## Facts

- Albert Asher was killed in a work-related incident.
- His widow, Connie Asher, filed a workers’ compensation claim for death benefits.
- Connie and Albert had been raising their grandson, Justin Bernal, since his birth, which occurred a few months before Albert’s death.
- A claim for workers’ compensation death benefits was also filed on Justin’s behalf, asserting that he was a dependent minor.
- California Labor Code section 4701 requires payment of a death benefit to an employee’s dependents when death results from an industrial injury.
- Labor Code section 4702 sets the amounts of standard death benefits, which vary based on the type and status of dependency.
- Labor Code section 4703.5 provides an additional “special death benefit” for “one or more totally dependent minor children,” payable in addition to the section 4702 benefit.
- The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board awarded Justin both standard death benefits under section 4702 and the additional special death benefit under section 4703.5, treating him as a “totally dependent minor child.”
- State Compensation Insurance Fund petitioned for writ of review, arguing that section 4703.5 requires not only total dependency and minority, but also that the dependent be the employee’s own child (not a grandchild).

## Issues

1. Does California Labor Code section 4703.5’s phrase “one or more totally dependent minor children” include a totally dependent minor grandchild of the deceased employee?
2. Did the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board err by awarding the section 4703.5 special death benefit to the employee’s dependent minor grandchild?

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal held that “totally dependent minor children” in Labor Code section 4703.5 refers to the deceased employee’s own minor children, not other minor dependents such as grandchildren.
- Because Justin was a grandchild rather than the employee’s child, he was not entitled to the additional special death benefit under section 4703.5.
- The court annulled the portion of the WCAB’s award granting the section 4703.5 special death benefit, while leaving the standard death benefits otherwise payable under sections 4701 and 4702 undisturbed.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory interpretation begins with the text; when the Legislature uses a kinship term like “children” without expansion, courts generally apply its ordinary meaning (the employee’s direct offspring), not more remote descendants.
- The workers’ compensation death-benefit statutes draw distinctions among categories of dependents; eligibility for a basic death benefit does not automatically establish eligibility for an added benefit available only to a narrower category.
- An administrative agency’s construction of a statute may be considered, but it does not control where it conflicts with the statute’s language and structure.
- Courts will not extend a special statutory benefit beyond the class identified by the Legislature based solely on the equities of a hard case; any expansion is for legislative action.

## Conclusion

State Compensation Insurance Fund v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Asher) holds that a totally dependent minor grandchild may qualify as a dependent for standard workers’ compensation death benefits under Labor Code sections 4701 and 4702, but is not a “totally dependent minor child” entitled to the additional special death benefit under section 4703.5, which is limited to the deceased employee’s own minor children; the Court of Appeal therefore annulled the WCAB’s award of the special benefit to the grandchild.


State Compensation Insurance Fund v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Asher), 24 Cal. Rptr. 2d 67, 19 Cal. App. 4th 1645 (1993)