Blumenfeld v. Rust Craft Greeting Cards, Inc.

• Decision Date: 21 December 1967
• Docket Number: No. A--50,A--50
• Citation: 236 A.2d 883,51 N.J. 1
• Parties: Jean S. BLUMENFELD, Petitioner-Respondent, v. RUST CRAFT GREETING CARDS, INC., Respondent-Appellant.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

Page 1

51 N.J. 1

236 A.2d 883

Jean S. BLUMENFELD, Petitioner-Respondent, v. RUST CRAFT GREETING CARDS, INC., Respondent-Appellant.

No. A--50.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued Dec. 4, 1967.

Decided Dec. 21, 1967.

Everitt Rhinehart, East Orange, for appellant (John W. Taylor, East Orange, attorney).

Lloyd G. Beatty, Newark, for respondent (Egner & Beatty, Newark, attorneys).

The opinion of the court was delivered

PER CURIAM.

This case involves workmen's compensation benefits payable to a widow and her children. After the award, the widow remarried, whereupon the Division adjudged that the widow receive a lump sum of $1,000 and that the benefits due the children be recomputed as of the date of the remarriage. The Division rejected the employer's contention that the weekly payments should continue as originally ordered until the portions thereof allocated to the widow and paid to her after the remarriage aggregated $1,000, with the recomputation as to the children to occur at that point. The judgment was affirmed by the County Court, 92 N.J.Super. 244, 222 A.2d 770 (Law Div.1966), and by the Appellate Division, 94 N.J.Super. 584, 229 A.2d 663 (1967). We granted the employer's petition for certification. 50 N.J. 90, 232 A.2d 151 (1967).

Under our statute the benefits payable to total dependents (the widow and children here are in that category) are a percentage of the wages of the deceased, subject to a maximum which, at the time of decedent's death, was $40 per week. The percentage of wages in the case of one dependent was then 35, in the case of two was 40, and in the case of three was 45. N.J.S.A. 34:15--13. Here 45% Of wages exceeded the maximum of $40. The maximum was payable for the thre dependents for 350 weeks, and since the children would then still be under 18 years of age, benefits continued to be payable for them at 40% Of wages, for a rate of $39.23 per week, to be followed by a third period in which one child remained under 18, during which period that child would receive 35% Of wages or $34.32 per week.

The widow having remarried, the employer sought a modification under N.J.S.A. 34:15--13(g) which reads:

'* * * Should any dependent of a deceased employee die during the period covered by such weekly payments the right of such dependent to compensation under this section shall cease but should the widow of a deceased employee remarry during such period and before the total compensation is paid, she shall be entitled to receive the remainder of the compensation which would have been due her had she not remarried, or $1,000.00, whichever is the lesser.'

The balance payable to the widow being in excess of $1,000, that sum became payable to her. The Division ordered it paid in a lump sum, rejecting the employer's contention that it be paid out of what was already ordered to be paid, at $20 per week, the widow's allocated share of the $40 rate.

Under the workmen's compensation law as originally...