Lucas v. Ford Motor Co.

• Decision Date: 06 October 1941
• Docket Number: No. 56.,56.
• Citation: 300 N.W. 87,299 Mich. 280
• Parties: LUCAS et al. v. FORD MOTOR CO.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

299 Mich. 280

300 N.W. 87

LUCAS et al.

v.FORD MOTOR CO.

No. 56.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Oct. 6, 1941.

Proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Act, Comp.Laws 1929, § 8407 et seq., by Ethel Lucas, widow, Roy George Locas and Allen Paul Lucas, minors, and Esther F. Lukacz, claimants, opposed by the Ford Motor Company, employer. From two orders of the Department of Labor and Industry modifying orders entered by the Deputy Commissioner and remanding the proceedings to him for taking further testimony, the employer appeals in the nature of certiorari.

Case remanded to the Department of Labor and Industry for further proceedings.

Appeal from Department of Labor and Industry.

Argued before the Entire Bench.

Doelle, Starkey & Jones, of Detroit, for appellant.

Charles A. Lorenzo, of Detroit, for appellees.

NORTH, Justice.

This is an appeal by the employer from two orders of the department of labor and industry modifying orders entered by the deputy commissioner and remanding the proceedings to him for taking further testimony. On its review the department reversed the deputy's orders dismissing each of the petitions on the ground that in each instance an award of death benefits was barred since the petitions were filed more than 300 weeks after the date of the accident.

In September 1923 Oscar L. Lucas, at that time an unmarried man employed by the defendant company, sustained a second-degree caustic soda burn of his tongue. Defendant employer made no report of the accident which resulted in this injury although it arose out of and in the course of Lucas' employment. He received treatment for this injury on one or two occasions and thereupon was discharged from further treatment. He continued in defendant's employ until 1925 at which time he went to the city of New York and there entered other employment. In March 1937 he died as a result of cancer of the bronchial tubes; and for the purpose of decision it may be assumed testimony tending to establish a causal relation between the accident of September 1923 and the death which occurred more than thirteen years thereafter could be produced. After going to New York Lucas married the plaintiff, Ethel Lucas, September 1, 1928. Two children were born of this marriage, one in November 1929 and one in September 1934. In behalf of herself and two children the widow filed an application for adjustment of her claim of dependency compensation in February 1939. In September 1939 the widow filed a second application for adjustment of claim in behalf of Esther F. Lukacz, the mother of the deceased employee. Because it is not necessary to decision, we forego review of defendant's claim that there is a total lack of showing of authority on the part of the widow to file this petition in behalf of her mother-in-law, a resident of Hungary. No application for compensation was made in his lifetime by Lucas.

The first question raised by appellant is stated in its brief as follows: ‘Did the department of labor and industry err in holding that the proceedings were not...