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National Corp. v. Keller3/10/1999
Commission may determine" as allowing the Commission, in each case, to fix either the time of accident or the time of death as the defining event. We find no warrant in the law for that approach. For one thing, it would not restrict the Commission to only the time of the accident or the time of death, but would permit it to fix any time in between, and to pick one time in one case and another time in another case, or even one time for one dependent and another time for other dependents. Keeping in mind that these determinations are made by individual Commissioners and not by the Commission as a collegial body, only uncertainty and the prospect of wide disparity, not easily correctable on judicial review, would flow from that approach. What the Commission may determine is whether a claimant was, in fact, wholly or partly dependent on the employee and, when there is more than one eligible claimant, whether and how the benefit should be divided and allocated. The Legislature has not authorized the Commission to set the basic legal standard, much less on an ad hoc, case-by-case basis.
The argument of respondent that it makes better sense to have dependency determined as of the time of the employee's death would seem to have greater force with respect to the death benefit which, as noted, treats the death as the compensable event. A compelling argument could be made that, because it is the death of the employee that triggers the right, only those persons dependent on the employee at the time of death should be eligible. Since 1914, however, the Legislature has chosen to use the date of accident as the determinative time. The right to survived benefits is not a direct right, but only a derivative one. It is the employee's right that survives, and the employee's right necessarily is fixed as of the date of accident, not as of the time of death. Nor do we regard it as significant that the Legislature failed to engraft on to the survived benefit language all of the provisions set forth with respect to death benefits. There was really no need for it to do so, since an acceptable definition of "dependent" was already in the same section of the law.
In summary, we are unable to discern any evidence that the Legislature desired to have the term "dependent" mean one thing for purposes of the death benefit and another for purposes of the survived benefit, nor have we been able to determine any compelling reason why it would have wanted to have different standards apply. Accordingly, we believe that dependency for purposes of ยง 9-632 is to be determined in accordance with the circumstances existing at the time of the accident, and, for that reason, we shall reverse the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals.
JUDGMENT OF COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS REVERSED; CASE REMANDED TO THAT COURT WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO REVERSE JUDGMENT OF CIRCUIT COURT FOR BALTIMORE COUNTY AND REMAND TO THAT COURT WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO REVERSE ORDER OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION; COSTS IN THIS COURT AND COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS TO BE PAID BY RESPONDENT.
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