Kransky v. Glen Alden Coal Co.

• Decision Date: 18 January 1946
• Docket Number: 4119
• Citation: 158 Pa.Super. 544,45 A.2d 384
• Parties: Kransky v. Glen Alden Coal Company, Appellant
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

45 A.2d 384

158 Pa.Super. 544

Kransky v. Glen Alden Coal Company, Appellant

No. 4119

Superior Court of Pennsylvania

January 18, 1946

Argued November 14, 1945.

Appeal, No. 4, Feb. T., 1945, from judgment of C. P., Luzerne Co., Dec. T., 1943, No. 70, in case of Mrs. John Kransky for Joan Edith Coates v. Glen Alden Coal Company.

Appeal by defendant from award by Workmen's Compensation Board.

Appeal dismissed and judgment entered for claimant, opinion by Farrell, J. Defendant appealed.

Franklin B. Gelder, with him J. H. Oliver, for appellant.

Frank J. Flannery, with him Patrick J. Flannery, for appellee.

Rhodes Reno, Dithrich, Ross and Arnold, JJ. (Baldrige, P. J., and Hirt, J., absent).

OPINION

ROSS, J.

In this workmen's compensation case the referee awarded compensation to Joan Edith Coates, minor granddaughter of Edith Coates (Mrs. John Kransky), for the death of John Kransky, who was killed in the course of his employment with the Glen Alden Coal Company on August 6, 1941. The board affirmed the referee, the court below sustained the board and this appeal followed.

For some years previous to the time of his death, John Kransky and the minor claimant's grandmother, Edith Coates, lived continuously together in a meretricious relationship. It was found by the compensation authorities that the minor claimant, Joan Edith Coates, lived in the decedent's household from her birth on July 29, 1940, to the time of his death; was wholly dependent upon him for support and maintenance and received her entire support and maintenance from him; and that from the time of her birth John Kransky stood in loco parentis to her.

Section 307 of the Workmen's Compensation Act of June 2, 1915, P. L. 736 (as amended June 4, 1937, P. L. 1552, and June 21, 1939, P. L. 520, sec. 1; 77 PS sec. 562) provides, inter alia: "Compensation shall be payable under this section to or on account of any child, brother, or sister, only if and while such child is under the age of sixteen . . . If members of decedent's household at the time of his death, the terms 'child' and 'children' shall include step-children, adopted children, and children to whom he stood in loco parentis . . ."

A person in loco parentis to a child is one who means to put himself in the situation of a lawful father of the child with reference to the father's office and duty of making provision for the child. Robinson's Estate, 35, Pa.Super. 192; Renovich v. Bethlehem Mines Corporation, 131 Pa.Super. 351, 200 A. 122; Pearson's Estate, 251 Pa. 612, 97 A. 71. A household means a domestic establishment under a single head or management. Hoff et al. v. Hoff et al., 132 Pa.Super. 431, 1 A.2d 506. The words "family" and "household" are often interchangeably used, and it has been said that all persons who dwell together under a common head as a household are embraced by the word "family". Bair v. Robinson, 108 Pa. 247.

The appellant contends that because the decedent and the minor's grandmother lived in a meretricious relationship in the household, the minor claimant is not entitled to compensation, but with that contention we do not agree.

In Morris et al. v. Glen Alden Coal Co., 136 Pa.Super 132, 7...