“Til Death Do Us Part”: Dependency Death Benefits After House Bill 480
By: Sarah Snipes
Mortality does not end while an employee is engaged in duties “arising out of and in the course of employment.” O.C.G.A. § 34-9-1(4). In fact, an employee’s “mortality” is often most apparent while engaged in employment-related activities, especially in traditionally risky occupations such as logging, roofing, construction or law enforcement. Generally, the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act (the Act) allocates benefits to individuals who suffer a financial loss due to the compensable death of an employee. Therefore, all parties to a workers’ compensation claim must understand their obligations and financial responsibilities when an accident “arising out of and in the course of employment” results in the immediate or subsequent death of an employee.
Before the 2023 legislative session of the Georgia General Assembly, a person wholly dependent on a deceased employee was barred from receiving death benefits under the Act if the dependent was involved in a “meretricious relationship” with the decedent. See Sanchez v. Carter, 343 Ga. App. 187 (2017) (citing Williams v. Corbett, 260 Ga. at 668 (1990), in which the Georgia Supreme Court held a meretricious relationship works to deny workers’ compensation benefits even where actual dependency exists). Prior to July 1, 2023, O.C.G.A. § 34-9-13(e) defined a meretricious relationship as “a relationship in which persons of the opposite sex live together continuously and openly in a relationship similar or akin to marriage, which relationship includes either sexual intercourse or the sharing of living expenses.” In Sanchez v. Carter, the claimant was the decedent’s live-in girlfriend of 13 years, who had been entirely financially dependent on the decedent for four years before the decedent’s death following a work-related injury. Relying on the Georgia Supreme Court’s finding in Williams v. Corbett, 260 Ga. at 668 (1990), the Georgia Court of Appeals held despite being wholly dependent on the decedent, the claimant was not entitled to dependency benefits “from that living arrangement.” Sanchez v. Carter, 343 at 190 (referring to the claimant living with but not being married to the decedent). Therefore, before this year, an employer/insurer was not responsible for death benefits where a claimant was financially dependent on and living with a decedent prior to the work accident if the claimant and decedent were not married.
However, the 2023 legislative session of the Georgia General Assembly passed House Bill 480, which revised portions of the Act. Key provisions of HB 480 added language to the catch-all provision for death benefits under O.C.G.A. § 34-9-13(d) to include a claimant who “lived together in continuously and openly in a relationship similar or akin to marriage.” HB 480 also removed language defining cohabitation in a meretricious relationship under O.C.G.A. § 34-9-13(d). According to the newly revised O.C.G.A. § 34-9-13(d), a claimant can pursue dependent death benefits in a compensable death claim whether or not their relationship with the decedent was meretricious. Hence, O.G.G.A. § 34-9-13(d) can be interpreted to overrule the previous bar on recovery for a claimant financially dependent on and living with, but not married to, a decedent under Sanchez v. Carter, 343 Ga. App. 187 (2017).
It remains to be seen how the State Board of Workers’ Compensation and Georgia courts will treat cases involving a claimant living with but not married to a decedent before a work accident under the new law. This is especially true since dependency for an unwed claimant living with the decedent is not presumed, unlike the presumption granted to married claimants and children. O.C.G.A. § 34-9-13(b). From an employer/insurer’s perspective, the new law clearly increases the total payout in a compensable death claim. The new legislation could also increase the number of death claims as the legislature has broadened the scope of “dependents” who could seek and possibly recover death benefits, which will ultimately increase the attorneys willing to represent them where prior law would have discouraged pursuing or filing a claim.
Consequently, there may be a rise in litigation over whether a person living with a decedent in a continuous and open relationship before the decedent’s work-related death was dependent on the decedent and entitled to death benefits. Moreover, exposure in future death claims will likely increase as the number of lawsuits filed and attorney involvement increases. Finally, from an employer/insurer’s standpoint, the cost of insurance premiums could seemingly increase with the increased exposure for dependency death benefits.
Overall, changes to O.C.G.A. § 34-9-13 will likely increase the pool of possible dependents in compensable death claims, resulting in increased litigation and attorney involvement in the coming years.
Attorney Contact Info
Sarah Snipes
sarah.snipes@swiftcurrie.com
404.595.2276