Great Western Power Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

218 P. 1009, 191 Cal. 724, 1923 Cal. LEXIS 500
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 7, 1923
DocketS. F. No. 10490.
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 218 P. 1009 (Great Western Power Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Great Western Power Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission, 218 P. 1009, 191 Cal. 724, 1923 Cal. LEXIS 500 (Cal. 1923).

Opinion

WASTE, J.

This is a proceeding in certiorari to review an award .of the respondent Industrial Accident Commission upon the ground that the Commission rendered an unlawful award and one in excess of its authority. Lorin L. Savercool, while employed as a mill-hand by the petitioner, Great Western Power Company, the employer and employee being then subject to the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation, Insurance and Safety Act (Stats. 1917, p. 831), sustained an injury occurring in the course of and arising out of his employment. His right hand and arm were caught in the moving machinery of an edger, resulting in lacerations and other injuries which proximately caused his death.

At the time of his decease the injured employee was only twenty years old. For many years he and his father had jointly supported the father’s family, consisting, besides himself, of the father, mother, and nine children. In addition to these members of the family, the employee’s grandfather, aged seventy-three years, resided with them part of the time. On application filed with the Industrial Accident Commission for a death benefit on account of the injury, the Commission found that the entire family, other than the grandfather and one sister, were partially dependent on the injured employee for support. His annual contribution for that purpose, it found, amounted to $1,366.66. On that sum, as a basis of computation, it made -an award in the sum of $4,099.98, which it directed to be paid to James Savercool “in his own right to be used for the support of all the dependents.” This award petitioner seeks to have *727 annulled. The situation thus presented is one of partial dependency, in which case the dependents are entitled to recover the reasonable expense of the deceased employee’s burial, not to exceed $100, and, in addition thereto, a death benefit which shall be equivalent to three times the annual amount devoted by the deceased to the support of the person or persons so partially dependent. (Workmen’s Compensation Act, see. 9 (c) [2].) Petitioner’s contention is that the respondent exceeded its jurisdiction in making the award here under review, in that it made an allowance greatly in excess of the statutory limitation. It does not question the right of the respondent to award some compensation to the dependents of the deceased employee, but raises an issue as to the lawfulness of the award made.

The respondent’s first line of defense (to the attack of the petitioner is that there is evidence to support the findings of fact it made on the hearing, and, therefore, its action cannot be reviewed in this proceeding. It relies, of course, upon the provision of the statute which declares that the findings and conclusions of the Commission on questions of fact shall be conclusive and final, and shall not be subject to review. (Workmen’s Compensation Act, sec. 67 (c).) Its position, in effect, is that the power of this court to annul and set aside an award of the Commission is confined to those cases wherein the Commission has made a finding as to some jurisdictional fact which is not supported by the evidence, and that it does not go to a case where, upon the facts found, the Commission has authority to make ° an award, but has made one contrary to what the law calls for upon those facts. In passing upon the same contention in an earlier case the court said: " Section 67 (a) of the Workmen’s Compensation Act says that any party affected by a final order of the commission ‘may appeal to the supreme court of this state . . . for a writ of certiorari . . . for the purpose of having the lawfulness of the original order . . . inquired into and determined. ’ It is the lawfulness of the award in question that is now under consideration. Upon the facts found the statute prescribed the amount to be allowed as a death benefit, and the commission in allowing a different amount rendered an unlawful award and one in excess of *728 its authority. ’ ’ (Spreckels Sugar Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com., 186 Cal. 256, 260 [199 Pac. 8, 10].)

The petitioner also contends- that the award is unreasonable as being greater in amount than is legally allowable in this case. Such contention goes beyond the question of reasonableness of the amount allowed as compensation, and is, in effect, a restatement of the claim that the award was unlawful. Therefore, whether or not respondent is correct in its position, that the alleged unreasonableness of the award is not a ground of review by this court, does not require further consideration in this -connection.

We note, first, a contention of petitioner which fails of meritorious support. After what -appears to have been a full and comprehensive hearing before the Commission, it found that the brothers and sisters of the deceased employee were not dependent upon him for their support, but that •he, being a minor, was -contributing .and paying to his parents his entire earnings. An award was thereupon made in favor of James .and Lillian Savercool, father and mother of the decedent. On application of the petitioner, and on alleged grounds that the Commission acted in excess -of its powers; that the evidence -did not justify the findings, and of newly -discovered evidence, the respondent granted a rehearing. After another full and exhaustive hearing, the Commission found that the deceased employee left surviving |jim, besides his father and mother, eight minor brothers and sisters, who were partially dependent on him for support, and one sister concerning whom the respondent found the evidence was insufficient to establish that she was "dependent upon the decedent at the time of the injury. The award was, therefore, amended and directed to be paid to the father, in his -own right, to be u-sed for the support of all the dependents. In taking this action, petitioner .asserts, the Commission exceeded its powers. There is involved, it argues, “the question as to the power of the Commission to amend an award where, by the original award, the sisters and brothers were held not to have been dependents .and the rehearing was granted with reference to the award made in favor of the father and mother ‘in -order that the proper amount of the death benefit should be reconsidered, ’ without giving notice -of the intention to reopen the ease -as to (the de *729 pendency of the brothers and sisters.” What, if any, notice of the rehearing was given by the Commission does not appear in the record, neither does it contain a copy of the order granting a rehearing. The petitioner made a general application for a rehearing, on the grounds already enumerated, and without in any way limiting the issues raised by such request. Under such an application the whole subject matter was reopened for further consideration and determination, and the issues thus raised were as broad as those raised on the original application for compensation. Under subdivision (e) of section 64 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act the Commission has broad powers in the matter of rehearings. (Pruitt v. Industrial Acc. Com., 189 Cal. 459 [209 Pac. 31].) If it were of the opinion, as it apparently was, that -the original award was unjust as first made, it had plenary power to modify it. Section 64 (f) of the act so provides. At the outset of the first hearing, James Savercool, father of all the minors, had been appointed their guardian ad litem, and the minors, by such guardian

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Bluebook (online)
218 P. 1009, 191 Cal. 724, 1923 Cal. LEXIS 500, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/great-western-power-co-v-industrial-accident-commission-cal-1923.