Any employer who has neglected to report an accident to the proper authority shall be required to make good his omission. Where the report is delayed, the period of the statutory limitation does not expire until three months after the receipt of the report.

ART. 9. When the officials of the Federal Government or of the cantonal governments charged with the execution of this law learn that an injured employee or laborer, or his legal representatives, have a claim for damages under the present law or that of June 25, 1881, which has not been equitably adjusted without the intervention of the courts, they shall report the fact to the cantonal government. The Government shall make an investigation of the facts and report the results to the persons interested.

The validity of contracts whereby an injured person or his legal representatives agree to accept a manifestly insufficient compensation for losses may be contested. ART. 10. The provisions of article fourteen of the law of June 25, 1881, are applicable in an analogous manner to any cases arising under the present law where there may be doubt whether the establishment is within the scope of the present act.

ART. 11. The governments of the Cantons are commissioned to provide for the execution of the present law.

The federal council shall exercise a supervision over the execution of the law. ART. 12. The federal council is commissioned, in accordance with the federal law of July 17, 1874, relative to the passage of federal laws and resolutions, to publish the present law and determine the date on which it shall go into effect. (Órdered to go into effect November 1, 1887).

FEDERAL LAW OF MARCH 28, 1905, RELATING TO THE CIVIL LIABILITY OF RAILWAYS, STEAMBOATS, AND THE POSTAL SERVICE.(a) ARTICLE 1. Every railway shall be liable for damage resulting from the loss of life or injuries sustained by a person in the course of the construction or operation of its lines, or while engaged in accessory work involving railroad risks, unless it is able to prove that the accident was due to superior force [act of God], to the fault of a third party, or to that of the injured person himself.

No one shall be regarded as a third party within the meaning of the present article who is an officer or employee of the road, engaged either in transportation or in the construction of its lines.

ART. 2. In case of death, damages paid shall cover expenses, including those of burial. If death does not occur immediately, they shall include the expense of treatment and compensation for loss from disability. When, through the death of the injured person, other persons are deprived of their means of support they shall be likewise compensated for such loss.

ART. 3. Personal injuries shall entitle the injured person to reimbursement for expenses and to damages for total or partial disability. If the injured person has been mutilated or disfigured in such a way as to interfere with his employment, the judge may also allow him a compensation for such injury.

ART. 4. When the injured person realized exceptionally high returns from his labor the judge, taking all the circumstances into consideration, may reduce the compensation in such manner as seems just.

ART. 5. If the accident is in part due to the fault of the injured person, the judge, taking all the circumstances into consideration, may reduce the compensation proportionately.

ART. 6. There shall be no ground for compensation if the connection with the railway of the person killed or injured was the result of his own criminal act or act of bad faith.

ART. 7. If the connection with the railway of the person killed or injured arose from his having knowingly violated any police regulation; the judge may reduce the compensation or even absolve the road from all liability.

ART. 8. In case of negligence of the railway or of the persons named in paragraph 2 of article 1, the judge, considering the particular circumstances, especially when fraud or gross negligence has been shown, may allow to the injured party, or in case of death, to his family, an equitable sum, independent of reparation for actual damages.

ART. 9. The compensation may be allowed in a capital sum, or as a pension, or in a capital sum combined with a pension. The judge may determine freely the method of payment without being bound by the opinions of the parties. He shall take, whenever necessary, proper measures to insure the payment of the pension.

• Recueil Officiel des Lois et Ordonnances XXI, p. 351.

ART. 10. When the consequences of a personal injury can not be exactly estimated at the time when judgment is rendered, the judge may reserve the right subsequently to revise the same in case death should ensue or the condition of the injured person should become materially worse.

Such reservation may likewise be made by the judge in favor of the railway in case the consequences of the accident should prove less serious than had been anticipated. ART. 11. The railway is further liable for articles lost, destroyed, or damaged while in the personal custody of the injured person if the damage, destruction, or loss occurs in connection with the accident.

Otherwise, it shall be liable in damages for such articles not consigned as merchandise or baggage only when there has been negligence on its part.

ART. 12. In the cases mentioned in article 11 the compensation shall be fixed according to the actual value of the articles lost, destroyed, or damaged. A larger compensation may be allowed only under the circumstances described in article 8. ART. 13. When the person killed or injured was insured against accident and the defendant concern has contributed to the payment of the premiums or assessments, the insurance paid to the injured person or to his legal representatives may be deducted from the damages allowed, proportionately to the contribution of the concern. The concern may make such deduction with regard to its employees and workmen only when the insurance to which it contributes covers all accidents occurring in the course of its construction or operation.

ART. 14. Actions for damages under this act shall be barred by limitation after the expiration of two years from the day of the accident. The same limitation shall apply to claims for an increase or a reduction of the compensation based upon article 10, the time being computed from the date when judgment was rendered.

The federal law of contracts governs the suspension and interruption of the period of limitation.

ART. 15. When the person injured by an accident, whether resulting in death or in personal injury only, is an employee or a workman of the concern, the claims arising from such accident are not assignable.

ART. 16. Publications, rules, or special agreements, whereby civil liability is waived or limited in advance are void.

ART. 17. Any agreement by virtue of which an evidently insufficient compensation has been stipulated or paid, is voidable.

ART. 18. The concern has a right of action against persons by whose fault the accident was caused.

ART. 19. Actions for damages may be brought where the principal office of the concern is located, or before the court designated in the charter or in the law of the Canton in which the accident occurred. (Article 8 of the federal act of December 23, 1872, relating to the construction and operation of railways within the territory of the Swiss Confederation, and article 12 of the federal act of October 15, 1897, relating to the acquisition and operation of railways by the Confederation.)

ART. 20. The judge shall render judgment freely, without being bound in the matter of evidence by the rules of procedure.

ART. 21. The charter may impose upon the concern a more extensive liability than that arising under the present act.

ART. 22. The Cantons will take the necessary measures to provide:

(1) That civil liability suits shall be decided as speedily as possible.

(2) That poor persons may, upon application, be given the benefit of legal assistance and exempted from the giving of security, fees of experts, court fees and stamp duties, unless, upon preliminary examination, their claims appear to be without merit.

ART. 23. Accidents which have occurred previous to the time when this act takes effect shall continue to be governed by the federal acts of July 1, 1875, and April 26, 1887, in so far as the charter of the concern does not provide for a more extended liability.

ART. 24. The present act is applicable:

(1) To the operation of steamboats.

(2) To the operations of the postal service, to the extent of the liability of the postal administration under the provisions of the act of April 5, 1894, relating to the government postal monopoly.

ART. 25. Article 48, number 2, of the federal act of March 22, 1893, relating to the organization of the federal courts, and the last paragraph of article 12 of the federal act of October 15, 1897, relating to the acquisition and operation of railways by the Confederation, shall not be applicable to actions brought under the present act against the Confederation in its capacity as operator of railways, steamboats, and the postal service.

Such actions must be brought against the proper authorities of the federal railway administration, or, when they concern the civil liability of the post-office department, against the Confederation itself.

ART. 26. All acts, ordinances, and regulations inconsistent with the present act are hereby repealed, in particular:

(1) The federal act of July 1, 1875, relating to the liability of railways and steamboats in case of accidents resulting in death or personal injuries;

(2) The last paragraph of article 2, and article 4 of the federal act of April 26, 1887, relating to the extension of civil liability; the first of these passages, to the effect that the liability of an employer in case of accident occurring during the construction of a railway, is to be determined in conformity with article 1 (d); the second in so far as it concerns accessory work coming under the provisions of the present act.

ART. 27. The Federal Council is directed, in conformity with the provisions of the act of June 17, 1874, relating to the passage of federal laws and orders, to publish the present act and to determine the date when it shall go into effect. (a)

By order of July 8, 1905, the Federal Council fixed August 1, 1905, as the date when the law should go into effect.

TRANSVAAL.

WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT, 1907.

SECTION 1. In this act unless inconsistent with the context:

"Dependents" shall mean such members of the workman's family specified in the schedule to this act as are wholly or in part dependent upon the workman at the time of the injury which caused his death;

"District" shall mean a magisterial district of this Colony or any detached subdistrict under an assistant resident magistrate and shall further include the district in which the civil magistrates at Johannesburg exercise jurisdiction under section fifty-four of the Magistrate's Court Proclamation 1902;

"Employer" shall mean any person or any body of persons corporate or unincorporate hiring or contracting before or after the date of the taking effect of this act with any workman (as in this section defined) for the performance of any work (as in this section defined) and the term "employer" shall include his representative (as in this section defined);

"Magistrate" shall mean the resident magistrate of any district and in the case of a detached subdistrict the assistant resident magistrate thereof: Provided, That within the district described in section fifty-four of the Magistrate's Court Proclamation 1902 the term "magistrate" shall mean one of the civil magistrates therein mentioned and not the chief magistrate of the Witwatersrand district;

"Medical practitioner" shall mean any person duly registered as such under any law of this Colony relating to the registration of medical practitioners;

"Principal" shall mean any person whose trade, business or public function it is or who has entered into a contract wholly or in part to do, perform, or undertake work (as in this section defined), and who employs a contractor to do it for him, wholly or in part, and whether such contractor employs a subcontractor or not, and the term "principal" shall include his representative (as in this section defined);

"Representative" shall mean in the case of a deceased principal, employer, or workman his executor, or, failing the appointment of an executor, any curator bonis lawfully appointed for the taking charge of the deceased's estate; and in the case of insolvency of a principal or employer shall mean the trustee of his insolvent estate, and if the principal or employer is a limited liability company placed in liquidation shall mean the liquidator of such company; and in the case of a minor shall mean the guardian of such minor, and in the case of a lunatic shall mean any person lawfully ar pointed curator bonis of such lunatic;

"Section" shall mean a section of this act;

"Serious and willful misconduct" shall include

(a) Drunkenness;

(b) A willful contravention of any law or statutory regulation made for the purpose of insuring the safety of or preventing accidents to workmen;

(c) Any other act or omission which a court of law having regard to all the circumstances of an accident causing injury may declare to be serious and willful misconduct;

"Wages" shall mean the average weekly earnings of the workman at the time of the injury;

If the wages are paid at the time of the injury at a rate per hour, the average weekly earnings shall be taken as forty-eight times the rate per hour;

If the wages are so paid at a rate per day, the average weekly earnings shall be taken as six times the rate per day;

If the wages are so paid at a rate per week, the average weekly earnings shall be taken as that rate;

If the wages are so paid at a rate per month, the average weekly earnings shall be taken as one-fifty-second of twelve times the rate per month;

If the wages are so paid at a rate calculated on work done, the average weekly earnings shall be computed in such manner as is best calculated to give the rate per week at which the workman was being remunerated: Provided, That where by reason of the shortness of time during which the workman has been at work for the employer it is impracticable at the date of the injury to compute the rate of remuneration regard may be had to the average weekly amount which during the six months immediately

previous to the injury was being earned by a person employed at similar work on the same terms of remuneration;

And the average weekly earnings shall for the purpose of calculating wages mean the net sums paid to a workman by an employer after deduction of the value of any labor or material supplied by the employer and of overtime payments and of any sums usually paid by the employer to the workman to cover any special expenses entailed on him by the nature of his work;

"Work" shall mean employment at or about any trade, industry, business, or public undertaking in this Colony, including employment in agriculture, but shall not include domestic service; and "employment in agriculture" shall mean the employment of a workman in agriculture by an employer who habitually and regularly has in his employ one or more workmen not being members of his family engaged in agriculture; and "agriculture" shall mean any work connected with or incidental to the tilling of the soil, stock rearing, or farming operations;

"Workman" shall mean any white person engaged by an employer to perform work under agreement of service or of apprenticeship or otherwise whether such agreement be expressed or implied, be oral or in writing, and whether payment be made by time or calculated on work done: Provided, That the term "workman" shall not include(a) A person whose wages in respect of his work exceed five hundred pounds [$2,433.25] a year; or

(b) A person whose work is of a casual nature and who is employed to do work for an employer other than in such employer's trade, business, or industry; or

(c) An outworker; that is to say, a person to whom articles or materials are given out by an employer to be made up, cleaned, washed, altered, ornamented, finished, or repaired or adapted for sale on premises not under the control and management of the employer; or

(d) A person who contracts or subcontracts for the carrying out of work and himself engages other persons (white or colored) independently of his employer to perform such work.

Any reference to a workman who has been injured shall, where the workman is dead or is a minor or has become a lunatic, include a reference to his representative or to his dependents as the context may require.

SEC. 2. No compensation shall be payable under this act in respect of an injury to a workman which did not arise out of and in the course of his work or in respect of an injury which was due to the workman's own serious and willful misconduct.

Provisional order to recover periodical payments of compensation.

SECTION 3. Save as in section two is provided if personal injury is caused by any accident to a workman necessitating his absence from work for a longer period than one week, the employer and every principal shall be liable to pay to such workman compensation as in section seven is provided.

SEC. 4. (1) Any such workman who is desirous of obtaining compensation under this act shall give or cause to be given notice of such injury at his option either to his employer or to any principal. Such notice shall be given within fourteen days of the injury, and if not given within such period no compensation shall be payable under this act to a workman unless he shall have obtained from the magistrate of the district in which he received the injury a certificate that the time for giving notice should, having regard to all the circumstances, have been extended. If he shall have obtained such certificate and give notice to the employer or such principal within a period of one week after the receipt of such certificate, the notice of injury shall be deemed to have been given within the time required by this subsection.

(2) The employer or the principal to whom notice has been given may, on receiving such notice, require the workman to submit himself for examination by a medical practitioner named by the employer or such principal.

(3) If the employer or such principal shall not, within one week after transmission to him of such notice, agree with the workman for payment of compensation for the injury, the workman may transmit to the clerk of the court of resident magistrate for the district in which such injury was received notice in writing of such injury and of the name of the employer or such principal, and with such notice shall transmit a certificate by a medical practitioner to the effect that, in his opinion, the injury necessitates or has necessitated the workman's absence from work for a longer period than one week. Such clerk shall cause such information and certificate to be at once laid before the magistrate of the said district.

SEC. 5. Such magistrate shall thereupon hold an inquiry on oath into the circumstances of the accident and shall record the evidence taken by him. Notice of the date and place at which such inquiry will be held shall be given by the magistrate