Bietsch v. Midwest Piping & Supply Co.
| Decision Date | 01 December 1934 |
| Docket Number | 32692 |
| Citation | 76 S.W.2d 1079 |
| Parties | BIETSCH v. MIDWEST PIPING & SUPPLY CO. et al |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Fordyce, White, Mayne & Williams and Paul S. Schmid, all of St. Louis, for appellants.
Bartley & Mayfield, of St. Louis, for respondent.
WESTHUES, Commissioner.
This case, coming to the writer on reassignment, is an appeal from a judgment of the circuit court of the city of St. Louis Mo., setting aside an award of the compensation commission with directions to the commission to enter an award in favor of respondent in the sum of $ 12,650.
Claimant is the widow of John Bietsch. Bietsch died as the result of injuries received when he met with an accident while employed as a steam-fitter, by appellant Midwest Piping & Supply Company, Incorporated.
The sole question in controversy upon this appeal is the proper method to be used in computing deceased's earnings as a basis upon which the amount of compensation shall be determined. Appellants concede liability, but assert that the commission erred in the method of computing deceased's earnings. Appellants insist that subdivision (a) of section 3320, R. S. Mo. 1929, Mo. St. Ann. § 3320 (a), p. 8258 applies in this case as a basis for such computation. Deceased's earnings, during the year preceding his injury and death, amounted to $ 1,508. A computation of an award, under subdivision (a), above mentioned, on a basis of an earning capacity of $ 1,508 per year, would amount to $ 5,800. Appellants, therefore, concede that respondent would be entitled in any event to an award for that sum. The judgment of the circuit court appealed from directed the commission to enter an award in the sum of $ 12,500 as compensation, and $ 150 as funeral expenses. This latter item was not disputed. The compensation commission allowed $ 11,250 as compensation.
The amount in dispute, therefore, upon this appeal, is $ 5,800. Hence this court is without jurisdiction. A similar situation was before this court in the case of Sleyster v. Eugene Donzelot & Son et al., 323 Mo. 822, 20 S.W.2d 69. That case was transferred to the St. Louis Court of Appeals. The judgment appealed from was for $ 11,500 death benefit. Appellant conceded respondent was entitled to a judgment for $ 6,000. This court held that the amount in dispute was $ 5,500. Therefore, appellate jurisdiction was in the Court of Appeals. See, also, Anderson v. Aetna Bricklaying &...
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