Ohio high court denies additional death benefits to worker’s adult daughter
By Dale Hines
Blue RAM Media/Public Safety News
July 4, 2026
COLUMBUS, OHIO
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the adult daughter of a security officer killed on the job was not entitled to additional workers compensation death benefits after receiving a $3,000 prospective-dependency award.
In State ex rel. Holderman v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, the court vacated an appeals court ruling that directed the Ohio Industrial Commission to reconsider whether Patricia N. Holderman was wholly or partly dependent on her father.
Darrell W. Holderman was shot and killed June 1, 2022, while working as a security officer. His daughter, who was 39 at the time, said she and her two minor children had lived with him since 2018 and that he paid the mortgage, utilities, her automobile insurance and cellphone expenses.
Ms. Holderman had undergone back surgery several weeks before her father’s death and said she was unable to work while recovering. She had previously worked in a school cafeteria and during two summers at an ice cream shop.
The commission paid medical and funeral expenses and awarded Ms. Holderman $3,000 as a prospective dependent based on evidence that her father intended to support her during her recovery. It denied her request for weekly benefits as a wholly or partly dependent person, finding that although she was temporarily unable to work after back surgery and her father was supporting her, she was a 39-year-old adult with a work history and was capable of earning income.
In reversing the appeals court that found she may be due benefits, the state high court held that Ohio law treats prospective dependency as a separate category. Because the commission awarded prospective-dependency benefits, it was not required to also determine dependency under the statute’s residual provision covering “all other cases.”
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