Workmen's relief trust fund.

Employers to contribute.

rates.

upon the current pay roll of the employer so computed: Provided, That this section shall not apply to employers for whom work is done by an independent contractor, and if the latter is insured in accordance with the provisions of this act.

SEC. 27. The amounts existing in the workmen's relief trust fund created by section 1 of an act entitled "An act providing for the relief of such workmen as may be injured, of the dependent families of those who may lose their lives while engaged in trades or occupations, and for other purposes," approved April 13, 1916, are hereby reappropriated to carry out the provisions of this act and shall constitute the workmen's relief trust fund hereby created together with such other sums as are hereinafter specified. The aforesaid sum, advanced as hereinbefore stated, shall be reimbursed to the treasury of Porto Rico, wholly or in part, provided that in the judgment of the commission the "Workmen's relief trust fund" is sufficient to cover safely such payments as shall be made in accordance herewith within the year following the date of such reimbursement after having deducted the amount of the same.

SEC. 28. All employers accepting the benefits of this act and employing laborers under the conditions specified in this act shall contribute to the "Workmen's relief trust fund" in the form and manner provided herein.

Reduction of SEC. 29. If at the end of any fiscal year said trust fund shall have a considerable surplus after having paid all its obligations and liabilities, and after the commission has set aside such amount as it may deem advisable as a reserve fund, the Workmen's Relief Commission shall reduce the rates of contribution for part or all of the groups into which risks are divided.

Definitions.

Who may not be attorneys.

Repeal.

Act in effect.

SEC. 30. The words "laborer" or "employee," wherever used in this act, shall be construed to include any person employed by any employer, who is entitled to the benefits of this act, whether such person is man, woman, or child.

SEC. 31. No member of the Workmen's Relief Commission nor any officer, employee, or agent thereof, nor any person in the service of the same, shall represent another person, nor shall he have any interest in any transaction, claim or matter in the jurisdiction of the said commission. Violations of this section shall be punished by removal and permanent disability to serve on said commission or under its jurisdiction, it being understood that this prohibition shall not include acts that are purely official realized by virtue of office or employment.

SEC. 32. All laws or parts of laws in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

SEC. 33. This act shall be applicable to accidents occurring subsequent to June 30, 1918.

Approved, February 25, 1918.

RHODE ISLAND.

ACTS OF 1917.

CHAPTER 1534.-Compensation of workmen for injuries.

[This act amends several sections of the compensation law of the State (chapter 831, acts of 1912). Section 4 of Article I is amended so as to read as follows:]

Where em

SECTION 4. The provisions of section 1 of this article shall not apply to actions to recover damages for personal injuries, or for ployer elects. death resulting from personal injuries, sustained by an employee of an employer who has elected to become subject to the provisions of this act, as provided in section 5 of this article, nor to any such action brought against a town or city by an employee thereof.

[Section 4 of Article II is amended by adding thereto the following:]

Provided, That if such incapacity extends beyond the period of Pay for four weeks, compensation shall begin from the date of the injury, waiting time, when. [Section 5 of Article II is amended so as to read as follows:] SEC. 5. During the first four weeks after the injury the em- Medical, etc., ployer shall furuish reasonable medical and hospital services and aid. medicines when they are needed. The amount of the charge for such medical and hospital services shall be determined in case of the failure of the employer and employee or his physician to agree, by the superior court. The employee shall have the right to select the physician by whom, or the hospital in which, he desires to be treated, but the employer shall become liable to such physician or hospital for the reasonable fees for such treatment: Provided, however, That the physician or hospital shall give written notice to the employer within seven days after the beginning of their services that they have been so selected and shall present their claim to the employer for the payment of such services within three months after the conclusion thereof, but the failure of the employer to receive such notice shall not render the employee liable for such service.

[Clause (a) of section 7 is amended so as to read as follows:] (a) A wife upon a husband with whom she lives or from whom she was living apart for a justifiable cause, or because he had deserted her, or upon whom she is dependent at the time of his death. The findings of the superior court upon the questions of such justifiable cause and desertion shall be final.

Dependents.

Advanced

[A new section is added to Article II, as follows:] SEC. 26. In fixing the amount of compensation under this act due allowance shall be made for any sum which the employer may payments. have paid to any injured employee or to his dependents on account of the injury, except such sums as the employer may have expended or directed to be expended for medical, surgical, or hospital service.

[Article VII, as numbered by chapter 1268, acts of 1915, is renumbered as Article VIII, and section 1 thereof is amended so as to read as follows:]

SEC. 1. In this act, unless the context otherwise requires: (a) The word "employer" shall include any person, copartnership, corporation or voluntary association, and the legal representative of a deceased employer; and on and after the first day of June, A. D. 1917, it shall include the State; and also each city and town therein that shall vote to accept the provisions of this act in the manner herein provided.

Definitions.

Towns

vote.

Cities.

to

(b) The word "employee" means any person who has entered into the employment of, or works under contract of service or apprenticeship with any employer, and whose remuneration does not exceed eighteen hundred dollars a year, except that in the case of a city or town it shall only mean such class or classes of employees as may be designated by a city or town in the manner herein provided to receive compensation under this act. It shall not include a person whose employment is of a casual nature, and who is employed otherwise than for the purpose of the employer's trade or business, nor shall it include the members of the regularly organized fire and police department of any town or city; and whenever a contractor has contracted with the State, a city or town, any person employed by such contractor in work under such contract shall not be deemed an employee of the State, city or town as the case may be. Any reference to an employee who has been injured shall, where the employee is dead, include a reference to his dependents as hereinbefore defined, or to his legal representative, or, where he is a minor, or incompetent, to his conservator or guardian.

[A new Article VII is inserted as follows:]

ARTICLE VII.

OF STATE AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES.

SECTION 1. The acceptance of the provisions of this act by a town shall be by vote of the electors of such town qualified to vote on a proposition to impose a tax or for the expenditure of money in town meeting assembled, or by vote of the town council of any town when authorized by such electors to accept the provisions of this act in behalf of such town. The acceptance of the provisions of this act by a city shall be by vote of the city council of such city. Said electors of a town, or the town council authorized as aforesaid, or the city council of a city, in accepting the provisions of this act in behalf of such town or city may also designate the class of employees or the nature of the employVote to be ment to which the provisions of this act shall apply. Upon the filed. passage of any such vote of acceptance the town or city clerk as the case may be, shall file a certified copy of such vote with the commissioner of industrial statistics, and such filing shall be deemed on the part of such town or city a sufficient compliance with the provisions of section 5 of Article I of this act requiring notice of the election of an employer to become subject to its provisions. If such vote does not designate the class of employees or the nature of the employment to which the provisions of this act are to apply, then such provisions shall apply to all employees of the town or city in behalf of which such vote is passed, except those employees who are excluded under the definition of employees set forth in section 1 of Article VIII of this act. The filing of a copy of such vote as herein provided shall render the town or city in behalf of which such vote is filed, subject to the provisions of this act in accordance with such vote for the term of one year from the date of such filing, and thereafter for successive terms of one year each, unless such vote of acceptance shall be rescinded by said electors or the town council of such town, or the city council of such city, and a certified copy of such rescindment shall be filed with the commissioner of industrial statistics at least sixty days prior to the expiration of such first or each succeeding year.

Notices.

SEC. 2. All notices required to be given by an employee to an employer under the provisions of section 6 of Article I and of sections 17 to 19, inclusive, of Article II of this act, and all other notices required to be given to an employer by an employee under this act, if the employer be the State shall be given to the attorney general, and if the employer be a city or town shall be filed with and given to the treasurer of such city or town.

Physicians.

SEC. 3. The services required to be rendered by an employer to an injured employee under the provisions of section 5 of Article II of this act, if the employer be the State, shall be rendered under the direction of a physician appointed for that purpose by the attorney general and if the employer be a town or city, shall be rendered by a physician appointed for that purpose by the town council of the town or the city council of the city: Provided, That in an emergency it shall be the duty of the board, commission, officer or other person having direct charge of an injured employee to see that such services are promptly provided for the aid of such employee until the physician appointed as aforesaid has notice of and can take charge of the case; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to prohibit an employee from selecting the physician by whom, or the hospital in which he desires to be treated as provided in section 5 of Article II hereof. All expenses Expenses. incurred under this section, not exceeding the sum required by law to be expended therefor, shall in the case of the State be certified to the State auditor by the attorney general and in the case of a city or town to the treasurer thereof by the physician appointed as aforesaid, and such expenses shall be paid as is provided for other payments required to be made by the State, a city or town under this act.

SEC. 4. The attorney general shall have full authority and Agreements. power to enter into and execute an agreement for the settlement of any claim which an employee may have against the State under this act. When any town or city shall accept the provisions of this act, the town council of such town and the city council of such city shall appoint some person or persons not exceeding three in number, who shall have authority and power to enter into and execute an agreement for the settlement of any claim which an employee may have against such town or city under this act, and the names of the persons so appointed shall be recorded in the office of the town clerk or city clerk as the case may be, and such appointments shall continue in force until revoked by vote of the body by whom the appointments are made. All agreements made by the attorney general shall be certified to the State auditor, and all agreements made by the persons appointed hereunder to act for any town or city shall be certified to the treasurer of such town or city. Every such agreement entered into in behalf of the State or of a town or city shall be subject to the provisions of Article III of this act.

State

SEC. 5. The expenses incurred for and in behalf of the State under the provisions of section 5 of Article II of this act, and sec- penses. tion 3 of this article, and the amount of compensation due to any employee of the State as determined by agreement with the attorney general as aforesaid, or by decree of the court, shall be paid out of any money in the State treasury not otherwise ap- propriated; and the State auditor shall draw his order or orders upon the general treasurer for the payment of the same upon the receipt by him of a certified copy of the agreement or decree under which such compensation is to be made. It more than one payment of money is required by any such agreement or decree the State auditor shall draw his order upon the oneral treasurer for the same as such payments become due.

ex

Town and

SEC. 6. The expenses incurred for and in behalf of any town or city expenses. city under the provisions of section 5 of Article II, and section of this article, and the amount of compensation due an employee of a town or city as determined by an agreement with such town or city as aforesaid, or by decree of court shall be paid by the treasurer of such town or city out of any money of such town or city in his hands. Such payments shall be made by said treasurer upon the receipt by him of a certificate of such expenses satisfactory to him, or of a certified copy of the agreement or decree under which the compensation is to be made: Provided, That he shall not make any such payment until the same has been approved by the auditor of such city or town if there be any such oflicer and if there is not any such officer, then such payment shall

Legal proceedings.

! Insurance.

"City council."

first be approved by the mayor of such city or the president of the town council of such town. If more than one payment of money is required by any such agreement or decree such payments shall be made in the manner aforesaid as the same become due. If any expenses or compensation required to be paid by a town or city under the provisions of this act, or any installment thereof, is not paid within twenty days after the aforesaid certificate or certified copy is filed with the treasurer of said town or city, the same may be collected in the manner in which a judgment against a town or city may be collected under the provisions of chapter 46 of the General Laws.

SEC. 7. Legal proceedings under this act between the State, a city or town as an employer and any employee thereof shall be brought in the same manner and with the same force and effect as is prescribed herein for any other employer and employee: Provided, That if the State be a party to any such proceedings the same shall be brought for and in behalf of the State, in the name of, and by or against the attorney general and service therein shall be made on said officer, and if a town or city be a party to any such proceedings the same shall be brought for and in behalf of such town or city, in the name of, and by or against the treasurer of such town or city and service therein shall be made on such treasurer. The attorney general shall appear for and represent the State in any such proceedings in which the State is a party. The provisions of any other law relating to the filing of claims or demands against a town or city shall not apply to claims of compensation, or legal proceedings arising under this act, to which a town or city is a party.

SEC. 8. The provisions of this act, requiring employers to insure against liability to pay compensation arising under the provisions of this act and to report certain accidents of employees, shall not apply to the State or any town or city therein.

SEC. 9. Wherever in this act the words "city council" are used they shall be construed in the case of the city of Newport to mean the representative council of said city.

Approved April 19, 1917.