the benefit of this article by any contract, agreement, rule, or regulation, and any such contract, agreement, rule, or regulation shall be pro tanto void. No agreement by such employee to pay any portion of the premium paid by such employer shall be valid, and any employer who deducts any portion of such premium from the wages or salary of any employee entitled to the benefits of this article shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not more than two hundred dollars for each offense. of SEC. 54. The powers and jurisdiction of the commission over Jurisdiction each case shall be continuing, and it may from time to time make continuing. such modifications or change with respect to former findings or orders with respect thereto as in its opinion may be justified. SEC. 55. If an employee shall be injured because of the absence of any safeguard or protection required by the commission, the safeguards. employer shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to a fine of not less than fifty dollars or more than five hundred dollars, to be paid into the State accident fund. Absence SEC. 56. Any employer, employee, beneficiary, or person feeling Appeals. aggrieved by any decision of the commission affecting his interests under this article may have the same reviewed by a proceeding in the nature of an appeal and initiated in the circuit court of the county or in the common-law courts of Baltimore City having jurisdiction over the place where the accident occurred or over the person appealing from such decision, and the court shall determine whether the commission has justly considered all the facts concerning injury, whether it has exceeded the powers granted it by the article, whether it has misconstrued the law and facts applicable in the case decided. If the court shall determine that the commission has acted within its powers and has correctly construed the law and facts, the decision of the commission shall be confirmed, otherwise it shall be reversed or modified. Upon the hearing of such an appeal the court shall, upon motion of either party filed with the clerk of the court according to the practice in civil cases, submit to a jury any question of fact involved in such case. The proceedings in every such an appeal shall be informal and summary, but full opportunity to be heard shall be had before judgment is pronounced. No such appeal shall be entertained unless notice of appeal shall have been served personally upon some member of the commission within thirty days following the rendition of the decision appealed from. An appeal shall not be a stay. If the decision of the commission shall be changed or modified, the practice prevailing in civil cases as to the payment of costs and the fees of medical and other witpesses shall apply. Appeal shall lie from the judgment of the circuit court of the county or the common-law courts of Baltimore City to the court of appeals as in other civil cases, and such appeals shall have precedence over all cases except criminal cases. The attorney general shall be the legal adviser of the commission and shall represent it in all proceedings whenever so requested by any of the commissioners in all court proceedings under or pursuant to this article. The decision of the commission shall be prima facie correct and the burden of proof shall be upon the party attacking the same. SEC. 57. If the commission or the court before which any proceedings for compensation or concerning an award of compensation have been brought, under this article, determines that such proceedings have not been so brought upon reasonable ground, it shall assess the whole cost of the proceeding upon the party who has so brought them. Claims for legal services in connection with any claims arising under this article and claims for services or treatment rendered or supplies furnished pursuant to section thirty-six of this article shall not be enforceable unless approved by the commission. If so approved, such claim or claims shall become a lien upon the compensation awarded, but shall be paid therefrom only in the manner fixed by the commission. Costs and fees. Liability or SEC. 58. Where the injury or death for which compensation is third parties. payable under this article was caused under circumstances creating a legal liability in some person, other than the employer, to pay damages in respect thereof, the employee, or in case of death, his personal representative or dependents as hereinbefore defined. may proceed either by law against that other person to recover damages or against the employer for compensation under this article, or in case of joint tort feasors against both; and if compensation is claimed and awarded or paid under this article any employer may enforce for the benefit of the insurance company or association carrying the risk or the State accident fund, or himself, as the case may be, the liability of such other person: Provided, however, If damages are recovered in excess of the compensation already paid or awarded to be paid under this article, then any such excess shall be paid to the injured employee or, in case of death, to his dependents, less the employer's expenses and costs of action. Law of limi run, when. SEC. 59. If the provisions of this article relative to compensatations not to tion for injuries to or death of employees become invalid because of any adjudication, or be repealed, the period intervening be tween the occurrence of an injury or death not previously compensated for under this article by lump payment or completed periodical payments shall not be computed as a part of the time limited by law for the commencement of, any action relating to such injury or death: Provided, That such action be commenced within one year after such repeal or adjudication, but in any such action any sum paid to the employee on account of injury for which the action is prosecuted shall be taken into account or disposed of as follows: If the defendant employer shall have insured himself as provided for in this article without delinquency, such sums as may have been paid to the employee or his dependents on account of injury or death shall be credited upon recovery as payment thereon. Records appeals. on SEC. 59a (added by chapter 597, Acts of 1916). It shall be the duty of the clerk of the court to which a case is sent on appeal. under the preceding section, to send to the commission a duly certified copy of the docket entries, and judgment of the court in each case heard and determined on appeal. Cases outside scope of act. SEC. 60. If any employer shall be adjudicated to be outside the lawful scope of this article, the article shall not apply to him or his employees; if any employee shall be adjudicated to be outside the lawful scope of this article, because of remoteness of his work from the hazard of his employer's work, any such adjudication shall not impair the validity of this article in other respects, and in every such case an accounting in accordance with the justice of the case shall be had of moneys received. Contractors SEC. 60а (added by chapter 597, Acts of 1916). When any perand subconson as a principal contractor, undertakes to execute any work tractors. which is a part of his trade, business, or occupation which he has contracted to perform and contracts with any other person as subcontractor, for the execution by or under the subcontractor, of the whole or any part of the work undertaken by the principal contractor, the principal contractor shall be liable to pay to any workman employed in the execution of the work any compensation under this article which he would have been liable to pay if that workman had been immediately employed by him; and where compensation is claimed from or proceedings are taken against the principal contractor, then, in the application of this article, reference to the principal contractor shall be substituted for reference to the employer, except that the amount of compensation shall be calculated with reference to the earnings of the workman under the employer by whom he is immediately employed. Where the principal contractor is liable to pay compensation under this section, he shall be entitled to indemnity from any employer, who would have been liable to pay compensation to the employee independently of this section, and shall have a cause of action therefor against such employer. Nothing in this section shall be construed as preventing a workman from recovering compensation under this article from the subcontractor instead of from the contractor. Whenever an employee of a subcontractor files a claim under this article against the principal contractor, the principal contractor shall have the right to join the subcontractor or any intermediate contractors as defendant or codefendant in the case. Construction SEC. 61. The rule that statutes in derogation of the common law are to be strictly construed shall have no application to this to be liberal. article; but this article shall be so interpreted and construed as to effectuate its general purpose. Presump SEC. 62. In any proceedings for the enforcement of a claim for compensation under this article, it shall be presumed in the ab- tions. sence of substantial evidence to the contrary: (a) That the claim comes within the provisions of this article. (b) That sufficient notice thereof was given. (c) That the injury was not occasioned by the willful intention of the injured employee to bring about the injury or death of himself or of another. (d) That the injury did not result solely from the intoxication of the injured employee while on duty. SEC. 63 (as amended by chapters 86 and 597, Acts of 1916). Definitions as used in this article: (1) "Extrahazardous employment" means a work or occupation described in section thirty-two of this article. (2) "Employer," except when otherwise expressly stated, means a person, partnership, association, corporation, and the legal representatives of a deceased employer, or the receiver or trustee of a person, partnership, association, or corporation employing workmen in extrahazardous employments. (3) Employee" means a person who is engaged in an extrahazardous employment in the service of an employer carrying on or conducting the same upon the premises or at a plant, or in the course of his employment away from the plant of his employer, and shall not include farm laborers. "Farm laborers." as used in this article, shall mean any employees who at the time of the accident, are engaged in rendering any agricultural service, including the thrashing and harvesting of crops, or who, at the time of the accident, are engaged in service incidental to and in connection with agricultural pursuits or developments, whether the employer be the farmer or other person undertaking or contracting with the farmer to perform any such agricultural service, pursuit, or development. This article shall not apply to farm laborers, domestic servants, nor to country blacksmiths, wheelwrights, or similar rural employments, nor in any case where the accident occurred before this article takes effect, nor to casual employees or any employee whose salary is in excess of two thousand dollars a year, or any employees who are employed wholly without the State. (4) Employment" includes employment only in a trade, business, or occupation carried on by the employer for pecuniary gain. (5) "Compensation" means the money allowance payable to an employee or to his dependents as provided for in this article, and includes funeral benefits provided therein. (6) Injury" and "personal injury" mean only accidental Injuries arising out of and in the course of employment and such disease or infection as may naturally result therefrom. (7) “Death,” when mentioned as a basis for the right to compensation means only death resulting from such injury. (8) “Average weekly wages" for the purposes of this article shall be taken to mean the average weekly wages earned by an employee when working on full time. (9) "State accident fund" means the State insurance fund provided for in section sixteen of this article. (10) "Child" shall include a posthumous child and a child legally adopted prior to the injury of the employee. 42704-17-38 Definitions. tion. (11) "Beneficiary" means a husband, wife, child, children, or dependents of an employee in whom shall vest a right to receive payment under this article. (12) "Mining" means all underground workings by shaft, drift, slope or otherwise, for the securing, removing and taking out from under the ground coal, iron ore, clays, and all other minerals and mineral substances, found in and under the earth, and shall mean all work done by any miner or employee working in and about said mines in said shafts, slopes, headings, tunnels, rooms, and other subterranean places therein for the purposes of obtaining and removing therefrom all such minerals and mineral substances, and the benefits of this article shall be extended to any employee, or in case of his death, to his dependent relatives, otherwise entitled, who shall be killed or injured while so working or employed therein, and such mine worker shall be deemed to be wholly employed in the State of Maryland, and entitled to the benefits of this article if the tipple, mouth or principal mine entrance in and about which he works, is situated in this State, notwithstanding such shaft, heading, slope or other subterranean tunnel may extend underground into an adjoining State, and notwithstanding such mine worker so employed in this State may be killed or injured while working in said mine beyond the lines of this State, and within the lines of an adjoining State. Appropria SEC. 64. The sum of forty thousand dollars ($40,000) annually for the years nineteen hundred and fourteen, nineteen hundred and fifteen, and nineteen hundred and sixteen, or so much thereof as may be necessary annually for the maintenance of the State Industrial Accident Commission and the payment of the salaries and expenses of said commission and its officers and employees, and so much thereof, if any, as may be necessary to maintain a solvent State accident fund, is hereby appropriated, and shall be payable on the order or orders of the said commission from time to time as in this law provided; and the comptroller shall draw his warrant upon the treasurer of Maryland, as in law provided, for the annual appropriations. And a further appropriation is hereby made of the sum of fifteen thousand dollars for the year nineteen hundred and fourteen for the necessary expenses of the aforesaid State Industrial Accident Commission to cover printing, office fixtures, and such other legitimate expenses as the commission may incur in establishing their office or offices as in this article contemplated, and the comptroller of the State of Maryland shall draw his warrant upon the treasurer of Maryland for the sum of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000), or any part thereof, upon the order or orders presented to the State comptroller by the said State Industrial Accident Commission. Repeal. SEC. 65. Chapter one hundred and fifty-three of the Acts of nineteen hundred and ten, as amended by chapter four hundred and forty-five of the Acts of nineteen hundred and twelve of the General Assembly of Maryland [establishing a miners' cooperative insurance fund in Allegany and Garrett counties] are hereby repealed, except for the purpose of providing confirmation for all claims which may arise thereunder prior to the first day of November, nineteen hundred and fourteen; and if after all such claims are paid there be a surplus in the fund, it shall be turned over to the treasurer of Maryland for the account of the State industrial accident fund, but if there be a deficit in said fund at the time this act takes effect as between employers and employees, the payments provided for under chapter one hundred and fiftythree of the Acts of nineteen hundred and ten as amended by chapter four hundred and forty-five of the Acts of nineteen hundred and twelve shall be continued by the employers and employees of Allegany and Garrett counties to the treasurers of said counties until such pending claims are paid, when said payments shall cease. MASSACHUSETTS. ACTS OF 1911. CHAPTER 751.-Compensation of workmen for injuries—State insurance association. PART I. MODIFICATION OF REMEDIES. SECTION 1. In an action to recover damages for personal injury Suits for sustained by an employee in the course of his employment, or for damages. death resulting from personal injury so sustained, it shall not be rogated. a defense: 1. That the employee was negligent; 2. That the injury was caused by the negligence of a fellow employee; 3. That the employee had assumed the risk of the injury. Defenses ab Farm labor SEC. 2. The provisions of section one shall not apply to actions to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by domestic ers, etc. servants and farm laborers. SEC. 3. The provisions of section one shall not apply to actions Employees of to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by employees subscribers to of a subscriber. SEC. 4. The provisions of sections one hundred and twenty-seven to one hundred and thirty-five, inclusive, and of one hundred and forty-one to one hundred and forty-three, inclusive, of chapter five hundred and fourteen of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and nine, and of any acts in amendment thereof, shall not apply to employees of a subscriber while this act is in effect. association. Same. Presumption SEC. 5. An employee of a subscriber shall be held to have waived his right of action at common law to recover damages for personal of waiver. injuries if he shall not have given his employer, at the time of his contract of hire, notice in writing that he claimed such right, or if the contract of hire was made before the employer became a subscriber, if the employee shall not have given the said notice within thirty days of notice of such subscription. An employee who has given notice to his employer that he claimed his right of action at common law may waive such claim by a notice in writing which shall take effect five days after it is delivered to the employer or his agent. PART II. PAYMENTS. Compensa when. SECTION 1. If an employee who has not given notice of his claim of common-law rights of action, as provided in Part I, section tion payable, five, or who has given such notice and has waived the same, receives a personal injury arising out of and in the course of his employment, he shall be paid compensation by the association, as hereinafter provided, if his employer is a subscriber at the time of the injury. SEC. 2. If the employee is injured by reason of his serious and willful misconduct, he shall not receive compensation. Misconduct. Double com SEC. 3 (as amended by chapter 571, Acts of 1912). If the employee is injured by reason of the serious and willful misconduct pensation. |