The wife and two children of a disabled worker who later died cannot collect permanent total disability benefits that had previously been awarded to him because they were not named as dependents when he suffered a workplace injury in 2005, a divided appeals court in Missouri ruled Tuesday.

Nancy Lawrence and her children appealed the state Labor and Industrial Relations Commission’s previous denial of a motion to be substituted as parties to the workers compensation claim of Ronald A. Lawrence following his 2019 death that was not connected to his workplace injury, according to documents in Ronald A. Lawrence, II; Nancy Lawrence, Deanna Lawrence, and Mayme Lawrence v. Treasurer of the State of Missouri-Custodian of the Second Injury Fund, filed in the Court of Appeals of Missouri, Western District in Kansas City, Missouri.

The defendants argued they were Mr. Lawrence’s dependents and thereby were entitled to receive the permanent total disability benefits awarded to him against the Second Injury Fund in 2013; a final award that “did not establish that Nancy and Children were (his) dependents at the time he sustained his work-related injury,” documents state. On that premise, the state commission denied their request, according to documents.

In affirming, the appeals court ruled that “neither the Commission nor this Court has the authority to substantively modify a final workers compensation award entered years earlier to make new factual findings concerning dependency which are not contained in the original award itself.”

“In this instance, the status of Nancy and Children as dependents of Ronald at the time of his injury was not established in the Final Award,” the ruling states. “Thus, the Commission properly denied their Motion to Substitute.”

One of the three appeals judges dissented, writing that court records show that Mr. Lawrence had been married with children and that dependency status was “not contested,” elaborating on the 25-year marriage to his wife and medical records that show he had children at the time of his injury.

“Because I have concluded that the Commission erred in finding that the Lawrences’ dependent status was not sufficiently established in the final award granting him permanent total disability benefits as supported by the record from Mr. Lawrence’s Second Injury Fund hearing, I would reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion,” the dissenting judge wrote.