Iowa Code

Iowa Code § 85.43 (2026)

Payment to spouse

✓ current as of July 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section IA-LEGlegis.iowa.gov JustiaTitle on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

1. If the deceased employee leaves a surviving spouse qualified under the provisions of section 85.42, the full compensation shall be paid to the surviving spouse, as provided in section 85.31; provided that where a deceased employee leaves a surviving spouse and a dependent child or children the workers’ compensation commissioner may make an order of record for an equitable apportionment of the compensation payments.

2. If the spouse dies, the benefits shall be paid to the person or persons wholly dependent on deceased, if any, share and share alike. If there are none wholly dependent, then such benefits shall be paid to partial dependents, if any, in proportion to their dependency for the periods provided in section 85.31.

3. If the deceased leaves a dependent child or children who was or were such at the time of the injury, and the surviving spouse remarries, then and in such case, the payments shall be paid to the proper compensation trustee for the use and benefit of such dependent child or children for the period provided in section 85.31. [S13, §2477-m16; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §1403; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §85.43] 98 Acts, ch 1061, §11; 2017 Acts, ch 54, §76; 2018 Acts, ch 1041, §29 \n

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 4 cases, 1985–2010 · leading case: Rojas v. Pine Ridge Farms, L.L.C., 779 N.W.2d 223 (Iowa 2010).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Rojas v. Pine Ridge Farms, L.L.C., 779 N.W.2d 223 (Iowa 2010). · cites it 26× “Iowa Code § 85.43 . The amount of benefits payable, including the reduction in benefits for nonresident aliens, is found in section 85.”

Zomer v. West River Farms, Inc., 666 N.W.2d 130 (Iowa 2003). · cites it 4× “See Iowa Code § 85.43 . Clearly, then, the legislature harbored no intent that the commissioner was incapable of applying rules of equity.”

Bertrand v. Sioux City Grain Exch., 419 N.W.2d 402 (Iowa 1988). · cites it 2× “Iowa Code section 85.43 (1973) provides that when there is a surviving spouse the full amount of compensation is to be paid to him or her.”

Sidles Distrib. Co. v. Heath, 366 N.W.2d 1 (Iowa 1985). · cites it 2× “Iowa Code § 85.43 (1981). 2 . Appellants suggest that work-life expectancy is no more speculative than the matters of life-expectancy and probability of remarriage which the legislature has permitted to be shown by tables.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.