Marshall v. Indus. Comm'n

• Decision Date: 06 February 1931
• Docket Number: No. 20340.,20340.
• Citation: 342 Ill. 400,174 N.E. 534
• Parties: MARSHALL v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

342 Ill. 400

174 N.E. 534

MARSHALL

v.INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.

No. 20340.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 18, 1930.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing Feb. 6, 1931.

Error to Circuit Court, Cook County; H. Sterling Pomeroy, Judge.

Proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Mary Allesch, claimant, for compensation for the death of her son, Frank Allesch, opposed by Benjamin H. Marshall Compensation was awarded, and the award was confirmed by the circuit court, and Marshall brings error.

Affirmed.

Moses, Kennedy, Stein & Bachrach, of Chicago (Herbert H. Kennedy and Albert Langeluttig, both of Chicago, of counsel), for plaintiff in error.

J. S. Cook and Frank T. Sharp, both of Chicago, for defendant in error.

ORR, J.

The petitioner, by leave of this court, has brought here for review the record of the circuit court of Cook county confirming an award of the Industrial Commission against him in favor of Mary Allesch as the dependent mother of Frank Allesch, deceased.

By stipulation of the parties the only controverted questions before the court are: First, is the mother of an illegitimate child a parent within the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act? and, second, if so, was the claimant in fact dependent on the deceased, who was her illegitimate son?

Mary Allesch, while a single woman, gave birth to an illegitimate son, who went through life under the name of Frank Allesch, he assuming the name of the man his mother married, although he was not adopted by, nor was he the son of, Allesch. The rights, if any, of Mary Allesch under the Compensation Act rest upon subsection (c) of section seven. Cahill's Rev. St. 1929, c. 48, par. 207(c). The subsection, in part, is as follows: ‘If no amount is payable under paragraphs (a) or (b) of this section and the employee leaves any parent or parents, child or children, grandparent, grandchild or grandchildren, who at the time of injury were dependent upon the earnings of the employee, then such proportion of a sum equal to four times the average annual earnings of the employee as such dependency bears to total dependency, but not less in any event than one thousand six hundred fifty dollars and not more in any event than three thousand seven hundred fifty dollars.’

The word ‘parent’ is defined in Webster's New International Dictionary as, ‘One who begets, or brings forth, offspring,’ and this is its ordinary meaning. Nowhere in the Workmen's Compensation Act is it indicated that the word ‘parent’ has a meaning different from that when it is used in its ordinary sense. While by common acceptation the word ‘parent,’ without limiting, defining, or qualifying language, is ordinarily used to designate a legitimate relationship between a mother or father and their issue, yet the trend of modern legislation and court decisions has been toward a more liberal use of the term as regards the mother of an illegitimate child. The harsh doctrines of the common law, which gave an unwedded mother and her illegitimate offspring little standing or protection, have been modified by the Legislature and court decisions of this state. Under the common law, an illegitimate had no inheritable blood and was kin to no one. In 1845 the Legislature of this state abrogated the common-law rule, and provided that an illegitimate might inherit from its mother. Subsequent Legislatures further extended the rights of illegitimates until 1872, when the present statute of descent was passed. The natural or unwedded mother is made a legitimate mother, or a ‘parent,’ under the statute of descent, and she and her illegitimate issue may inherit one from the other. Cahill's Rev. St. 1929, ch. 39, par. 2. By the Injuries Act (Cahill's Rev. St. 1929, ch. 70, par. 2,) a mother, as the next of kin, has the benefit of an action by the administrator of the estate of her deceased illegitimate issue for damages for wrongful death, as that act provides for the distribution of suit money to the widow and next of kin in the proportion provided by law in relation to the distribution of personal property left by persons dying intestate, and, as was said in Bales v. Elder, 118 Ill. 436, 11 N. E. 421, citing Miller v. Williams, 66 Ill. 91, an illegitimate person is recognized as the child of its mother as regards the descent of property. This is true, although nothing is said about an illegitimate or its mother in the Injuries Act, but the statute of descent places a mother and her illegitimate issue on a plane of legitimacy. In construing section 2 of the statute of...