Opinion
6 Div. 771.
March 12, 1931.
Appeal from the Circuit Court, Jefferson County; John Denson, Judge.
Bradley, Baldwin, All White, of Birmingham, for appellant.
Where the finding of fact is too meager or omissive to inform the appellate court of the entire circumstances, and where the insistence is made that there is no legal evidence to support the award, the appellate court will look to the bill of exceptions. Ex parte Louisville N. R. Co., 208 Ala. 216, 94 So. 289; Ex parte Mt. Carmel Coal Co., 209 Ala. 519, 96 So. 626. The award must be based on legal evidence. Ex parte Sloss-Sheffield Steel Iron Co., 207 Ala. 219, 92 So. 458. The parents of a deceased employee are entitled to compensation only in event they were dependent, totally or partially, upon him for support. Code 1923, §§ 7553, 7554, 7556.
H. H. Grooms and Coleman, Coleman, Spain Stewart, all of Birmingham, for appellees.
Where there is any legal evidence to support the finding of the trial court, the same is conclusive. Code 1923, § 7551; Woodward Iron Co. v. Dean, 217 Ala. 530, 117 So. 52, 60 A.L.R. 536; Ex parte Sloss-Sheffield Steel Iron Co., 207 Ala. 219, 92 So. 458. It is only in the absence of a finding of the trial court, or where it is meager or omissive, that a bill of exceptions will be employed. Crescent Coal Co. v. Simmons, 217 Ala. 367, 116 So. 512; Ex parte Louisville N. R. Co., 208 Ala. 216, 94 So. 289; Ex parte Jagger Coal Co., 211 Ala. 11, 99 So. 99; Ex parte Mt. Carmel Coal Co., 209 Ala. 519, 96 So. 626. The award was proper. Code 1923, §§ 7556, 7558; Morgan-Hill Pav. Co. v. Evans, 214 Ala. 125, 106 So. 869; Birmingham Slag Co. v. Johnson, 214 Ala. 131, 106 So. 806; Morgan-Hill Pav. Co. v. Stewart, 220 Ala. 480, 126 So. 116. Failure to find total income of a partial dependent will not defeat award to said dependent. Ex parte American Mine Owners Mutual, 20 Ala. App. 647, 104 So. 912; Id., 213 Ala. 411, 104 So. 913.
It is conceded by the petitioner that the deceased workman, L. B. Snider, at the time of his death, was in its employ, and that his death was caused by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, and that his average weekly earnings were $20; that he was unmarried and had no children.
Compensation was allowed to his parents, as partial dependents, at $5 per week for 300 weeks, and the point of contest on the trial was whether or not partial dependency was shown. The finding of fact entered of record by the trial court on this point is "that said L. B. Snider left surviving him his father, L. C. Snider, and mother, Mary E. Snider, each residents of Davidson County, North Carolina, and of the ages of sixty-seven and fifty-three years respectively; that said L. C. Snider and Mary E. Snider were, at the time of the death of the said L. B. Snider, partially dependent upon the deceased, L. B. Snider, for support and maintenance, and that said L. C. Snider and Mary E. Snider regularly derived part of their support from the earnings of the deceased L. B. Snider at the time of his death, and had so derived said support for several months immediately prior thereto; that the support thus derived and the earnings thus regularly contributed by the deceased, L. B. Snider, to the joint support and maintenance of his father, L. C. Snider, and mother, Mary E. Snider, amounted, at the time of the death of the deceased, to the sum of six and no/100 dollars ($6.00) per week; that the only other income of said L. C. Snider and Mary E. Snider was and is from the sale of small amounts of produce from their little farm located in Davidson County, North Carolina, and that said sums above referred to and received by them from the deceased, L. B. Snider, were necessary for their support and maintenance."
The contention is that this recital of the special finding of fact "is too meager or omissive to fully inform" this court "in respect of the entire circumstances having relation to the point under consideration," and that there is no legal evidence to support the conclusion, thus entered of record.
Neither of these points is well taken. The finding and conclusion of fact are full and explicit, and, upon a reasonable view of the evidence, are fully sustained. Mobile Liners, Inc., v. McConnell, 220 Ala. 562, 126 So. 626; Hearn v. United States Cast Iron Pipe Foundry Co., 217 Ala. 352, 116 So. 365; Woodward Iron Co. v. Vines, 217 Ala. 369, 116 So. 514.
Mathematical certainty cannot be exacted in the determination of disputed issues of fact in legal proceedings.
The writ of certiorari is denied, and the judgment will be affirmed.
Writ denied; affirmed.
ANDERSON, C. J., and SAYRE and THOMAS, JJ., concur.