WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT.

COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTAL INJURIES.

LAWS 1911, P. 315.

JUNE 10, 1911. AN ACT to promote the general welfare of the People of this State, by providing compensation for accidental injuries or death suffered in the course of employment. (Repealed. See pages 418, 458.)

SECTION 1. Be it enacted, etc.: That any employer covered by the provisions of this Act in this State may elect to provide and pay compensation for injuries sustained by any employe arising out of and in the course of the employment according to the provisions of this Act, and thereby relieve himself from any liability for the recovery of damages, except as herein provided. If, however, any such employer shall elect not to provide and pay the compensation to any employe who has elected to accept the provisions of this Act, according to the provisions of this Act he shall not escape liability for injuries sustained by such employe arising out of and in the course of his employment, because 1. The employe assumed the risks of the employer's business.

2. The injury or death was caused in whole or in part by the negligence of a fellow servant.

3. The injury or death was proximately caused by the contributory negligence of the employe, but such contributory negligence shall be considered by the jury in reducing the amount of damages.

a. Every such employer is presumed to have elected to provide and pay the compensation according to the provisions of this Act unless and until notice in writing of his election to the contrary is filed with the State Bureau of Labor Statistics.

b. Every employer within the provisions of this Act failing to file such notice shall be bound hereby as to all his employes who shall elect to come within the provisions of this Act until January 1st of the next succeeding year and for terms of each year thereafter: Provided, any such employer may elect to discontinue the payments of compensation herein provided only at the expiration of any such calendar year, by filing notice of his intention to discontinue such payments, with the State Bureau of Labor Statistics, at least sixty days prior to the expiration of any such calendar year, and by posting such notice in the plant, shop, office or place of work, or by personal service, in written or printed form, upon such employe, at least sixty days prior to the expiration of any such calendar year.

c. In the event any employer elects to provide and pay compensation provided in this Act, then every employe of such employer, as a part of his contract of hiring or who may be employed at the time of the taking effect of this Act and the acceptance of its provisions by the employer, shall be deemend to have accepted all the provisions of this Act and shall be bound thereby unless within thirty days after such hiring and after the taking effect of this Act, he shall file a notice to the contrary wit the secretary of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose duty it shall be to immediately notify the employer, and if so notified, the employer shall not be deprived of any of his common law or statutory defenses, and until such notice to the contrary is given to the em

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ployer, the measure of liability of the employer for any injury shall be determined according to the compensation provisions of this Act; Provided, however, that before any such employe shall be bound by the provisions of this Act, his employer shall either furnish to such employe personally at the time of his hiring, or post in a conspicuous place at the plant or in the room or place where such employe is to be employed, a legible statement of the compensation provisions of this Act.

SEC. 2. The provisions of this Act shall apply to every employer in the State engaged in the building, maintaining or demolishing of any structure; in any construction or electrical work; in the business of carriage by land or water and loading and unloading in connection therewith (except as to carriers who shall be construed to be excluded herefrom by the laws of the United States relating to liability to their employes for personal injuries while engaged in interstate commerce where such laws are held to be exclusive of all State regu-. lations providing compensation for accidental injuries or death suffered in the course of employment); in operating general or terminal store-houses; in mining, surface mining, or quarrying; in any enterprise, or branch thereof, in which explosive materials are manufactured, handled or used in dangerous quantities; in any enterprise wherein molten metal or injurious gases or vapors or inflammable fluids are manufactured, used, generated, stored or conveyed in dangerous quantities; and in any enterprise in which statutory regulations are now or shall hereafter be imposed for the guarding, using or the placing of machinery or appliances. or for the protection and safe-guarding of the employes therein, each of which employments is hereby determined to be especially dangerous, in which from the nature, conditions and means of prosecution of the work therein, extraordinary risks to life and limb of the employe engaged therein are inherent, necessary or substantially unavoidable, and as to each of which employments it is deemed necessary to establish a new system of compensation for accidents to the employees therein. (Repealed. Page 458.) SEC. 3. No common law or statutory right to recover damages for injury or death sustained by any employe while engaged in the line of his duty as such employe other than the compensation herein provided shall be available to any employe who has accepted the provisions of this Act or to any one wholly or partially dependent upon him or legally responsible for his estate: Provided, that when the injury to the employe was caused by the intentional omission of the employer, to comply with statutory safety regulations, nothing in this Act shall affect the civil liability of the employer. If the employer is a partnership, such omission must be that of one of the partners thereof, and if a corporation, that of any elective officer thereof.

SEC. 4. The amount of compensation which the employer who accepts the provisions of this Act shall pay for injury to the employe which results in death, shall be:

a. If the employe leaves any widow, child or children, or parents or other lineal heirs to whose support he had contributed within five years previous to the time of his death, a sum equal to four times the average annual earnings of the employe, but not less in any event than one thousand five hundred dollars, and not more in any event than three thousand five hundred dollars. Any weekly payments, other than necessary medical or surgical fees, shall be deducted in ascertaining such amount payable on death.

b. If the employe leaves collateral heirs dependent upon his earnings, such a percentage of the sum provided in section "a" as the contributions which de ceased made to the support of these dependents, bore to his earnings.

c. If the employe leaves no widow or child or children, parents or lineral or collateral heirs dependent upon his earnings, a sum not to exceed one hundred and fifty dollars for burial expenses.

d. All compensation provided for in this section to be paid in case injury results in death, shall be paid in installments equal to one-half the average earnings, at the same intervals at which the wages or earnings of the employe were paid while he was living; or if this shall not be feasable, then the installments shall be paid weekly.

e. The compensation to be paid for injuries which result in death, as provided for in this section, shall be paid to the personal representative of the deceased employe and shall be distributed by such personal representative to the beneficiaries entitled thereto, in accordance with the laws of this State relating to the descent and distribution of personal property.

SEC. 5. The amount of compensation which the employer who accepts the provisions of this Act shall provide and pay for injury to the employe resulting in disability shall be:

a. Necessary first aid, medical, surgical and hospital services, also medicine and hospital services for a period not longer than eight weeks, not to exceed, however, the amount of $200.00, also necessary services of a physician or surgeon during such period of disability, unless such employe elects to secure his own physician or surgeon.

b. If the period of disability lasts for more than six working days, and such fact is determined by the physician or physicians, as provided in section 9, compensation equal to one-half of the earnings, but not less than $5.00 nor more than $12.00 per week, beginning on the eighth day of disability and as long as the disability lasts, or until the amount of compensation paid equals the amount payable as a death benefit.

c. If any employe, by reason of any accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, receive any serious and permanent disfigurement to the hands or face, but which injury does not actually incapacitate the employe from pursuing his usual or customary employment so that it is possible to measure compensation in accordance with the scale of compensation and the methods of computing the same herein provided, such employe shall have the right to resort to the arbitration provisions of this Act for the purpose of determining a reasonable amount of compensation to be paid to such employe, but not to exceed one-quarter (1) the amount of his compensation in case of death.

d. If after the injury has been received it shall appear upon medical examination as provided for in section 9, that the employe has been partially, though permanently incapacitated from pursuing his usual and customary line of employment, he shall receive compensation equal to one-half of the difference between the average amount which he earned before the accident, and the average amount which he is earning, or is able to earn in some suitable employment or business after the accident, if such employment is secured.

e. In the case of complete disability which renders the employe wholly and permanently incapable of work, compensation for the first eight years after the day the injury was received, equal to 50 per cent of his earnings, but not less than $5.00 nor more than $12.00 per week. If complete disability continues after the payment of a sum equal to the amount of the death benefit or after the expiration of the eight years, then a compensation during life, equal to 8 per cent of the death benefit which would have been payable had the accident resulted in death. Such compensation shall not be less than $10.00 per month and shall be payable monthly.

(1) In case death occurs before the total of the payments made equals the amount payable as a death benefit, as provided in section 4, article a, then in case the employe leaves any widow, child or children, or parents, or other lineal heirs, they shall be paid the difference between the compensation for death and the sum of such payment, but in no case shall this sum be less than $500.00.

(2) In cases of complete disability, after compensation has been paid at the specified rate for a term of at least six months, the employe shall have the privilege of filing a petition in accordance with article d of section 4 of this Act, asking for a lump sum payment of the difference between the sums of the payments received and the compensation to which he was entitled when such permanent disability has been definitely determined. For the purpose of this section, blindness or total irrecoverable loss of sight, the loss of both feet at or above the ankle, the loss of both hands at or above the wrist, the loss of one hand and one foot, an injury to the spine resulting in permanent paralysis of the legs or arms, and a fracture of the skull resulting in incurable imbecility or insanity, shall be considered complete and permanent disability: Provided, these specific cases of complete and permanent disability shall not, however, be construed as excluding other cases.

(3) Ir fixing the amount of the disability payments, regard shall be had to any payments, allowance or benefit which the employe may have received from the employer during the period of his incapacity, except the expenses of necessary medical or surgical treatment. In no event, except in cases of complete disability as defined above, shall any weekly payment payable under the compensation plan in this section provided exceed $12.00 per week, or extend over a period of more than eight years from the date of the accident. In case an injured employe shall be incompetent at the time when any right or privilege accrues to him under the provisions of this Act, a conservator or guardian of the incompetent, appointed pursuant to law, may on behalf of such incompetent, claim and exercise any such right or privilege with the same force and effect as if the employe himself had been competent and had claimed or exercised said right or privilege; and no limitations of time by this Act provided, shall run so long as said incompetent employe had no conservator or guardian. SEC. 5. Any person entitled to compensation under this Act, or any employer who shall be bound to pay compensation under this Act, who shall desire to have such compensation, or any part thereof, paid in a lump sum, may petition any court of competent jurisdiction of the county in which the employe resided or worked at the time of disability or death, asking that such compensation be so paid, and if upon proper notice to the interested parties, and a proper showing made before such court, it appears to the best interest of the parties that such compensation be so paid, the court shall order payment of a lump sum, and where necessary, upon proper application being made, a guardian, conservator or administrator, as the case may be, shall be appointed for any person under disability who may be entitled to any such compensation, and an employer bound by the terms of this Act, and liable to pay such compensation, may petition for such appointment where no such legal representatives have been appointed or acting for such party or parties so under disability.

SEC. 6. The basis for computing the compensation provided for in sections 4 and 5 of the Act shall be as follows:

a. The compensation shall be computed on the basis of the annual earnings which the injured person received as salary, wages or earnings in the employ. ment of the same employer during the year next preceding the injury.

b. Employment by the same employer shall be taken to mean employment by the same employer in the grade in which the employe was employed at the time of the accident, uninterrupted by absence from work due to illness or any other unavoidable cause.

c. The annual earnings if not otherwise determinable shall be regarded as 300 times the average daily earnings in such computation.

d. If the injured person has not been engaged in the employment for a full year immediately preceding the accident the compensation shall be computed according to the annual earnings which persons of the same class in the same or in neighboring employments of the same kind have earned during such period. And if this basis of computation is impossible, or should appear to be unreasonable, three hundred times the amount which the injured person earned on an average on those days when he was working during the year next preceding the accident, shall be used as a basis for the computation.

e. In the case of injured employes who earn either no wage or less than three hundred times the usual daily wage or earnings of the adult day laborers in the same line of industry of that locality, the yearly wage shall be reckoned as three hundred times the average daily local wage.

f. As to employes in employments in which it is the custom to operate for a part of the whole number of working days in each year, such number shall be used instead of three hundred as a basis for computing the annual earnings, provided the minimum number of days which shall be used for the basis of the year's work shall be not less than two hundred.

g. Earnings, for the purpose of this section, shall be based on the earnings for the number of hours commonly regarded as a day's work for that employment, and shall exclude overtime earnings. The earnings shall not include any sum which the employer has been accustomed to pay the employe to cover any special expense entailed on him by the nature of his employment.

h. In computing the compensation to be paid to any employe who before the accident for which he claims compensation, was disabled and drawing compensation under the terms of this Act, the compensation for each subsequent injury shall be apportioned according to the proportion of incapacity and disability caused by the respective injuries which he may have suffered.

SEC. 7. The compensation herein provided shall be the measure of the responsibility which the employer has assumed for injuries or death that may occur to employes in his employment subject to the provisions of this Act, and it shall not be in any way reduced by contributions from employees.

SEC. 8. If it is proved that the injury to the employe resulted from his deliberate intention to cause such injury, no compensation with respect to that injury shall be allowed.

SEC. 9. Any employe entitled to receive disability payments shall be required if requested by the employer to submit himself for examination at the expense of the employer to a duly qualified medical practitioner or surgeon selected by the employer, at a time and place reasonably convenient for the employe, as soon as practicable after the injury, and also one week after the first examination, and thereafter at intervals not oftener than once every four weeks, which examinations shall be for the purpose of determining the nature, extent and probable duration of the injury received by the employe, and for the purpose of adjusting the compensation which may be due the employe from time to time for disability according to the provisions of sections 4 and 5 of this Act: Provided, however, that such examination shall be made in the presence of a duly qualified medical practitioner or surgeon provided