## Facts

- Louis E. Johnson, a Foote Mineral Company employee, died in 1989 of lung cancer.
- In 1990, Louis’s widow, Anna Johnson, filed for dependents’ death benefits under W. Va. Code § 23-4-10, alleging an occupational disease materially contributed to his death; she did not list any dependent children.
- The workers’ compensation authority initially denied the claim on causation grounds, but the Board of Review later granted benefits after finding occupational disease materially contributed to Louis’s death; further appeal was refused.
- After Anna died, her daughter (Charles’s sister) became executrix of Anna’s estate and, in 2002, was appointed guardian for Charles L. Johnson, an adult son diagnosed with schizophrenia and requiring supervision.
- In 2002, pay orders issued to the sister as substitute payee “for Charles’s benefit,” based on representations that Charles was Louis’s dependent invalid child; Charles received monthly death benefits for several years.
- In 2006, Foote’s third-party administrator issued an order terminating Charles’s death benefits, citing lack of evidence of dependency and Anna’s failure to list Charles as a dependent child in the 1990 application.
- In protest proceedings, the record included medical evidence of Charles’s inability to live independently and testimony that he lived with his parents until their deaths, then with his sister, and had previously been treated as a dependent in connection with Louis’s earlier disability benefits.
- An ALJ affirmed termination, reasoning the omission from the 1990 application barred Charles’s continued receipt of death benefits; the Board of Review affirmed.

## Issues

1. Whether an adult “invalid child” omitted from the original death-benefits application may qualify as a dependent for ongoing workers’ compensation death benefits under W. Va. Code § 23-4-10.
2. Whether terminating Charles Johnson’s death benefits years after payments began was legally erroneous where evidence showed statutory dependency and invalid status.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia reversed the Board of Review’s order and remanded.
- The Court held Charles had a statutory right to continuation of dependents’ death benefits as an “invalid child” dependent under the Workers’ Compensation Act.
- The Court concluded the 2006 termination was legal error because it treated a paperwork omission as dispositive rather than applying the statutory dependency classification to the evidence.
- The Court directed reinstatement of benefits retroactive to the date of termination.

## Legal Principles

- A workers’ compensation appellate order will be reversed when its legal conclusions are erroneous.
- A claim for death benefits under W. Va. Code § 23-4-10 is separate and distinct from an injured employee’s disability claim.
- Dependency is determined by the statute’s classifications of dependents, not by ordinary conceptions of dependency or the contents of a particular form.
- “Invalid children” are an eligible class of dependents under the death-benefits statute; benefits may continue as long as invalid status and dependency persist.
- An omission of a dependent from an earlier death-benefits application does not defeat a statutory entitlement where the evidence establishes the claimant meets the statutory dependent classification.

## Conclusion

The court held that statutory dependency classifications under W. Va. Code § 23-4-10 control eligibility for death benefits; because Charles Johnson qualified as an invalid dependent child, benefits could not be terminated solely due to his omission from the original application, and reinstatement was required retroactively.


Johnson v. W. Va. Office of Ins. Comm’r, 226 W. Va. 650, 704 S.E.2d 650 (2010)