Turner v. Consolidated Underwriters

170 So. 2d 199, 1964 La. App. LEXIS 2204
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 1, 1964
DocketNo. 10290
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 170 So. 2d 199 (Turner v. Consolidated Underwriters) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Turner v. Consolidated Underwriters, 170 So. 2d 199, 1964 La. App. LEXIS 2204 (La. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

AYRES, Judge.

This is an action for workmen's compensation instituted by plaintiff as the administrator of the estate of his minor daughter, Doris Marie Turner. The defendant is the compensation insurer of McCoy Brothers Lumber Company, Inc., formerly the employer of one McKinley King who was accidentally killed while performing duties within the course and scope of his employment.

The claim asserted by plaintiff on behalf of his minor daughter is predicated upon the contention that the minor was a member of the household of McKinley King at the time of his accident and death, and dependent upon him for support. Other allegations of plaintiff’s petition negated the existence of other dependents. The widow was denied recovery in King v. McCoy Brothers Lumber Company, La.App., 2d Cir. 1962, 147 So.2d 77.

To plaintiff’s action, defendant filed pleas of one year’s prescription and of two years’ peremption, exceptions of no cause and of no right of action, and an answer placing at issue plaintiff’s allegations of fact. The pleas of prescription and of peremption and the exception of no cause of action were overruled. The exception of no right of action was referred to the merits. On trial of the merits of the case, the exception of no right of action was likewise overruled and there was judgment awarding compensation at the rate of 32.5% of King’s weekly wage, or in the sum of $17.55 per week for a period of 400 weeks. From the judgment, defendant appealed and now reurges the pleas of prescription and of peremption and the exceptions of no cause and of no right of action, as well as its alternative plea relating to the amount of compensation.

The minor on whose behalf compensation is sought is a child of the marriage of plaintiff and Fannie Lee Turner, who have continued, since their marriage, to live together as husband and wife. Turner, with his wife and other children, has occupied a small residence located on a 20-acre tract of land owned by Turner’s mother, Angie Jones Turner King, who lives nearby on the same tract.

For several years prior to the birth of the minor, Doris Marie Turner, her grandmother lived, under a bigamous marriage, with McKinley King. The house in which they lived was the property of the grandmother. King, however, occupied the position as head and master of the home. His earnings constituted the principal source of income and support although supplemented at intervals by the wife’s earnings.

The record supports the conclusion of the trial court that the minor constituted a dependent member of King’s household. When nine months of age, the minor was placed with her grandmother. There she continued to live until King’s death, when she was approximately six years of age. From King’s wages,'food and clothing were provided. The minor was reared and provided for as a member of the family, and, as such, was placed in school and accompanied to church. These facts are abundantly established by the testimony, not only from those who may be said to have an interest in this litigation but from several disinterested witnesses who were in position to know the facts. During the period in which the minor lived with her grandmother and King, no support was provided by her father.

The legal question involved is whether Doris Marie Turner was, within the contemplation of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, a dependent member of King’s household at the time of his accident and death. This minor, of course, does not come within the provisions of the statute, LSA-R.S. 23 :- 1251, relating to persons conclusively presumed to be dependents. In all other cases the question of legal and actual dependency must be determined in accordance with the facts as they exist at the time of [201]*201the accident and death. LSA-R.S. 23 :1252, 1254. Of such “other dependents” are members of the family or household of the deceased employee. A provision of LSA-R.S. 23:1253 reads, in part, that

"No person shall be considered a dependent, unless he is a member of the family of the deceased employee, or bearing to him the relation of husband or widow, or lineal descendant or ascendant, or brother or sister, or child.” (Emphasis supplied.)

In construing the language of the quoted provision of the statute, the Supreme Court observed, in Archibald v. Employers’ Liability Assur. Corporation, 202 La. 89, 11 So.2d 492, 494 (1942), that a person, to be a member of the family of a deceased within the meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Act need not be a blood relative nor bear to him the relationship of husband or widow or lineal descendant or ascendant, brother, sister, or child. It was there stated:

“All that is required is a family or household and the existence of the dependency of a member thereof as illustrated by the facts of the particular case.”

A question for determination in Patin v. T. L. James & Co., 218 La. 949, 51 So.2d 586 (1951), was whether a deceased employee’s concubine’s minor nephew, living in the household maintained by the deceased and his concubine, supplied with food, clothing, and other necessities almost entirely from deceased’s wages, was a dependent member of the deceased’s household and, as such, entitled to compensation because of the employee’s accidental death. Appropriate to the facts of the instant case is an observation therein made:

“Admittedly such minor was not an offspring of the deceased employee. He was born of the marriage of Angie Lee Williams and Horace Patin, a brother of decedent’s concubine, Mary Patín. The evidence preponderately shows, however, that at the time of the death of Joe Johnson and continuously for almost twelve years prior thereto he lived in the household maintained by such decedent and Mary Patin as their adoptive child, he, at a tender age, having been turned over to them by his mother for rearing. It is true that during that period Horace Patin occasionally gave trivial sums to his son on irregular visits to him and, some five years preceding Joe Johnson’s death, caused to be made in his favor a United States Army allotment of $25 per month which endured for only five and one-half months. Also, Mary Patin at times performed odd jobs such as sewing and washing, the small remuneration from which went to care for household expenses and benefitted the minor indirectly and slightly. But his food, clothing and other required necessities of life were supplied principally, almost entirely, from the earnings of the deceased employee; and, as a result, it must be concluded that he was wholly dependent on decedent for support at the time of the latter’s death within the contemplation of the statute. Furthermore, by virtue of that dependency and his living as a member of the family of decedent, although unrelated by blood, the minor is entitled to receive compensation as a total dependent unless, as counsel for defendants contend under their second defense, the proved and recognized claim of decedent’s partially dependent mother forecloses or precludes such minor’s rights thereto.”

See, also: Archibald v. Employers’ Liability Assur. Corporation, supra; Thompson v. Vestal Lumber & Mfg. Co., 208 La. 83, 22 So.2d 842 (1944). To the same effect is the holding of the First Circuit in Darce v. Calcasieu Paper Company, La.App., 1956, 85 So.2d 659. There, it was concluded that, where grandchildren lived in the home of a grandfather and received their sole support from him for several years prior to his death, they were “other dependents,” mem[202]

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Related

Lumbermen's Underwriting Alliance v. Teague
521 So. 2d 820 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1988)
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458 So. 2d 152 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1984)
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Turner v. Consolidated Underwriters
176 So. 2d 420 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
170 So. 2d 199, 1964 La. App. LEXIS 2204, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/turner-v-consolidated-underwriters-lactapp-1964.