Mission Insurance v. Industrial Commission

HAIRE, Chief Judge.

The sole issue for determination on this appeal is the correctness of the hearing officer’s decision that the claimant was the lawful wife of decedent employee at the time of his death in an industrially related accident.

Claimant, Gertrude E. Thrash, and the employee Willie C. Thrash cohabited as husband and wife in Kansas from 1969 until November of 1974, at which time they moved to Tucson, Arizona, where they continued to live together until the industrial accident which caused Mr. Thrash’s death. Although both Mr. Thrash and claimant were married to other persons when…