HARRY HUGHES, Governor

105

compensation payable under this subsection and subsections
(3) and (5), unpaid at the date of his death, shall survive
to his surviving dependents as the Commission may determine,
if there be such surviving dependents, and if there be none
such, then to his wife and children under eighteen years of
age if there was, at the time of his death, a legal
obligation on the part of said employee to support his wife,
and if there was no such obligation, then to his children
under eighteen if any, alone. This paragraph does not apply
to the provisions of § 66 of this article.

(4a) A person who, from one accident, receives an
award of compensation for a period of two hundred and fifty
(250) weeks or more under subsections (3) or (4) or a
combination of both, is thereby considered to have a serious
disability; except any award for disfigurement or mutilation
under subsection (3)(f) of this section shall not be
considered a determination of serious disability. The weeks
for such award shall be increased by one third (computed to
the nearest whole number); and the compensation shall be for
sixty-six and two-thirds per centum of the average weekly
wages, in no case to exceed sixty-six and two-thirds per
centum of the State average weekly wage of the State of
Maryland as determined by the Department of Employment
Security. The Department of Employment Security shall
report the average weekly wage of the State of Maryland as
of July 1, to the Workmen's Compensation Commission no later
than December 15th each year. In no case shall the employee
receive less than a minimum of fifty dollars per week unless
the employee's established weekly wages are less than fifty
dollars per week at the time of injury, in which event he
shall receive compensation equal to his full wages. This
subsection, to the extent of any inconsistency, prevails
over subsections (3) and (4); but otherwise subsections (3)
and (4) apply to persons covered by this subsection.
Provided, however, that any additional compensation for
permanent partial disability on a petition to reopen shall
not increase the amount of compensation previously awarded
and actually paid.

(5) (a) In all claims for compensation for hernia,
compensation may be allowed only upon definite proof to the
satisfaction of the Commission.

First. That there was an accidental injury
causing hernia, arising out of and in the course of the
employee's employment; or that the claimant sustained a
hernia resulting from a strain arising out of and in the
course of his or her employment.

Second. That the hernia did not exist prior to
the injury or strain for which compensation is claimed;
provided that if as the result of an accidental injury, or
as the result of a strain, arising out of and in the course
of the employee's employment a preexisting hernia becomes so