The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-01-25
EMPlOYtRS' LIABILITY Addresses Delivered Before Connecticut Manufactur-
 ers' Association

O46 6Ao6VSACsV4OA
 Hartford, Jan. 25-At a meeting held here yesterday, under the auspices of the Connecticut Manufacturers' As sociation, James A. Emery delivered vailing dissatisfaction with which nearly all classes regard the continu- ing development of our own doctrine of Employers Liability. The delays and waste incident to it's administra- tion. the social friction continually increasing and apparently inevitably attached to its administration, are a source of dissatisfaction to employer and employe.
 Scholastic thought and inquiry among. American investigators has ad- mired and approved the general prin- ciples of the German system, but po- litical Judgment has apparently favor ed the English compensation legisla- tion, and the only State which may be said to have adopted any general scheme of compensation, New York has substantially followed the princi- pies and indeed largely adopted the phraseology of the British Act of 1906. It is natural We should turn with sympathy and hopefulness to the methods and experience of the mother country from whom we have
  methods of judicial interpretation, and administration. We are inclined to feel that England, more than any oth- CT nation, represents an experimental field from which We can most close ly gather the effect of these novel to our own. So we find that the State of New York has enacted into law. and the Employers Liability Conn missioners of nine States, who met in conference at Chicago, endorsed prin- ciples and details of administration which were practically embodied in the English Act.
 MT. Emery then proceeded to outline the origin and development of the British Compensation Acts, beginning with the limited experimental legisla- tion in 1897 and 1900 and going in some detail into the existing Act of 1906, the last expression of Parliament up- on compensation ''The Act Provides" he said, ''that every employer shall ploy for personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of There is but one bar to recovery; if the accident be due to the serious and wilful misconduct of the injured person. provided how ever If it results In serious or perma- nent disability. the workman may re-
 
 full his misconduct may have been nor no matter how seriously that con- duct may affect the life or limb of others or the property of the em- ployer.
 The workman is entitled to receive under the Act weekly payments not to exceed 50 per cent of his earnings at the time of the accident, but in no event more than I g or $5 per week. In the event of his death as the re- suit of injury, his dependents, includ- ing an illegitimate child or children, are to receive not less than G15O ($75o) nor more than G30O ($1,500.) In the event of the insolvency of the employ CT, a workman to whom compensation is awarded is a preferred creditor to the extent of s100 ($500) and if the insolvent employer is insured, the workman Is vested with claim against the insurance company, the same as that possessed by the employ CT on behalf of the injured man. The workman must submit to medical ex- animation at the employers request and expense and his claim for com pensation cannot be considered until he does. The compensation awarded is subject to increase or decrease in accordance with the diminution or in- crease of the disability The employ CT may at any tine commute compen-
  able to the injured man but subject to the approval of the registrar of the County Court. and after compensation has been paid for six months, the enl- ployer may compel the communication by purchasing life annuity from the Postal Savings Bank, which will assure to the injured man weekly amount of compensation he is receiv- ing at the time of the application for 
 "The liabilities of the Act" said the speaker, rested chiefly in the defini- tion of the work workman upon the understanding of what is personal injury by accident when 1t could be of employment" and the meaning of the term "earnings." These defini- tions were discussed at considerable length and 1t was pointed out that the word workman" included every per- son engaged in manual labor or other wise whose income was less than 250 ($1 ,250) per year. A few excep- lions to this rule were discussed, and 1t was made plain that the term in- cluded many classes not commonly designated as workmen, such for in- stance, as professional ball players. Personal injury by accident was shown to include. by the decision of the f1OuS6 Ol LOTOS duu tH0 SOurIS of Appeal. not only injuries which the direct result of the accident but which were indirectly occasioned by it, as, for instance, when a man in a weak physical condition suffered slight injury which owing to the state of his body, resulted seriously. Thus is frequently paid for the results of an accident which are due to disease, nor is it nec- essary that injury should be produc- ed by the application of an external force. It may arise from shock or fright, producing a nervous condition of the shock arising out of any inci- dent of employment. The term in- cludes infectious if not contagious diseases"
 The speaker went on to discuss when the accident could be said to arise out of employment, and gave many illustrations of the appli- cation of the principle, such as the case of a teamster bitten by the stable cat, boy frightened by rat, house maid losing her life in the fire which she was sleeping, or laundress prick ing her finger with a pin. Compen- sation, he explained, was based upon the earnings of the employe at the time of the accident, the "earnings' being much wider than wages as, for instance, when the employe was engaged in concurrent employments Thus, a gardnerer, performing ser vice for number of people, if injur- ed in the employment of one, his would be equal to his earnings from all. It was finally pointed out that the bar to recovery