Travelers Insurance v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board

At issue herein is the amount of death benefits for which the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier is liable where the deceased worker leaves surviving him only partial dependents. Under compulsion of Department of Industrial Relations v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (Tessler) (1979) 94 Cal.App.3d 72 [ 156 Cal.Rptr. 183 ], (disapproved in Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (1982) 31 Cal.3d 715, 727 [ 182 Cal.Rptr. 778 , 644 P.2d 1257 ]), the respondent Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) has held that the respondent Department of Industrial Relations (of the State of California), Division of Industrial Relations, Non-Dependent Death Unit (hereinafter Department) is entitled to the balance of the maximum $50,000 death benefits for the injury herein where the surviving partial dependents were not awarded the full $50,000. Petitioner not only attacks the foregoing ruling by the WCAB regarding Department’s right to part of the death benefit but also challenges the amount of the death benefit awarded to the deceased employee’s partial dependents. For reasons more fully stated below, we will annul the WCAB’s decision since we hold that where…