WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION INSURANCE CHAPTER I THE HISTORY OF THE LIABILITY OF THE EMPLOYER ACCIDENT insurance generally, in this country, dates from about the year 1848, and an excellent idea of the genesis of the movement may be gleaned from Mr. Alfred Foot's admirable work on Accident Insurance. The introduction of workmen's compensation business consequent upon the passing of the Employers' Liability Act, 1880, gave a great impetus to accident business, and there were at that time a number of well established companies in existence able at once to turn their attention to the new development. Amongst these may be mentioned the Railway Passenger's Assurance Company, Norwich and London Accident Insurance Association, and the London Guarantee and Accident Company. These are representative offices, though not by any means a complete list. The Employer's Liability Assurance Corporation was established in 1880, and as its name implies, for the express purpose of developing the new class of insurance. Its subsequent success is now a matter of common knowledge. Various new companies were formed between 1880 and 1906, some of which succeeded but many of which have long since ceased to exist. During the same period a few of the older Fire Companies commenced to transact accident business, but it was not until the passing of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906, that the great majority of the Fire Offices commenced to transact workmen's compensation business. This they were practically forced to do by the extension of the Act to private householders, amongst whom were the bulk of their best connections. At the present time every big composite office transacts this class of business as a matter of course. The branch of insurance denoted by the term Workmen's Compensation" or 'Employers' Liability " is entirely a modern development, having come into being in the year 1880. Those not familiar with the business may be puzzled by the use for insurance purposes of the two different terms mentioned, and it may be well to state at the outset that in meaning the two expressions are identical; one regards the subject from the point of view of the workman and the other from the point of view of the employer. The first of the series of Acts relating to this subject was the Employers' Liability Act, 1880, and this nomenclature without doubt gave rise to the term "Employer's Liability." The later Acts were called Workmen's Compensation Acts, and so we get the double expression. The legislature shows a curious lack of consistency in these matters. It might be presumed from the naming of the various Acts that Parliament considered the term "Workmen's Compensation" as the more appropriate, but yet in the Assurance Companies Act, 1909-the charter of the insurance profession-the business is all through referred to as Employers' Liability, and must be described as such in the books of an insurance company. However, the two terms exist together and the Chartered Insurance Institute use "Workmen's Compensation" in their syllabus. The distinction, such as it is, is of academic interest only, but the term "Workmen's Compensation" is perhaps the more accurate of the two, as denoting compensation or benefits paid to the workman under circumstances which very often would have given rise to no liability on the employer by the ordinary common law of the land. Before considering the various laws regulating the subject of workmen's compensation, it is necessary to trace-though only in outline the way in which the position of the workman has developed under the rules of common law until the commencement of the legislation relating to the matter. At common law a servant or workman had no claim against his employer merely because he met with an accident during his employment. In its strict and literal sense an "accident" is an entirely fortuitous event which could not in any way have been avoided. It is not caused either by negligence or by any wilful act, and this being so the law provides no remedy to the person |