How have courts dealt with the issue of wrongful death claims in workers' compensation cases?

In Roberts v. State of California, 39 Cal.App.3d 844, 114 Cal.Rptr. 518, the court was faced with a contention that was virtually identical to the contention of widow here. There the employee's widow failed to file timely a claim for wrongful death and her petition to file a late claim on her own behalf was denied. She argued that the employer's filing of a claim for reimbursement of workers' compensation benefits provided the affected governmental entity with notice sufficient to satisfy the purposes of the claims statute, and that therefore the trial court erred in failing to grant her petition for leave to file a late claim for wrongful death. The court rejected the argument, stating: