Opinion
Under the Workmen's Compensation Act, the essentials of dependency are reliance upon the deceased's contributions and expectation of their continuance. In this appeal from a compensation award in favor of the plaintiffs as dependents of the deceased employee, their son, the finding of dependency was amply justified by the subordinate facts. The determination of dependency was properly made in accordance with the facts at the time of the injury.
Argued June 16, 1955
Decided July 19, 1955
Appeal from a finding and award of the workmen's compensation commissioner for the first district, acting for the commissioner for the fifth district, in favor of the plaintiffs, brought to the Superior Court in New Haven County at Waterbury and tried to the court, Comley, J.; judgment dismissing the appeal and affirming the award, from which the defendant appealed to this court. No error.
James M. Lynch, with whom, on the brief, was Morton H. Engelman, for the appellant (defendant).
Daniel Baker, with whom was Sydney C. Kweskin, for the appellees (plaintiffs)
This is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Superior Court sustaining a finding and award by the workmen's compensation commissioner in favor of the plaintiffs as dependents of the deceased employee, their eighteen-year-old son. The finding that the plaintiffs were dependents of the deceased is one of fact and is conclusive unless the subordinate facts which the commissioner has found fail legally or logically to support it. Northrop v. Merritt-Chapman Scott Corporation, 106 Conn. 233, 234, 137 A. 724. The finding of dependency was amply justified by subordinate facts in the finding which were not even attacked in the motion to correct. The essentials of dependency-reliance upon the deceased's contributions and expectation of their continuance — were fully satisfied. Tsoukalas v. Bolton Mfg. Co., 130 Conn. 658, 661, 37 A.2d 357.
There is no merit to the claim that changed conditions of fact after the injury have deprived the plaintiffs of their right. The determination of dependency was made in accordance with the fact at the time of the injury, as provided by statute. General Statutes 7429.
The decedent was injured in June, 1950, and died in October, 1950. He was the oldest of the plaintiffs' six children. The record shows that the plaintiffs have been engaged in a continuous struggle to provide the bare necessities of life for their family. The humane purposes of the Workmen's Compensation Act have not been served by this protracted litigation over what were obviously questions of fact for the commissioner.