or widows, but from their condition as dependents in whole or in part upon the deceased parent or husband.” Ocean Accident and Guarantee v. Industrial Commission, 32 Ariz. 54, 62, 255 P. 598, 600 (1927). The inquiry, therefore, is whether the claimant was married to the deceased worker at the time of the injury. If the current spouse was not married to the employee at the time the injury occurred, ipso facto there can be no compensable claim. See Ezell v. Industrial Commission, 23 Ariz.App. 448, 450, 533 P.2d 1185, 1187 (1975) (“A widow, who was not the wife of the employee at the time of his injury, is not entitled to death benefits.”).

Rose also contends that the date of injury requirement applies only to those cases under § 23-1064(B) where there is a question of actual dependency and not to cases of conclusive dependency under § 23-1064(A). Again, the conclusive presumption is reserved for those potential beneficiaries who were dependents at the time of the injury. Tipton, supra. Rose is clearly outside the category to whom the presumption applies.

Rose maintains that the courts have ignored legislative efforts to revise these provisions so as to prevent the results obtained here. Our legislature has revisited the statutes in question on at least three occasions, most recently in 1990, yet the judicially-imposed dependency requirement has remained unchanged. We assume the legislature is aware of judicial interpretations. State v. Superior Court, 104 Ariz. 440, 454 P.2d 982 (1969). Furthermore, even though the statute has undergone revision, the cases interpreting it have relied upon provisions which are identical to our modem laws. Tipton, 2 Ariz.App. at 340, 409 P.2d at 56. This court is not at liberty to overturn supreme court precedent.

B. The Children’s Claims.

Neither James’s natural child nor his two stepchildren are entitled to collect death benefits because they were neither [466]*466born nor dependent upon James at the time of the injury. As with an after-married’s claim, children bom after the injury are ineligible for death benefits. The decisive date is the date of injury. This remains true even when a child is otherwise within the class of those conclusively presumed dependent. Ezell, supra (child conceived after father’s injury did not take even though dependent). In such a case, the language of A.R.S. § 23-1064(B) controls to fix the taking of benefits at the time of injury. Triste v. Industrial Commission, 25 Ariz.App. 489, 544 P.2d 706 (1976).

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Related

Dunn v. Industrial Com'n of Arizona
866 P.2d 858 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1994)
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846 P.2d 157 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1992)

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Bluebook (online)
831 P.2d 839, 171 Ariz. 463, 101 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 95, 1991 Ariz. App. LEXIS 318, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dunn-v-industrial-commission-ariz-1991.