 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Martin v. Beverage Capital Corporation3/25/1999
ld have unquestionably been granted continuing death benefits. Perhaps this "all or nothing" facet of the Act is something that the legislature should address, but until it does should we tell people in Mrs. Martin's situation to simply quit their jobs in order to retain their benefits? Rather than being punished by having her benefits discontinued, Mrs. Martin should be commended for working. Efforts toward self-sufficiency should be encouraged, not discouraged.
We agree with Judge Wolff's factual finding, and the Commission's finding and interpretation of the statute, that Mrs. Martin's current income level is "not sufficient to provide her with the basic necessities contemplated by the Workers' Compensation statute." While it may appear unfair to some, the reality of our capitalist system is that people earn vastly different amounts of money depending on their education, training, background, and level of industriousness, among other factors. That reality is reflected in the Act's recognition that even with the application of the safeguards discussed supra, employers/insurers must still pay higher benefits to those employees, or their dependents, for whom they have elected to compensate at a higher salary. The fact is that Mrs. Martin's husband earned a high wage, and as a result she grew accustomed to a higher standard of living than many experience. While she should naturally expect a diminution in income after her husband's death, the disparity should not be so great that she is subsisting solely on the income from her job as an independent contractor, which is less than ten percent of the previous family income. The Act clearly considers a claimant's standard of living when making benefit determinations; indeed, 9-681(b) contemplates the socioeconomic status of the dependent in making an initial award of benefits when it mandates that the average weekly wage of the deceased be considered in any benefit determination. See also 2A Arthur Larson, Larson's Workmen's Compensation Law 63.11(b), at 11-109 (1989)(stating that " showing of actual dependency does not require proof that, without decedent's contributions, claimant would have lacked the necessities of life, but only that decedent's contributions were relied on by claimant to maintain claimant's accustomed mode of living")(emphasis added)(footnote omitted).
We also may be affronted by the particulars of the arrangement the Martins made; specifically, the fact that in accepting a gratuitous salary from Sun Dun, Mrs. Martin was "getting something for doing nothing." No matter what our personal biases are, we must not penalize Mrs. Martin because Mr. Martin was professionally successful and financially able to make this special arrangement with his wife. We are still obligated to look at the facts of each case and make not only our initial dependency determinations based on her deceased husband's salary, but also any continuing dependency determinations on this basis.
Thus, when we look at the plain language of the statute in the context of its benevolent purpose, we hold that Mrs. Martin "continues to be wholly dependent" on Mr. Martin's income at the time of his fatal accident. We further hold that the correct formula to apply in determining whether a claimant continues to be wholly dependent under 9-681(d) is to compare the amount earned by the worker at the time of death with the amount the surviving spouse earns after the $45,000 has been paid. If we adopt the Court of Special Appeals' interpretation, that for compensation to be continued the claimant must have an ongoing dependency on the death benefits, untold numbers of people may be unable to continue to receive the support they need to live. Nothing in our case law,
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Maryland Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|