11. CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE OF MINER-EFFECT ON RECOVERY.

A mine operator can not escape liability for the injuries sustained by the miner arising out of and in the course of his employment, if the liability is shown, although the injuries were proximately caused by the contributory negligence of the miner himself, but any such contributory negligence may be considered in reducing the amount of damages.

Crooks v. Tazewell, 263 Ill. 343, p. 349.

Where in an action against a coal-mine operator for damages for injuries to a miner the proof shows that the operator had elected not to come under the “Illinois workmen's compensation act" of 1911, he can not escape liability for injuries sustained by a miner on the ground that the miner assumed the risk, or because the injury or death of the miner was proximately caused by his own contributory negligence.

Bell v. Toluca Coal Co., 272 Ill. 576, p. 585.

12. PROCEDURE UNDER ACT-ARBITRATION.

The workmen's compensation act of Illinois (Laws 1913, p. 347) provides (sec. 16) that the industrial board may make rules and orders for carrying out the duties imposed upon it, and that the process and procedure shall be as simple and summary as reasonably may be. It provides also (sec. 19) for the appointment of a committee of arbitration, where the employer and employee can agree. There is no time fixed within which the committee shall make its investigation and report, and the statute in no way intimates that the committee of arbitration can be relieved from making a report because the members do not agree, but it positively provides that it shall report. When a committee was duly appointed and reported that it could not agree, it was the duty of the board to refer the matter back and require a final report from the committee.

Kerens-Donnewald Coal Co. v. Industrial Board, etc., 277 Ill. 35, p. 37.

13. NOTICE OF INJURY-SUFFICIENCY.

Under the Illinois workmen's compensation act, a verbal notice of the injury to the employer is sufficient.

Smith, Sohr Coal Mining Co. v. Industrial Board, etc., 279 Ill. 88, p. 92.

Section 24 of the Illinois workmen's compensation act requires that notice of an accident be given the employer as soon as practical, but not later than thirty days after the accident, and the notice shall apprize the employer fully of the circumstances and injury. The purpose of this was to prevent employers from being held liable for fraudulent injuries without an opportunity of investigating before such a lapse of time that the fraud could not be discovered. Casparis Stone Co. v. Industrial Board, etc., 278 Ill. 77, p. 82.

14. DISABILITY-PERMANENT AND PARTIAL-INCREASED REVIEW,

A finding of the industrial board under the Illinois workmen's compensation act of 1913, that the injured workman is "now totally disabled," is not a finding and does not have the effect of a finding that the injured workman is permanently disabled. A man might now be totally disabled and yet not permanently disabled.

Illinois Midland Coal Co. v. Industrial Board, etc., 277 Ill. 333, p. 336.

It was not the intention of the Illinois workmen's compensation act to defeat a recovery because of any inaccuracy or technical defect in the form

of the notice where a disability for which the employee has received compensation has recurred or increased. The employee may without previous notice, but within eighteen months from the time of the agreement or award, petition for a review under the original section 19h (sec. 144). On such review the petitioner must produce in evidence the record of the former hearing, as this is essential to the review, and it is error to receive evidence as if the hearing were an original one. On such review or rehearing, the injured employee can only be permitted to show the changes in his condition since the former hearing.

Casparis Stone Co. v. Industrial Board, etc., 278 Ill. 77, p. 83.

By the failure to file a statement of the facts as shown by the additional testimony on the review of a claim, or a stenographic report of the same, a material step in the proceedings to review the decision of the Illinois Industrial board was admitted, but under such circumstances it must be presumed that the additional evidence heard was sufficient to sustain the board's findings in the absence of such additional testimony from the record. So in the absence of a report of such additional testimony the finding of the board that sufficient notice had been given is conclusive and it must be assumed that the additional evidence offered supported the finding of the board on the question of temporary and total disability.

Smith, Sohr Coal Mining Co. v. Industrial Board, etc., 279 Ill. 88, p. 92. Section 8 of the Illinois workmen's compensation act provides, among other things, that where if an injury has been sustained the employee as a result thereof becomes partly incapacitated from pursuing his usual employment he shall be entitled to compensation at the specified rate. The previous physical condition of the employee is unimportant so long as the injury sustained is the proximate cause of the incapacity for which compensation is sought. The protection afforded is not confined to healthy employees. It is the injury arising out of the employment and not out of the disease of the employee for which compensation is made. It is the hazards of the employment acting upon the particular employee, not his condition of health, and not what the hazards would be in acting upon a healthy employee. An employee may be suffering from some ailment and the exertion of the employment or the injury may develop his condition in such a manner that it becomes a personal injury and he is entitled to recover for all the consequences attributable to the injury. The augmenting or aggravating of a preexisting ailment may therefore be a personal injury within the workmen's compensation act.

Big Muddy Coal & Iron Co. v. Industrial Board, etc., 279 Ill. 235, p. 238.

15. INDUSTRIAL BOARD-JURISDICTION-CONCLUSIVENESS OF FINDING-APPEAL,

Under section 19 of the workmen's compensation act of 1913, when the industrial board acts within its power, its findings upon the facts are conclusive upon the courts.

Illinois Midland Coal Co. v. Industrial Board, etc., 277 Ill. 333, p. 336.

On appeal from a decision of the industrial board provided for by the workmen's compensation act of Illinois (Laws 1913, p. 347) the court, in reviewing the proceedings of the board, can only review questions of law and can only determine from the facts recited in the decision of the industrial board whether that body acted within its powers in making the award. Kerens-Donnewald Coal Co. v. Industrial Board, etc., 277 Ill. 35, p. 38. See McMurray v. Peabody Coal Co.,

Ill.

118 N. E., 29.

The jurisdiction of the industrial board to review the proceedings of the committee of arbitration does not depend on the filing of a stenographic report within the time specified by the statute. It is sufficient if at any time before the hearing a properly authenticated stenographic report is filed with the industrial board. The date fixed by the statute as to the filing of the stenographic report is directory and not mandatory, and is not jurisdictional. Illinois Midland Coal Co. v. Industrial Board, 277 Ill. 333, p. 335.

16. APPLICATION OF STATUTE.

The statute does not apply to a driver employed by a retail coal dealer injured while driving a team hauling material other than coal. The injured employee was not engaged in any extrahazardous occupation within the meaning of the statute.

SESSION LAWS 1917.

DEPARTMENT OF MINES AND MINERALS.

CREATION OF DEPARTMENT OF MINES AND MINERALS.

LAWS 1917, P. 4.

MARCH 7, 1917.

AN ACT In relation to the civil administration of the State government, and to repeal certain acts therein named.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.:

This Act shall be known as "The Civil Administrative Code of Illinois."

SEC. 2. The word "department," as used in this Act, shall, unless the context otherwise clearly indicates, means the several departments of the State government as designated in section 3 of this Act, and none other.

SEC. 3. Departments of the State government are created as follows:
The Department of Mines and Minerals;

SEC. 4. Each department shall have an officer at its head who shall be known as a director, and who shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, execute the powers and discharge the duties vested by law in his respective department. The following officers are hereby created: *

*

Director of Mines and Minerals, for the Department of Mines and Minerals. *

Sec. 5. In addition to the directors of departments, the following executive and administrative officers, boards and commissions, which said officers, boards and commissions in the respective departments, shall hold offices hereby created and designated as follows:

*

In the Department of Mines and Minerals:

Assistant Director of Mines and Minerals;

The Mining Board, which shall consist of four officers designated as Mine Officers and the Director of the Department of Mines and Minerals;

The Miners' Examining Board, which shall consist of four officers, designated Miners' Examining Officers.

The Director of Mines and Minerals shall be a person thoroughly conversant with the theory and practice of coal mining, but who is not identified with either coal operators or coal miners. Of the four mine officers, two shall be coal operators and two shall be practical coal miners.

Each of the three miners' examining officers shall have had at least five years' practical and continuous experience as a coal miner and have been actually engaged as a coal miner in this State continuously for twelve months next preceding his appointment, and no one of whom shail hold any lucrative public office, Federal, State, or municipal.

SEC. 8. Each advisory and nonexecutive board, except as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, with respect to its field of work, or that of the department with which it is associated, have the following powers and duties;

1. To consider and study the entire field; to advise the executive officers of the department upon their request; to recommend, on its own initiative, policies 54915°-19-Bull. 169-29

437

and practices, which recommendations the executive officers of the department shall duly consider, and to give advice or make recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly when so requested, or on its own initiative;

2. To investigate the conduct of the work of the department with which it may be associated, and for this purpose to have access, at any time, to all books, papers, documents, and records pertaining or belonging thereto, and to require written or oral information from any officer or employee thereof;

3. To adopt rules, not inconsistent with law, for its internal control and management, a copy of which rules shall be filed with the director of the department with which such board is associated;

4. To hold meetings at such times and places as may be prescribed by the rules, not less frequently, however, than quarterly;

5. To act by a subcommittee, or by a majority of the board, if the rules so prescribe;

6. To keep minutes of the transactions of each session, regular or special, which shall be public records and filed with the director of the department;

7. To give notice to the governor and to the director of the department with which it is associated of the time and place of every meeting, regular or special, and to permit the governor and the director of the department to be present and to be heard upon any matter coming before such board.

SEC. 9. The executive and administrative officers whose offices are created by this Act shall receive annual salaries, payable in equal monthly installments, as follows:

In the Department of Mines and Minerals:

The Director of Mines and Minerals shall receive five thousand dollars.

The Assistant Director of Mines and Minerals shall receive three thousand dollars.

Each mine officer shall receive five hundred dollars.

Each miners' examining officer shall receive one thousand eight hundred dollars.

SEC. 35. The following offices, boards, commissions, arms, and agencies of the State government heretofore created by law, are hereby abolished, viz: * State mining board, chief clerk of the State mining board, State mine inspectors, miners' examining commissioners, constituting the miners' examining board, mine fire fighting and rescue station commission, superintendents of mine fire fighting and rescue stations, assistant superintendents of mine fire fighting and rescue stations.

DEPARTMENT OF MINES AND MINERALS-POWERS.

SEC. 45. The Department of Mines and Minerals shall have power:

1. To exercise the rights, powers and duties vested by law in the State mining board, its officers and employees;

2. To exercise the rights, powers, and duties vested by law in the State mine inspectors;

3. To exercise the rights, powers, and duties vested by law in the miners' examining commission, its officers and employees;

4. To exercise the rights, powers, and duties vested by law in the mine firefighting and rescue station commission, superintendents and assistant superintendents, other officers and employees of the several mine-rescue stations;

5. To acquire and diffuse information concerning the nature, causes, and prevention of mine accidents;