Workers' compensation: fatal accidents.

Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of employment. Existing law requires statutory death benefits to be paid to the employee's dependents, or, if there are no dependents, to the personal representative of the deceased employee, heirs, or other persons entitled to compensation, as prescribed. Under existing law, when benefits are due to a deceased employee and the employee has no one surviving to whom the benefit should be paid, the compensation is required to be paid to the Department of Industrial Relations for reimbursement of other injury claims, as specified. This bill would prohibit the department from seeking payment of an amount owed pursuant to this provision by obtaining a lien on writ of execution relating to a judgment obtained by a member of the immediate family of the deceased employee, unless the member of the immediate family is the employer for whom the deceased employee was working at the time of the fatal injury.