State ex rel. Patterson v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, 77 Ohio St. 201, 672 N.E. 2d 1008 (1996).
The Ohio Supreme Court has held 4-3 that a state statutory scheme which provides lesser worker compensation death benefits to dependents of work relief employees than to dependents of other employees violates the federal and state constitutional guarantees of equal protection. The deceased died from histoplasmosis, contracted as a result of exposure to pigeon droppings in the course of his employment as a work relief employee. The death benefit award to his widow was $33.11 per week (based on the amount of the weekly work relief grant). The death benefit for dependents of other employees would have been at least 50% of the statewide average weekly wage. After concluding that the statute required this result, the court held that the differential treatment violated equal protection requirements, contravened the public policy behind the state's worker compensation system and defeated the purpose of Section 35, Article II of the Ohio Constitution of compensating employees and dependents. The court found that there was no legitimate governmental purpose for the disparate treatment. It rejected a justification based on the financial security of the state insurance fund as well as the argument that providing lesser benefits to dependents of work relief employees would discourage reliance on public assistance. The court ordered that the appellant receive the minimum benefit set for dependents of non-work relief employees. According to the concurring opinion: "Ohio's welfare and workers' compensation systems heartlessly memorialized the difficult life of Frank Patterson with a cruel epitaph: 'He Shouldn't Have Tried.' He did not take a handout--he was willing to work in order to receive public assistance. God knows it was not pleasant work - his on-the-job exposure to pigeon droppings caused his mortal illness. But 'workfare' and its promise of improved self-esteem and self-reliance left Patterson dead and his widow with an insulting $33.11 per week. How poor are we that this state cannot offer the families of work-relief employees killed on the job the same treatment as other workers killed on the job?... Would the extra seven thousand dollars a year Mrs. Patterson requests bust Ohio's $16 billion budget? Or is our deficit not monetary but rather a shortfall in compassion and humanity?"