State ex rel. Pickrel v. Industrial Commission

Appellant claims an automatic entitlement to an award equal to the statewide average weekly wage at the time of her husband’s death. We disagree with appellant’s interpretation of R.C. 4123.59(B) and hereby affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

R.C. 4123.59(B) establishes that weekly death benefits to wholly dependent persons “shall be sixty-six and two-thirds per cent of the average weekly wage * * *,” subject to a statutory maximum and minimum.1 By focusing exclusively on the statutory maximum, appellant ignores what we perceive to be the mandatory formula for the computation of…