Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

Employers outside of act.

If law is declared unconstitutional, what.

Administration

fund.

Existing laws.

upon his next following contribution to such fund the amount so paid with interest thereon at the legal rate from the date of such payment to the date such next following contribution became payable, and if the amount of the credit shall exceed the amount of the contribution, he shall have a warrant upon the same fund for the excess, and if any such warrant shall not be so paid, it shall remain, nevertheless, payable out of the fund. The State treasurer shall to such extent as shall appear to him to be advisable keep the moneys of the unsegregated portion of the accident fund invested at interest in the class of securities provided by law for the investment of the permanent school fund. The State treasurer shall be liable on his official bond for the safe custody of the moneys and securities of the accident fund, but all the provisions of an act approved February 21, 1907, entitled "An act to provide for State depositories and to regulate the deposits of State moneys therein," shall be applied to said moneys and the handling thereof by the State treasurer.

SEC. 27. If any employer shall be adjudicated to be outside the lawful scope of this act, the act shall not apply to him or his workman, or if any workman shall be adjudicated to be outside the lawful scope of this act because of remoteness of his work from the hazard of his employer's work, any such adjudication shall not impair the validity of this act in other respects, and in every such case an accounting in accordance with the justice of the case shall be had of moneys received. If the provisions of section 4 of this act for the creation of the accident fund, or the provisions of this act making the compensation to the workman provided in it exclusive of any other remedy on the part of the workman shall be held invalid the entire act shall be thereby invalidated except the provisions of section 31, and an accounting according to the justice of the case shall be had of moneys received. In other respects an adjudication of invalidity of any part of this act shall not affect the validity of the act as a whole or any other part thereof.

SEC. 28. If the provisions of this act relative to compensation for injuries to or death of workmen become invalid because of any adjudication, or be repealed, the period intervening between the occurrence of an injury or death, not previously compensated for under this act by lump payment or completed monthly payments, and such repeal or the rendition of the final adjudication of the invalidity 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 out of the accident fund to the workman on account of injury, to whom the action is prosecuted, shall be taken into account or disposed of as follows: If the defendant employer shall have paid without delinquency into the accident fund the payment provided by section 4, such sum shall be credited upon the recovery as payment thereon, otherwise the sums shall not be so credited but shall be deducted from the sum collected and be paid into the said fund from which they had been previously disbursed.

SEC. 29. There is hereby appropriated out of the State treasury the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be known as the administration fund, out of which the salaries, traveling and office expenses of the department shall be paid, and also all other expenses of the administration of the accident fund; and there is hereby appropriated out of the accident fund for the purpose to which said fund is applicable the sum of $1,500,000, or so much thereof as shall be necessary for the purposes of this act.

SEC. 30. Nothing in this act contained shall repeal any existing law providing for the installation or maintenance of any device, means or method for the prevention of accidents in extrahazardous work or for a penalty or punishment for failure to install or maintain any such protective device, means or method, but sections 8, 9, and 10 of the act approved March 6, 1905, entitled: "An act providing for the protection and health of employees in factories, mills or workshops, where machinery is used, and providing for suits to recover damages sustained by the violation thereof, and prescribing a punishment for

the violation thereof and repealing an act entitled, 'An act providing for the protection of employees in factories, mills, or workshops where machinery is used, and providing for the punishment of the violation thereof, approved March 6, 1903, and repealing all other acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith," are hereby repealed, except as to any cause of action which shall have accrued thereunder prior to October 1, 1911.

SEC. 31. If this act shall be hereafter repealed, all moneys which are in the accident fund at the time of the repeal shall be subject to such disposition as may be provided by the legislature, and in default of such legislative provision distribution thereof shall be in accordance with the justice of the matter, due regard being had to obligations of compensation incurred and existing.

SEC. 32. This act shall not affect any action pending or cause of action existing on the 30th day of September, 1911. Approved by the governor March 14, 1911.

WEST VIRGINIA.

ACTS OF 1913.

CHAPTER 10.-Compensation of workmen for injuries-State insurance

fund.

SECTION 1. The commission created by the act entitled, "An act to create a public service commission and to prescribe its power and duties, etc.," passed on the twenty-first day of February, one thousand nine hundred and thirteen, which commission, for the purpose of this act, shall be a body politic and corporate under the name prescribed by said act, shall administer the workmen's compensation fund provided for in this act. The said commission, in the administration of said fund, shall be governed by the provisions of this act if there be conflict between the same and the provisions of said act creating said commission.

If act repealed, what.

Act in effect, when.

Who to admin

ister fund.

State to bear

SEC. 2. It is the intent of this act that the expenses of the administration of said fund, including a proportionate share of the salaries or other expenses. compensation of the members of said commission, and employees thereof, whose services are connected both with the regulation of public utilities and the administration of said fund, and all other joint expenses, be paid by the State, so that the fund created as hereinafter provided shall be applied solely to the payment of the benefits provided for in this act; and all expenses peculiar to the administration of this act, including the premium to be paid for the bond of the State treasurer required under this act, and salaries or other compensation, traveling and other expenses, of all officers or employees of the commission, whose services are devoted solely to the administration of this act, and all expenses for furniture, books, maps, stationery, appliances and property of all kinds acquired or used solely in connection with the administration of this act, shall be paid by the State; and a justly proportional part of the salaries or other compensation of the members of the commission and other officers and employees thereof who are jointly employed or used, and all expenses of such officers or employees, and all of the expenses for furniture, books, maps, stationery and appliances which are jointly employed or used, shall be paid by the State; and no expenses herein provided to be paid by the State shall be paid out of or charged to the fund to be raised for the expenses of the commission as provided in said act of February twenty-one, one thousand nine hundred and thirteen, creating said public service commission.

SEC. 3. The apportionment of salaries or other expenses of members Apportionment. and other officers of the commission, employees thereof, and other expenses hereinbefore mentioned, shall be made by the commission at the time of payment, and such apportionment shall be based upon the relative time spent in the service of, or in the relative use of the property or facilities devoted to, the two branches of the work of the commission, respectively. All payments shall be made by the State treasurer upon order or voucher approved and signed by the chairman or acting 30597°-Bull. 126-14-27

Payments.

Sessions.

Quorum.

Office.

Employees.

Rules.

.

chairman and secretary of the commission, directed to the auditor of the State, who shall draw his warrant therefor, and any such payment shall be charged to the fund provided by the said act of February twenty-one, one thousand nine hundred and thirteen, for the administration thereof, or to the appropriations which shall be made from time to time hereafter by the State for the administration of this act, or part to such fund and part to such appropriations as may be directed by the commission in each case.

SEC. 4. The commission shall be in continuous session and open for the transaction of business during all the business hours of each and every day, excepting Sundays and legal holidays. All sessions shall be open to the public, and shall stand and be adjourned without further notice thereof on its record. All proceedings of the commission shall be shown on its record of proceedings, which shall be a public record, and shall contain a record of each case considered, and the award with respect thereto and of all salaries or other compensation paid or allowed to any employee of the commission or to any other person for services, and all voting shall be had by the calling of each member's name by the secretary, and each vote shall be recorded as cast.

SEC. 5. A majority of the commission shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and a vacancy shall not impair the right of the remaining members to exercise all the powers of the full commission, so long as a majority remain. Any investigation, inquiries or hearings which the commission is authorized to hold, or undertake, may be held or undertaken by or before any one member of the commission, and every order made by a member thereof, when approved and confirmed by a majority of the members, and so shown on its record of proceedings, shall be deemed to be the order of the commission.

SEC. 6. The commission shall keep and maintain its office at the seat of government, and shall provide a suitable room or rooms, necessary office furniture, supplies, books, periodicals, maps and other equipment. After due notice showing the time and place, the commission may hold hearings anywhere within the State.

SEC. 7. The commission may employ a secretary, actuary, accountants, inspectors, examiners, experts, clerks, stenographers and other assistants, and fix their compensation, which shall be paid out of the State treasury. The members of the commission, actuaries, accountants, inspectors, examiners, experts, clerks, stenographers and other assistants that may be employed shall be entitled to receive from the State treasury their actual and necessary expenses while traveling on the business of the commission. Such expenses shall be itemized and sworn to by the person who incurred the expense, and allowed by the commission.

SEC. 8. The commission shall adopt reasonable and proper rules to govern its procedure, regulate and provide for the kind and character of notices, and the service thereof, in cases of accident and injury to employees, the nature and extent of the proofs and evidence, and the method of taking and furnishing the same, to establish the rights to benefits or compensation from the fund hereinafter provided for, the forms of application of those claiming to be entitled to benefits or compensation therefrom, the method of making investigations, physical examinations and inspections, and prescribe the time within which adjudications and awards shall be made.

To whom act SEC. 9. All persons, firms and corporations regularly employing other applies. persons for profit, or for the purpose of carrying on any form of industry in the State of West Virginia, are employers within the meaning of this act, and are subject to its provisions. All persons in the service of employers, as herein defined, and employed by them for the purpose of carrying on the industries in which they are engaged (persons casually employed excepted) are employees within the meaning of this act, and subject to the provisions thereof: Provided, That this act shall not apply to employers of employees in domestic or agricultural service, to employees of any employer who are employed wholly without the State, nor shall a member of a firm of employers, or any officer of a corporation employer, including managers, superintendents and assistant managers and assistant superintendents be deemed an employee within the meaning of this act.

SEC. 10. Every employer shall furnish the commission, upon request, all information required by it to carry out the purposes of this act. The commission or any member thereof, or any person employed by the commission for that purpose, shall have the right to examine under oath any employer or officer, agent or employee thereof.

Duty of employers.

Information

SEC. 11. Within thirty days from the organization of the commission, every employer subject to this act shall notify the commission of such from employers. fact. The commission shall prepare blank reports for the use of, and furnish the same to employers subject to this act, and every employer receiving from the commission any blank or blanks with direction for filling out and returning the same, shall return the same filled out so as to answer fully and correctly all pertinent questions therein propounded and if unable to do so, shall give good and sufficient reasons for such failure. Answers to such questions shall be verified under oath and returned to the commission within the period fixed by the commission for such return.

SEC. 12. Each member of the board, the secretary and every inspector Power3 or examiner appointed by the board shall, for the purposes contem- board. plated by this act, have power to administer oaths, certify to official acts, take depositions, issue subpoenas and compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of pertinent books, accounts, papers, records, documents and testimony.

of

SEC. 13. In case of failure, or refusal of any person to comply with Contempt prothe order of the commission, or subpoena issued by it or one of its ceedings. inspectors, or examiners, or on the refusal of a witness to testify to any matter regarding which he may be lawfully interrogated, or refuse to permit an inspection as aforesaid, the circuit judge of the county in which the person resides, on application of any member of the commission, or any inspector or examiner appointed by it, shall compel obedience by attachment proceedings as for contempt, as in the case of disobedience of the requirements of a subpoena issued from such court on a refusal to testify therein.

SEC. 14. Each officer who serves such subpoena shall receive the same fees as a sheriff, and each witness who appears, in obedience to a subpoena, before the commission or an inspector or an examiner, shall receive for his attendance the fees and mileage provided for witnesses in civil cases in the circuit court, which shall be audited and paid from the State treasury in the same manner as other expenses are audited and paid, upon the presentation of proper vouchers approved by any two members of the commission. No witness subpoenaed at the instance of a party other than the commission, or an inspector, shall be entitled to compensation from the State treasury unless the commission shall certify that his testimony was material to the matter investigated.

Fees.

SEC. 15. In an investigation, the commission may cause deposi- Depositions. tions of witnesses residing within or without the State to be taken in the manner prescribed by law for like depositions as provided for transcripts in the circuit court.

SEC. 16. A transcribed copy of the evidence and proceedings, or any specific part thereof, on any investigation, taken by a stenographer appointed by the commission, being certified and sworn to by such stenographer to be a true and correct transcript of the testimony in the investigation, or of a particular witness, or of a specific part thereof, or to be a correct transcript of the proceedings had on such investigation so purporting to be taken and subscribed, may be received in evidence by the commission with the same effect as if such stenographer were present and testified to the facts certified. A copy of such transcript shall be furnished on demand to any party upon payment of the fee therefor, as provided for transcripts in the circuit court.

SEC. 17. The commission shall prepare and furnish free of cost blank forms, and provide in its rules for their distribution so that the same may be readily available, of applications for benefits for compensation from the workmen's compensation fund, notices to employers, proofs of injury or death, of medical attendance, of employment and wage earnings, and such other blanks as may be deemed proper and advisable, and it shall be the duty of employers to constantly keep on hand a sufficient supply of such blanks.

Evidence.

Forms.

Classes of in- SEC. 18. For the purposes of this act the following classification of the industries subject thereto is adopted:

dustries.

(1) Coal mines, including their tipples, power, light, heating and ventilating plants, tramways, private tracks and sidings, and accessory and auxiliary plants working in or with by-products.

(2) Paint manufactories, oil refineries, oil and gas wells, including their pipe lines, storage, power or light plants, tramways, private tracks and sidings, and accessory and auxiliary plants working in or with by-products.

(3) Iron and steel mills, including blast furnaces, smelters, tube works, rolling mills, and their accessory and auxiliary plants, working in or with by-products, and plants generating power, light or heat and tramways, private tracks and sidings.

(4) Sheet and tin plate mills, including their accessory and auxiliary plants working in or with by-products, and plants generating power, light or heat, and tramways, private tracks or sidings.

(5) Foundries, machine shops, fire-arms factories, tool factories, car building and repairing, structural iron works, and working in or with iron or steel, not otherwise specified, where power-driven machinery is used, together with their accessory and auxiliary plants working in or with by-products, and plants generating power, light or heat, and tramways, private tracks and sidings.

(6) Stamped metal works, can factories, enamel iron works, and working in or with sheet iron or tin plate, not otherwise specified, where power-driven machinery is used, together with their accessory and auxiliary plants working in or with by-products, and plants generating power, light or heat, and tramways, private tracks and sidings. (7) Logging, logging railroads and tramways, sawmills, including their accessory and auxiliary plants working in or with by-products, and plants generating power, light or heat, and tramways, private tracks and sidings.

(8) Planing mills, wood pulp, cordage and paper mills, box factories, cooperage plants, furniture factories, woodenware or wood fiber ware manufactories, vehicle works of every kind, including their accessory and auxiliary plants working in or with by-products, and plants generating power, light or heat, and tramways, private tracks and sidings. (9) Glass houses of all kinds, including manufactories of tableware, bar goods, bottles, tumblers, lamps, glass light fixture parts, lamps, window and plate glass, potteries of all kinds, including tile, brick, terra cotta, fire clay, earthenware, porcelain, china and crockery ware using automatic machinery, together with accessory and auxiliary plants working in or with by-products, and plants generating light or heat, and tramways, private tracks and sidings.

(9-a) Glass houses of all kinds, including manufactories of tableware, bar goods, bottles, tumblers, lamps, glass light fixture parts, lamps, window and plate glass, potteries of all kinds, including tile, brick, terra cotta, fire clay, earthenware, porcelain, china and crockery ware not using automatic machinery, together with accessory and auxiliary plants working in or with by-products, and plants generating power, light or heat, and tramways, private tracks and sidings.

(10) Printing plants of all kinds, electrotyping, photo-engraving, engraving, lithographing, embossing, book binding, and accessory and auxiliary lines of work and manufacture.

(11) Woolen mills, knitting mills, cotton mills, carpet and rug mills, clothing manufactories of every kind and working in or with textiles not otherwise specified.

(12) Breweries, bottling works, canneries of fruits, vegetables, oils, fish, milk or meat, manufactories of preserves, jellies, ketchup, sauces, relishes, pickles, flour and feed mills, bakeries, confectioneries, drug and extract manufactories, tobacco, cigar and stogie and cigarette manufactories, in which power-driven machinery is used.

(13) Slaughter and packing houses, stock yards, soap, tallow, lard and grease manufactories, tanneries, artificial ice, and refrigerating and cold storage plants, creameries, and carbon-black factories, in which power-driven machinery is used.

(14) Steam laundries, dyeing and cleaning plants, stamping, embossing and working with leather, shoe and harness manufactories,

« ForrigeFortsett »