On July 16, 2004 Alfonso Estrada Moron (A.K.A. Eduardo Zambrano) was shot and killed in a hold-up while working for Quik Chek as an assistant manager.
There was no dispute that the decedent died “in the course of employment” and that his weekly wages were sufficient to give rise to a dependency rate of $227.98 per week.
The dispute arose as to whether or not the claimant’s mother, who lived in Peru was “solely dependent” on the decedent as she claimed. If she could prove dependency, she would received $227.98 per week until she died. The claimant testified that the decedent sent her $600 per month for her support, plus $600 for her birthday and $1,000 at Christmas.
The claimant was unable to provide any evidence that she had ever received any money of any kind from the decedent. It turns out that all the monies were transferred to her in cash through a “middleman” and no records could be produced. Regardless of the lack of proof, the Judge of Compensation gave full credence to the claims of the mother, and awarded her full dependency benefits.
The employer appealed, arguing that the claimant failed to prove she was the claimant’s mother. The Appellate Court found that the Judge of Compensation was correct in awarding lifetime benefits and that counsel for the employer waived the issue of parentage by failing to raise it at trial.
Lesson for adjusters: choose counsel wisely!
Case: Estrada v. Quik Chek, A-1927-07T2 (App. Div. decided July 3 2008)(Judges Lisa & Lihotz, unpublished as of blog date).
