Day v. W a Foote Memorial Hospital

We granted leave to appeal to consider whether the conclusive presumption of a widow’s dependency on her husband for financial support set forth in the Worker’s Disability Compensation Act is an unconstitutional gender-based discrimination because there is no similar presumption for widowers.

After oral argument in this Court, the United States Supreme Court decided Wengler v Druggists Mutual Ins Co, 446 US 142; 100 S Ct 1540; 64 L Ed 2d 107 (1980), which held that language of Missouri’s workers’ compensation law providing for a similar conclusive presumption of dependency of widows was an…