South Florida Grassing/Risk Management Services, Inc. v. Bunns

In my judgment the award of workers’ compensation dependency benefits under Section 440.16, Florida Statutes (1975), to persons who stood in the place of parents to the deceased employee should be reversed because there was no competent substantial evidence to support, the deputy commissioner’s finding that they were actually dependent at the time of the employee’s death.

The deceased employee, known as LeRoy Bunns, died at the age of 17 in a work-related accident. Katie and Johnson Evans, the claimants, were not legally related to Bunns but had raised him since he was about 4 years old.

The…