Dunnigan v. Pete Russell Coal Co.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Dawson, J.:

This action purported to be founded on the workman’s compensation act.

One Patrick Dunnigan, a single man of twenty-eight years, without children and whose parents were dead, was killed while at work in defendant’s coal mine.

The plaintiff, who is his elder brother, thirty years of age, married, having a wife and three children and a mother-in-law constituting his family, made a claim for compensation against the defendant coal company, on the theory and contention that he was a *58dependent member of his deceased brother’s family under the…