Knoxville Gray Eagle Marble Co. v. Meek

• Decision Date: 16 November 1929
• Citation: 21 S.W.2d 625,159 Tenn. 577
• Parties: KNOXVILLE GRAY EAGLE MARBLE CO. et al. v. MEEK.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

21 S.W.2d 625

159 Tenn. 577

KNOXVILLE GRAY EAGLE MARBLE CO. et al. v. MEEK.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

November 16, 1929

Error to Circuit Court, Knox County; A. C. Grimm, Judge.

Suit under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Ira Martin Meek against the Knoxville Gray Eagle Marble Company and others. Judgment for petitioner, and defendants bring error. Reversed, and suit dismissed.

James E. Atkins, Jr., and Lindsay, Young & Young, all of Knoxville for plaintiffs in error.

J. A Goodfriend, of Knoxville, for defendant in error.

McKINNEY J.

This is a Workmen's Compensation suit instituted by Ira Martin Meek. Judgment was entered in her favor for $5 per week for 400 weeks. The petitioner alleges that she was wholly dependent for support upon John Pete Martin when he met his death accidentally while in the employ of the marble company. The determinative question is whether petitioner comes within the provisions of the act (Pub. Acts 1919, c. 123). Her relationship to the deceased is thus stated in her petition:

"The petitioner would show that she was the aunt and stepmother of the deceased, John Pete Martin, and explains this in the following manner: John Pete Martin was the illegitimate child of Fanny Martin, and Joe Lundy. The petitioner was a sister of Fanny Martin, the mother of the deceased, John Pete Martin. That when John Pete Martin was about two years old, his mother, Fanny Martin, died, and his aunt, the petitioner, took him to raise. The petitioner's name at this time was Ira Martin. When John Pete Martin was about three years old, his aunt, the petitioner, married his father, Joe Lundy. Ira Martin and Joe Lundy were married in the year 1900, and John Pete Martin, the deceased continued to live with his aunt after her marriage to his father. About a year after Ira Martin married Joe Lundy, they were divorced in Knox County, Tennessee. John Pete Martin, who at that time was something over four years of age, continued to live with his aunt, the petitioner, who was also now his stepmother. The petitioner after her divorce from Joe Lundy married one Meek, whom she continued to live with until his death some nine years ago, and she has not since remarried. John Pete Martin continued, without interruption, to live with the petitioner, his aunt and stepmother, from the time that she took him to raise when he was two years old until his death some twenty-seven years after. John Pete Martin being approximately twenty-nine years old at the time of his death due to the accident above referred to."

The deceased was not a stepson of petitioner, because he was not the legal son of her divorced husband, Joe Lundy.

The word "stepson" is thus defined in 36 Corpus Juris, 1276: "The child of a wife or husband by a former marriage."

It was said in Lipham v. State, 125 Ga. 52, 53 S.E. 817, 114 Am. St. Rep. 181, 5 Ann. Cas. 66, that the word is so defined with unanimity by dictionaries and textbooks.

The deceased was not a child of Joe Lundy by a former marriage; hence he was never the stepson of petitioner. This being true, it is not necessary to decide the question as to whether the relationship of stepson and stepmother is terminated when the father and stepmother are divorced.

The petitioner was, however, the aunt of deceased, and it is insisted that a dependent aunt is entitled to compensation under the act. Those entitled to compensation are enumerated in section 30 of the act as follows:

"That for the purposes of this Act, the following described persons shall be conclusively presumed to be wholly dependent:

(1) A...