8.5 Independent Status of Death Benefit Claims

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

. The rights of surviving spouses, children, parents, and siblings to death compensation benefits derive from statute and not from the employee’s right to compensation. Neither a decision adverse to the employee’s own claim nor his or her compromise of the claim can in any way impair the survivors’ rights to death compensation benefits.^[71] If, however, the deceased employee had rejected the right to compensation before his or her injury, no death compensation benefits are possible.^[72]

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