- Dependency benefits (survivor)
The issue under appeal was whether the worker's estate had entitlement to survivors' benefits.
The Panel denied the appeal.The worker's death was not a result of his 1970 or 1977 workplace accidents. There was no evidence of substance that correlated the worker's death in 2019 to these workplace accidents.Subsection 43(7) of the pre-1985 Act concerns "dependant" benefits and states as follows: "43(7) A dependant of a worker who was, at the time of his or her death, in receipt of an award for permanent disability which the Board has rated at 100 per cent or, but for his or her death, would have been in receipt of an award for permanent disability at the rate of 100 per cent is entitled to compensation as if the death of the worker had resulted from the compensable disability for which he or she received or would have received the permanent disability award."The WSIB rightly established the worker's 1970 and 1977 claims as separate claims. The workplace accidents that gave rise to these claims involved different events and different injuries, some seven years apart. There would be no basis in law or WSIB policy to treat these distinct injuring processes under one claim unless the subsequent claim was a recurrence of the earlier claim. Subsection 126(1) of the WSIA mandates that the Tribunal apply WSIB policy. Policy 20-03-16 is clear that survivors' benefits are payable only where "a worker with an accident date prior to January 2, 1990 is entitled in one claim to total (100 per cent) permanent disability benefits…" The worker's total 100% PD benefit was not based upon one claim in this appeal but rather it was based upon two claims. There was no basis in law or WSIB policy to grant survivors' benefits in this appeal.