Bowling v. Special Fund

OPINION OF THE COURT

The issue in this workers’ compensation ease is whether decedent’s claim for income benefits due to coal miners’ pneumoconiosis, KRS 342.732(l)(b), can be continued after the worker’s death pursuant to KRS 342.730(3) when the date of last exposure was June 30, 1989.

By way of historical clarification, before the pneumoconiosis statute was enacted income benefits were awarded exclusively under KRS 342.730. Accordingly, subsection (3) of KRS 342.730 authorized the award of survivors’ benefits when the employee had sustained disability compensable under “that section.” In…