Romeo v. Rome

418 A.2d 258 (1980)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Irene (W) and Joseph (H) were married in 1963 and lived together until H's death. In 1973, W purchased a tavern and restaurant. She owned the business as sole proprietor. H worked at the tavern part-time until 1973 when he left other employment and began working for his wife for $150 per week salary. Part of H's duties were to cash the checks of local factory workers, and on such a trip he was found dead with gunshot wounds to the back of his head in the passenger seat of the car in Newark. The police found only a few dollars and the department concluded that H was ambushed as he returned to his car from the bank, driven to an isolated area and then robbed and shot. W filed a petition for Workers' Compensation for dependency benefits as a result of H's death. The judge ruled that W was entitled to dependency benefits of $75 per week. The judge found that H worked for W and his death was a result of an accident that arose out of an in the course of employment. The judge felt compelled to look beyond the Bendler decision to see if there had been any change in the interspousal immunity which was relevant to that issue. The court reasoned that if interspousal tort immunity had been abolished, then the common law should not be allowed to defeat the public policy behind the Workers' Compensation Act. That decision was revered; the lower court judge erred by framing the issue in terms of interspousal immunity as the issue was one of contractual capacity. This appeal resulted.