Norwich bulletin., 1914-10-28
STATE MUST PAY IN SHELBY CASE
Compensation Commissioner Decides the Wndham County
 Sheriff Was Enploye Within the Meaning of the Statute
 -orders Payment of $1o Per Week for 312 Weeks Also for Medical Expenses and $1oo for Burial

dicial notice. the following may be found:
 | (a) Among English speaking peoples the principle of Workmen's Compen- sation was first recognized in Great Britain. Of the twenty oGd American states which have since legislated on this subject, most. if not all, have bor-
 rowed largely from the very language
 of the British Act. Chief Justice Rugg of the Supreme Court of Massachu- setts in the opinion in McNichols case,
 215 Mass, page 499, uses this language: "The exact words to be interpreted are I found in the English Workmen's Com pensation Act and doubtless come sions of English courts before the adoption of our Act are entitled to weight"
 (b} The converse of this is also true, for the same judge speaking for the same court in Gaynor's case recently decided and reported in Massachusetts Industrial Accident Boards Bulletin No. '. page 124, in speaking about the difference in phraseology between cer- tain sections of the Massachusetts Act and the British Act says that this diff ference in phraseology cannot be treat ed as unintentional, but must be re- garded as deliberately designed and says that this consideration is to be noted because the English Act was followed in many respects closely by our act and hence even slight diff ferences of phraseology may be as- ! sumed to have significance.
 Co The subject of Workmen's Com pensation in Connecticut has been be- 1 fore the people of the state for 8
 considerable period of time. Two diff 1 ferent commissions to investigate and report on this subject have been ap- pointed by two different governors l The last commission made a report which was to large extent the basis of our present statute l (d) At the session of the general assembly in 1913 the judiciary com
 mittee and the committee on labor, l sitting together, made an exhaustive examination Of this entire field of leg 1 islation. They held many hearings and had before them the statutes of
 & number of our sister states. from several of which they took bodily whole sections and paragraphs, notably l so from the statutes of Wisconsin and Michigan.
 (e) The legislature of Wisconsin in defining the term employee" has used in their Act general terms very sim liar to those used in paragraph 43 of our Act, and evidently considered that these general terms were sufficient to include public officials because they place after these general terms the | following exceptions: except any of- flcial of the state or of any county, city. town, village or school district 1 tLerein''
 | (f) The state of Michigan also uses similar general terms. followed by eX- captions in almost the same language.
 (g) Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska took the same course.
 I The exact language of the Nebraska, statute is interesting. We quote: Every person in the service of the state or of any governmental agency
 created by it. under any appointment or contract, either expressed or inn
 piled, oral or written, but shall not
 include any official of the state or of any governmental agency created by
 it. who shall have been elected or ap! i pointed for ], regular term of office ! or to complete the uneXpired portion 1 of any regular tern.''
 | A Decision in Point.
 ii California does not have this express of employees, and accordingly we find in Vol 1, paragraph Il, of the De- . c1sions of Industrial Accident Commis- } sion of California, an award made to
 the widow of a town marshal in the
 town of Rocklin, the marshal having met with an accident. resulting in death.> while engaged in the perform ance of his duty. This decision was
 rendered July, 1914. and is more near ly in point tha many other decfsion
 which I have been able to find.
 Bearing in mind the principles laid down by Judge Rugg in the Gaynor
 case, the action of the Connecticut
 legislature in leaving out of paragraph
 4S any exception as to public officials
 is very significant. They had before them for study all of these statutes
 Had they desired to exclude public officials, and their dependents from the operation of the Act. it would have ? been very easy to so state, and the omission to exclude this class of per 1, sons is significant.
 Sheriff an EmpIoye of State. It is true as argued by the state that in one sense of the word, there is no contract between public off Ger and the state and the sole legal } doubt which presents itself to my mind is, as to whether the term used "any