## Facts

- In 1976, Eddie Durbin suffered a fatal injury arising out of and in the course of his employment with Dibert, Bancroft & Ross, Ltd.
- At the time of his death, Eddie was unmarried and lived at home with his parents, Russell and Nacine Durbin.
- While living with them, Eddie regularly gave his parents about $10 or $20 per week from his wages.
- About one month before Eddie’s death, his mother told him to stop giving them money so he could save for his own apartment.
- After the weekly payments stopped, the parents were able to continue supporting themselves.
- In his free time, Eddie helped with work on the family farm and occasionally worked at the family’s restaurant.
- Eddie sometimes received payment for the restaurant or farm work from his father.
- After Eddie’s death, his parents sought workers’ compensation death benefits from Argonaut Insurance Company, the workers’ compensation insurer for Eddie’s employer.
- The trial court found the parents partially dependent, relying on Eddie’s prior weekly cash contributions and his work on the farm, and awarded $25 per week for 400 weeks.
- Argonaut appealed, arguing the parents failed to prove they were Eddie’s dependents under Louisiana workers’ compensation law.

## Issues

1. Whether Eddie Durbin’s parents proved they were actually, even partially, dependent on Eddie’s earnings or services at the time of his death so as to receive workers’ compensation death benefits.

## Decision

- The Louisiana Court of Appeal, First Circuit reversed the trial court’s judgment.
- The court held the parents did not prove actual partial dependency at the time of Eddie’s death.
- The award of $25 per week for 400 weeks was set aside, and the parents’ claim for death benefits was denied.

## Legal Principles

- Dependency for workers’ compensation death benefits is determined from the claimants’ real economic condition at the time of the employee’s death.
- Parents of an adult employee are not presumed dependent; they must prove that they relied, in whole or in part, on the employee’s contributions for support.
- Small or informal family contributions may be considered, but they do not establish dependency unless they represent real support on which the claimants relied to meet their needs or maintain their way of living.
- Where the alleged dependents are able to provide for themselves without the employee’s contributions, the evidence may fail to show partial dependency.
- The fact that contributions stopped shortly before death, with no showing of financial need or hardship from the stoppage, weighs against a finding of dependency at the relevant time.
- Services performed by the employee for a family farm or family business do not establish dependency without proof that the services provided material economic support needed by the claimants.
- The burden of proving dependency rests on the party seeking workers’ compensation death benefits.

## Conclusion

Because Eddie’s modest weekly cash payments had stopped about a month before his death at his mother’s request, and because the parents were able to support themselves without those payments or any claimed value from Eddie’s occasional work on the family farm and restaurant, the appellate court found no actual partial dependency at the time of death and reversed the trial court’s award of workers’ compensation death benefits.


Durbin v. Argonaut Insurance Co., 393 So. 2d 385 (1980)