ligence. The superior officer may likewise be engaged in the primary duties of his station, and not in the positive duties of a master. 36 So. Rep. 691. The provision that knowledge of defects shall not be a defense does not preclude such knowledge as a fact controlling the degree of care to be exercised by the employee under the circumstances from being admissible to show contributory negligence. 18 So. Rep. 449. This section is self-executing. Rights accruing thereunder are enforceable outside the State. 75 Fed. Rep. 873. CODE OF 1906. Protection of employees as voters. SECTION 905. Any corporation doing business in this State shall be liable to a penalty of two hundred and fifty dollars for every unlawful interference with the social, civil, or political rights of any of its agents or employees, and the same may be recovered by suit, to be brought by the injured party. Employment of children-Enticing. SECTION 1080. Any person who shall persuade, entice, or decoy away from its father or mother, with whom it resides, any child under the age of twenty-one years if a male, or eighteen if a female, being unmarried, for the purpose of employing such child without the consent of its parents, or one of them, shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than twenty dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail not more than thirty days, or both. 5. To prevent another from exercising a lawful trade or calling, or doing any other lawful act, by force, threats, intimidation, or by interfering or threatening to interfere with tools, implements, or property belonging to or used by another, or with the use or employment thereof; * Such persons, and each of them, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars, or shall be imprisoned not less than one month or more than six months, or both. Enticing laborers-Contracts of employment-Fraud. SECTION 1146. If any person shall willfully interfere with, entice away, knowingly employ, or induce a laborer or renter who has contracted with another person for a specified time to leave his employer or the leased premises, before the expiration of his contract without the consent of the employer or landlord, he shall, upon conviction, be fined not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, and in addition shall be liable to the employer or landlord for all advances made by him to said renter or laborer by virtue of his contract with said renter or laborer, and for all damages which he may have sustained by reason thereof. Leaving employment. New SEC. 1147. Any laborer, renter or share cropper who has contracted with another person for a specified time in writing, not exceeding one year, who shall leave his employer or leased premises before the expiration of his contract, without the consent of the employer or landlord, and makes a second contract with a tract. second party without giving notice of the first contract to the second party, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be fined not exceeding fifty dollars. SEC. 1148. If any person, with intent to injure or defraud his employer or any person, enters into a contract, in writing duly con Fraudul ent contracts. Overloading boats. Creating exof steam. acknowledged or attested by two witnesses in their own handwriting, for the performance of any act or service which is to be performed within fifteen months from the date of such contract, and thereby obtains money or other personal property from such employer, or other person, and with like intent, and without just cause, and without refunding such money or paying for such property, willfully refuses or fails to perform such act or service, he shall, on conviction, be punished for obtaining property under false pretenses and shall be punished by fine of not more than one hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail for not exceeding six months, or both, in the discretion of the court. And the refusal or failure of any person who enters into such contract, to perform such act or service, or refund such money, or pay for such property, without just cause, shall be prima facie evidence of the intent to injure or defraud his employer or other person; and shall warrant a conviction, in all cases in which the evidence, as a whole, does not create a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the accused. If the employer or other person fails or refuses, upon the demand of the employee or such other person or any authorized representative, to render, within a reasonable time, true itemized accounts of the property and money so obtained from him and of the entire indebtedness claimed, or shall render an account knowingly false as to the items therein, then there shall be no conviction under this section. Negligence of employees on steamboats, etc. SECTION 1241. Any person navigating any boat or vessel for gain, who shall willfully or negligently receive so many passengers, or such quantity of lading, that by means thereof such boat or vessel shall sink or overset, and thereby any human being shall be drowned or otherwise killed, shall be guilty of manslaughter. SEC. 1242. If any captain, engineer, or any other person having cessive amount charge of a steamboat or railroad engine connected with a car or cars used for the conveyance of passengers; or if the engineer or other person having charge of the boiler of such boat or engine, or of any other apparatus for the generation of steam, shall, from ignorance or gross neglect, or for the purpose of excelling any other boat in speed, or for the purpose of unusual speed, create or allow to be created such an undue quantity of steam as to burst or break the boiler or other apparatus in which it shall be generated, or any apparatus or machinery connected therewith, or shall thereby cause the said engine or cars to run off of said railroad track, or from any other ignorant or gross neglect shall permit or cause such cars or engine to be thus thrown, by which bursting, breaking, or running off the track any person shall be killed, every such captain, engineer, or other person, shall be guilty of manslaughter. Obstruction, etc.. by ployees. Obstructing operation, injuring property, etc., of railroads. SECTION 1341. If any person shall wantonly or maliciously inem-jure, or place any impediment or obstruction on any railroad, or do any other act by means of which any car or vehicle might be caused to diverge, or be derailed, or thrown from the track, such person, on conviction, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not longer than ten years; and the penalty provided in this section shall apply to any engineer, conductor, switchman, brakeman, train dispatcher, or telegraph operator who shall willfully or negligently cause the derailment or collision of a passenger train. Combina - SEC. 1345. If two or more persons shall willfully and maliciously combine or conspire together to obstruct or impede, by any act, or by any means of intimidation, the regular operation and conduct of the business of any railroad company, or to impede, hinder, or obstruct, except by due process of law, the regular running of any locomotive engine, freight or passenger train on any railroad, or the labor and business of such railroad company, such persons, and tions. each of them, shall, on conviction, be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months, or both; but this section shall not apply to persons who merely quit the employment of a railroad company, whether by concert of action or otherwise. Railroad employees-Intoxication-Negligence, etc. Quitting employment. SECTION 1350. If any person, while on duty in charge of a loco- Intoxicati o n of engineer, motive engine running or standing upon any railroad, or if any etc. conductor in charge of a car or train on any railroad, shall be intoxicated, he shall, on conviction, be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than one year nor more than fifteen years. SEC. 1354. If any brakeman, switchman, or other person in charge of any switch, shall willfully or carelessly leave the same open or improperly placed, whereby any person shall be killed or injured, he shall, on conviction, be imprisoned in the penitentiary not more than fifteen years. Sunday labor. SECTION 1366. If any person, on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, shall himself labor at his own or any other trade, calling, or business, or shall employ his apprentice or servant in labor or other business, except it be in the ordinary household offices of daily necessity, or other work of necessity or charity, he shall, on conviction, be fined not more than twenty dollars for every offense, deeming every apprentice or servant so employed as constituting a distinct offense; but nothing in this section shall apply to labor on railroads or steamboats, telegraph or telephone lines, street railways or in the business of a livery stable, meat market or ice house. Mispla cing switch. Sunday labor forbidden. Exceptions. Trading on SEC. 1367. A merchant, shopkeeper, or other person, shall not keep open store, or dispose of any wares or merchandise, goods or Sunday. chattels, on Sunday, or sell or barter the same; and every person so offending shall, on conviction, be fined not more than twenty dollars for every such offense; but this shall not apply to apothecaries or druggists who may open their stores for the sale of medicines. Intimidation of employees, etc. Making SECTION 1398. Any person or persons who shall, by placards, or other writing, or verbally, attempt by threats, direct or implied, threats, etc. of injury to the person or property of another, to intimidate such other person into an abandonment or change of home or employment, shall, upon conviction, be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars or imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding six months, or in the penitentiary not exceeding five years, as the court, in its discretion, may determine. Liability of railroad companies for injuries to employees. SECTION 1985. In all actions against railroad companies for damages done to persons or property, proof of injury inflicted by the running of the locomotives or cars of such company shall be prima facie evidence of the want of reasonable skill and care on the part of the servants of the company in reference to such injury. This section shall also apply to passengers and employees of railroad companies. Payment of wages due deceased employees. Evidence. SECTION 2133. When any employee shall die leaving wages due him to an amount not exceeding two hundred dollars, it shall be wages shall be lawful for the employer after sixty days to pay said wages to the paid. wife of said deceased employee, if he leave a wife surviving him; То whom 43967-08 45 and if he shall leave no wife surviving him, then to his children, if adults; and if he shall leave no children and no wife surviving him, then to his father; and if he shall leave no wife or children or father surviving him, then to his mother; and if he shall leave no wife or children or father or mother surviving him, then to his brothers and sisters, if adults; and if such employee shall have left no wife or children nor brothers nor sisters, nor father nor mother surviving him, or if any of his children surviving him shall be minors, or if any of his brothers or sisters surviving him entitled to inherit shall be minors, then it shall be lawful for said employer to pay said wages to the chancery clerk of the county in which said employee resided at the time of his death, or of the county where he died. SEC. 2134. Where such wages are paid to the chancery clerk as provided in the preceding section, it shall be the duty of the chancery clerk to pay that portion of the wages of such employee which may belong to the adult children or brothers and sisters of such deceased employee, and to report to the next term of the chancery court who are the minor brothers or sisters or children of said employee, and how much is coming to each one of the heirs of said employee, and thereupon the chancery court shall enter an order upon the minutes of the court directing the payment by the chancery clerk of the shares of such minor children or brothers and sisters of such deceased employee. In any case where the employer shall pay such wages to the chancery clerk, he shall be discharged from all further liability. For receiving and disbursing the wages which may be paid to him, the clerk shall receive the commissions allowed to administrators and executors for collecting and distributing moneys belonging to the estate of a decedent. Exemption of wages from garnishment. SECTION 2139. Tenth. And the following property shall be exempt from garnishment or other legal process, to wit: (a) The wages of every laborer or person working for wages, being the head of a family, to the amount of fifty dollars per month; but this paragraph shall not apply to a debt for board and lodging or a judgment founded on a debt for board or lodging. A person contracting to do a piece of work for a fixed sum and employing laborers to work under him is not within the provisions of this statute, though he does a part of the labor himself. 18 So. Rep. 934. A laborer can not be made to lose the right given by this section by the failure of the garnisheed debtor to plead the exemption. 31 So. Rep. 965. This law can not be evaded by holding monthly balances until an aggregate exceeding the statutory limit is reached. The laborer has a right to his exemption at the end of each month unless his earnings exceed the amount exempted. 18 So. Rep. 918. Factories and workshops-Doors to swing outwardly. SECTION 2272. All the doors for ingress and egress to factories with more than twenty employees swung as to open outwardly from the such doors may be hung on double-jointed hinges, so as to open with equal ease outwardly or inwardly. * shall be so workshops; but SEC. 2277. Any architect, carpenter, or builder, or the owner or other person, who may hereafter erect or cause to be erected, or aid in erecting, any hotel or other house or structure for the construction of which provisions are made in this chapter, who shall refuse or fail to comply, in the erection or construction thereof, with such provisions, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars. SEC. 2278. Every day's omission or failure by any person to do whatever under the provisions of this chapter is required to be done or provided, shall be considered and treated as a separate offense. Railroads-Flying switches-Telltales. Flying SECTION 4046. It shall not be lawful for any railroad company or other person to switch a railroad car in the manner commonly switches. known as a "flying," "running," "walking," or "kicking" switch, within the limits of a municipality; and, in case of injury resulting to any person or property from switching in violation of this section, the railroad company shall be liable in damages, without regard to mere contributory negligence of the party injured. This section is constitutional. 72 Miss. 22. Employees are within its protection, though it there is reckless and voluntary exposure to injury. will not apply where Contributory negligence. Erection re SEC. 4051. At each point where a railroad track passes under a bridge or other overhanging object, which has not at least a clear quired. height of twenty-three feet between the low cord of the bridge or other overhanging object and the top of the rail, the railroad company shall erect, or cause to be placed, at a distance of not less than one hundred feet, nor more than two hundred and fifty feet from the bridge or other overhanging object, and on both sides thereof, the contrivance usually called "warning strings," to be constructed by stretching a wire or rope across the track at least four feet higher than the lowest projection of the bridge or other overhanging object, and suspending therefrom, over the track and for two feet on either side thereof, loose strings or ropes, to extend down at least one foot lower than the lowest projection of the bridge or other overhanging object, and to be not more than three inches apart, so as to warn brakemen and others on top of the cars if they be in danger from the bridge or other overhanging object. For a failure to comply with this section a railroad company shall be liable for any injury or death caused by the bridge or other comply. overhanging object, notwithstanding the contributory negligence of the person injured or killed, and shall also be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars a month for each bridge or other overhanging object not so provided, to be recovered by the county at the suit of any person who will sue for the same. Liability of railroad companies for injuries to employees-Fellow servants. Failure to Acts of su SECTION 4056. Every employee of a railroad corporation shall have the same rights and remedies for an injury suffered by him periors; from the act or omission of the corporation or its employees as are allowed by law to other persons not employees, where the injury results from the negligence of a superior agent or officer, or of a person having the right to control or direct the services of the party injured, and also when the injury results from the negligence of a fellow-servant engaged in another department of labor Of fellowfrom that of the party injured, or of a fellow-servant on another servants. train of cars, or one engaged about a different piece of work. Knowledge by an employee injured of the defective or unsafe character or condition of any machinery, ways, or appliances, or of the improper loading of cars, shall not be a defense to an action for injury caused thereby, except as to conductors or engineers in charge of dangerous or unsafe cars or engines voluntarily operated by them. When death ensues from an injury to an employee an action may be brought in the name of the widow of such employee for the death of the husband, or by the husband for the death of his wife, or by [for] the death of a child, or in the name of the child for the death of an only parent, for such damages as may be suffered by them respectively by reason of such death, the damages to be for the use of such widow, husband, or child, except that in case the widow should have childen, the damages shall be distributed as personal property of the husband. The legal or personal representative of the person injured shall have the same rights and remedies as are allowed by law to such representatives of other persons. In every such action the jury may give such Death. |