Eckert v. N.J. State Highway Dep't. Meury, s. 242 and 261.

• Citation: 137 N.J.L. 571,61 A.2d 67
• Decision Date: 08 September 1948
• Docket Number: Nos. 242 and 261.,s. 242 and 261.
• Parties: ECKERT v. NEW JERSEY STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT. MEURY v. NEW JERSEY STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

137 N.J.L. 571
61 A.2d 67

ECKERT
v.
NEW JERSEY STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT.
MEURY
v.
NEW JERSEY STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT.

Nos. 242 and 261.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Sept. 8, 1948.

Separate proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Viola M. Eckert and by Marion Meury, claimants, for the death of their respective husbands, opposed by New Jersey State Highway Department, employer. To review judgments of Common Pleas Courts affirming awards of the Workmen's Compensation Bureau granting compensation, the employer brings certiorari.

Writs of certiorari dismissed.

May term, 1948, before DONGES, COLIE, and EASTWOOD, JJ.

Walter D. Van Riper, of Trenton, and William K. Miller, of Perth Amboy, for prosecutor.

61 A.2d 68

Moore & Moore and Arthur D. McTighe, all of Trenton, and Samuel L. Shapiro, of Vineland, for petitioners-defendants.

DONGES, Justice.

These cases present an identical question of law although they arise from different factual backgrounds. In each case the petitioner respondent is the widow of an employee of the State Highway Department who lost his life as the result of an accident. It is admitted that both former employees suffered instant death as the result of accidents arising out of and in the course of their employment and that the State had due notice thereof. After the deaths of the employees the respondents, on behalf of themselves and other dependents, filed application for pensions under the State Employees' Retirement System and the pensions sought were granted and have since been paid.

Thereafter the petitioners-respondents made claims for compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act, N.J.S.A. 34:15-1 et seq., which admittedly applies to employees of the State Highway Department, which claims were resisted by the Department upon the ground that ‘there is no legislative authority which expressly permits the payment of both pension and workmen's compensation benefits to a public employee or to his dependents' and that the election to receive a pension under the Retirement System is a bar to claim for compensation under the Compensation Act.

The Compensation Bureau allowed the claim in each case and the Court of Common Pleas of Sussex County, in one case, and the Court of Common Pleas of Atlantic County in the other, affirmed. Following this certiorari is allowed and the cases are now presented together.

The same arguments are made here, namely, the lack of express authority for the payment of both...