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Home > Journals > Michigan Law Review > MLR > Volume 25 > Issue 6 (1927)

 

Abstract

Plaintiffs brought suit in the federal court for the southern district of Texas on grounds of diversity of citizenship under the Louisiana Employers Liability Act to recover for the death of their father who had been killed by falling from defendant's dredge upon which he was employed. The contract of employment was made, and the death occurred in Louisiana. The Act is of the "optional" type. It provides that the employer shall, upon the accidental death of an employee in the course of his employment, pay compensation to the employee's dependents. Payment is to be made at periodical intervals for a specified length of time of certain percentages of decedent's average wage to each dependent. Payment is, however, made contingent upon the continuation of their dependency; for example, a widow who remarries is not thereafter entitled to compensation. Compensation may be commuted to a lump sum settlement by an agreement of the parties if approved by the court as solely and clearly in the interest of the dependents. If the parties are in dispute about the compensation, the statute provides a simple and expedited procedure whereby their rights shall be determined and judgment given by the court which would have jurisdiction in a civil suit. Held, that the plaintiffs were entitled to a decree. The decree, not reported, provided that the plaintiffs recover eighteen hundred and some odd dollars, being a certain percentage of decedent's average wage for each minor son for a certain number of weeks. It further decrees, "that the plaintiffs are not rightly due a lump sum settlement at this time."

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