New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1919-11-05
COMPENSATION LAW
UPHELD BY COURT
NORTH DAkoTAsUPREME COURT
DECIDES IN FAVOR OF
PROTECTIVE ACT.
LAW IS REGARDED AS BEST OF
ITS KIND IN WHOLE
COUNTRY.

. ] g Z
BISMARCK, N. D. Two important
decisions, one involving the constitu-.
tionality of the worknen's compensa-
ton act and the other the right of the
Workrnen's compensation bureau to dis
burse its own funds without the consent
Of the state auditor, have been handed
down by the North Dakota supreme
court.
Voting four to one in each case, Jus
tice Robinson alone dissenting, the
court held that the law is constitl tional
and the bureau has the right to draw
its own warrants, since the money it
holds forms a trust fund which is not
public money.
Both decisions have been eagerly
awaited by the m en- bers of the COM
pensation bureau and the working
people generally throughout the state.
During the two months the litigation
has been before the court, the bureau
has not been able to function properly
or pay any Of the several hundred
accident and three death claims now
pending before it.
Test Case Brought.
The case testing the constitutional
lily Of the law was brought by firm
of Fargo real estate dealers who oh
iected to paying insurance premiums
for Office employees on the ground that
the work their employees were required
to do did not expose them to dangers
Of injury. On the assumption that
no hazard exists in the performance
Of Office duties, it was eontended that
the law Disseminated against employers
operating nonhazardous employments,
in that it compelled them to contribute
to fund to compensate those who may
be injured in more dangerous employ
ment.
Regarding this point Justice Bron-
son, in writing the opinion, said:
Common observation as well as or
binary reasoning readily .discloses that
even the clerk or stenographer in the
modern office in the course of his occu-
patton incurs risks vastly different than
those applicable to similar situations in
the comparatively similar conditions
that existed when the common. law
principles concerning the law Of negli-
gence arose and were applicable"
The court pointed out that the en-
ployes in several Of the less hazardous
occupations are exposed to dangers
outside Of their work while per-
forming their duties, citing as an In
stance the disaster which occurred in
| a Chicago bank when flaming diri-
gible airship crashed through the sky
lights.
All Are Insurable.
Answering the arguments of the at
torneys attacking the law that it was
not within the police powers of the
state legislature to classify all en-
Payments as hazardous, the court said
there was a well-recognized public
demand for wornnen's compensation
law covering all employments as de-
fined by the legislature, which are
presumptively hazardous as matter Of
law.
Simply because compensation acts
of other states have extended only to
certain classified and stated employ
nents, extra hazardous in their ma
lture, furnishes no grounds for the con-
1tention that hazardous means extra
hazardous when the legislative intent
is plainly contrary : said the opinion.
The court also held against the
technical contention that the law was
Unconstitutional because the title en-
tbraced more than one subject Sim
Eilarly i ruled against the argument
that the power given the bureau to CLASH
FL employments and prescribe: rates
was an improper delegation Of judicial
power.
Mrs. r. q Mueller and flaughtar