Vessels Ex Rel. Vessels v. Brown-Forman Distillers Corp.

I fully agree with the majority opinion that a litigant in a workers’ compensation case has a constitutional guarantee of a direct appeal to another court as a matter of right. Because, under our statutes, the first court to consider workers’ compensation cases is the Court of Appeals, the matter of right appeal is to the Supreme Court.

On the merits of the case I would affirm the Court of Appeals because the grandchildren were not shown by the evidence to be the dependents of the deceased worker.

It is true that the deceased grandmother contributed money in lieu of rent to her son, in whose…