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National Corp. v. Keller3/10/1999
National Corporation for Housing Partnership Meadowood Townhouse, Inc. et al. v. Shirley Jean Keller (deceased)
Workers' Compensation: Dependency, for purpose of claim under Labor and Employment article, § 9-632, determined in accordance with circumstances at time of employee's accidental injury , not at time of employee's death.
The issue before us is whether, for purposes of Maryland Code, § 9-632(c) of the Labor and Employment Article, Kenneth Keller is a "surviving dependent" of his mother, Shirley Keller, and, as a result, is entitled to receive the permanent partial disability benefits that otherwise would have been awarded to Ms. Keller had she not died prior to the entry of the award. We shall hold that he was not a surviving dependent and, for that reason, shall reverse the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals in Meadowood v. Keller, 119 Md. App. 566, 705 A.2d 142 (1998).
BACKGROUND
The relevant facts, which are not in substantial dispute, are well-summarized by Judge Hollander for the Court of Special Appeals. On February 19, 1990, Ms. Keller suffered a serious accidental injury to her neck and shoulder in the course of her employment by petitioner. After the accident, Ms. Keller's adult son, Kenneth, who was living in California, came to Maryland to care for her, and, as a result, became financially dependent on his mother. At some point, Ms. Keller filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits, seeking both temporary total and permanent partial disability benefits. She received an award of temporary total disability benefits, but on February 1, 1994, while her claim for permanent partial disability benefits was still pending before the Workers' Compensation Commission, Ms. Keller died of sudden cardiac arrest. Three important facts are conceded for purposes of this appeal: (1) that her death was completely unrelated to the 1990 accident; (2) that at the time of the accident, Kenneth was not financially dependent on his mother; and (3) that at the time of her death, he was financially dependent upon her.
In February, 1995 - a year after Ms. Keller's death - the Workers' Compensation Commission found that she had sustained a permanent partial disability amounting to a 75% industrial loss of use of her body as a result of the 1990 accidental injury . In July, 1995, following a hearing, the Commission determined that Kenneth qualified as a surviving dependent of Ms. Keller and, pursuant to § 9-632, awarded him the permanent partial disability benefits of $180/week for 500 weeks that otherwise would have been awarded to Ms. Keller. The Circuit Court for Baltimore County affirmed that determination, and the Court of Special Appeals affirmed the judgment of the circuit court.
DISCUSSION
The issue before us is purely one of statutory construction. It involves directly § 9-632 of the Labor and Employment Article, but it implicates as well a number of other sections of that article, principally §§ 9-640, 9-646, and 9-678 through 9-686. To put those statutes in a proper perspective, it is important to keep in mind that the workers' compensation law provides benefits for a number of different kinds of disabilities arising from job-related injuries and diseases, among which are weekly monetary benefits for temporary disability (both partial and total), permanent disability (both partial and total), hernia, and death. Benefits for disability and hernia are awarded to the injured employee; by virtue of §§ 9-632, 9-640, and 9-646, however, the right to collect those benefits survives if the employee dies before they are paid in full from a cause that is not itself compensable under the Act. In that event, the remaining ben
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