Court Opinion

ID: 9851404
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:12:06.767151+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:55.485508
License: Public Domain

Riley, Judge,
dissenting:
In deference I dissent from the holding of the Court in reversing the judgment of the Circuit Court of Boone County, setting aside the verdict of the jury, and awarding the defendant a new trial. In so dissenting, I do not disagree with the postulates contained in all of the points óf the syllabus, as, in my opinion, the points of the syllabus set forth correct propositions of law.
I definitely agree with the abstract statements contained in point 2 of the syllabus that: (1) The employment of a child in violation of the provisions of Article 6, Chapter 21, of the Code, as amended, is actionable negli*929gence only when such violation is the natural and proximate cause of the injury, and (2) in an action based on negligence in the employment of a child in violation of the child labor act, an employer is not liable for having permitted or suffered a child to continue in his employment, unless he knew, or should have known, that the child was performing work for the employer. I am of opinion, however, that this record contains sufficient probative evidence from which the jury could find from a preponderance thereof that the defendant knowingly and in violation of Code, 21-6-1, as amended, “permitted or suffered [the plaintiff, an infant under sixteen years of age] to work in, about or in connection” with defendant’s sawmill, which defendant was operating on West Fork Creek, in Boone County, at the time plaintiff was injured; and that such violation of the statute was, at least for jury determination, the natural and proximate cause of plaintiff’s injury.
As the verdict of the jury was in plaintiff’s favor, the holding of the Court in this case fails to apply the rule of law governing the consideration of jury trials of actions involving personal injuries, well established in the practice and procedure of this State, and stated in point 1 of the syllabus of Fielder, Admx. v. Service Cab Co., 122 W. Va. 522, 11 S. E. 2d 115, that: “Before directing a verdict in defendant’s favor, every reasonable and legitimate inference favorable to the plaintiff fairly arising from the evidence, considered as a whole, should be entertained by the trial court, and those facts should be assumed as true which the jury may properly find under the evidence”, which postulate has been applied by this Court in many cases, the last of which is contained in point 1 of the syllabus of Butcher v. Stull, decided at this term of Court, on June 8, 1954, in which this Court held: “In determining whether the verdict of a jury is supported by the evidence, every reasonable and legitimate inference, fairly arising from the evidence in favor of the party for whom the verdict was returned, must be con*930sidered, and those facts, which the jury might properly find under the evidence, assumed as true.”
In all deference to the able Judge who wrote the opinion of the Court and the members of the Court who concurred therein, I am constrained to dissent from the decision arrived at by the Court, because, as disclosed by the syllabus of the opinion and the opinion itself, the Court arrived at its decision to reverse the judgment of the trial court of Boone County, set aside the verdict of the jury and grant the defendant a new trial on the unsound assumptions that: (1) The child labor statute, Article 6, Chapter 21 of the Code, as amended, is applicable only to a child under sixteen years of age who is “employed * * * in connection with any gainful occupation other than agriculture, horticulture or domestic service in a private home”; (2) that the record contains no probative evidence from which the jury could find from a preponderance thereof that the defendant “permitted or suffered”, the plaintiff, Billie Harper, an infant under the age of sixteen years, to work in violation of the provisions of Article 6, Chapter 21, of the Code, as amended; and (3) that the plaintiff at the time he was injured was not engaged in a “gainful occupation other than agriculture, horticulture or domestic service in a private home”. I shall at this time discuss in seriatim the assumptions, which I deem unsound, upon which the Court arrived at its decision.
In the first place only a casual reading of Section 1 of Code, 21-6, as amended, convinces me that a child under sixteen years of age need not be “employed”, in order to bring such child within the purview of Section 1. This section is expressed in clear and unambiguous language. The pertinent provision thereof is: “No child under sixteen years of age shall be * * * permitted or suffered to work”- in the occupations inhibited by the statute.
Secondly, applying the rule, which has become imbedded in the practice and procedure of this State involv*931ing the verdicts of juries in actions to recover for personal injuries, contained in point 1 of the syllabus of Fielder, Admx. v. Service Cab Co., supra, and in point 1 of Butcher v. Stull, supra, this record contains beyond peradventure sufficient probative evidence from which the jury could have found, as it did, that the defendant knew, or should have known, that plaintiff at the time he was injured was working in and about defendant’s sawmill in violation of the statute. Plaintiff’s mother, Lottie Mae Harper, testified as to the kind of work, she, her husband, Hansford Harper, and the plaintiff, Billie Harper, did in and about defendant’s sawmill. She testified that “We would sweep and shovel the saw dust from all around the saws where it fell, and we took and throwed it in the chain line. We would sweep it up and get it on the shovel, and Billie would carry it and throw it in the chain line.” Plaintiff’s father testified that on an occasion when plaintiff’s father, mother, small brother, and plaintiff were working at the sawmill, the defendant came through the mill and remarked, “Well, we’ve got a gang of night watchmen here tonight.” Plaintiff testified that on another occasion S. T. Miller, defendant’s foreman at the sawmill, saw plaintiff working, and asked him, “Are you working hard?” and after plaintiff had answered affirmatively, the foreman remarked, “That’s the way you get get it done.” Mrs. Harper also testified that the defendant Cook and defendant’s foreman Miller saw plaintiff and his mother working at the sawmill, after plaintiff was burned, and Ettis Miller, defendant’s employee, after denying on direct examination that plaintiff had “any job of work around the mill”, testified that plaintiff “was down there helping clean up the sawdust. I don’t know what he was doing— whether he was working cleaning up or not.”
And, finally, that plaintiff was engaged in a gainful occupation, when he was helping his father in the performance of his father’s duties in cleaning up the sawdust around the mill, cannot be gainsaid. As Section 1 of the statute does not require an infant under sixteen years of *932age to be employed in the relationship of master and servant in order to bring the infant within the scope of the statute, plaintiff, in helping his father in his work of sweeping and cleaning the sawmill, was employed in a gainful occupation; and this position is consonant with the legislative intent, when we consider that the statute excepts in express language infants engaged in the work of agriculture, horticulture, or domestic service in a private home.
A violation of a statute such as Section 1 of Code, 21-6, constitutes actionable negligence, when that violation is the natural and proximate cause of the injury. Norman v. Virginia-Pocahontas Coal Co., 68 W. Va. 405, 69 S. E. 857, 31 L. R. A. (N. S.) 504, 42 L. R. A. (N. S.) 626n, 48 L. R. A. (N. S.) 658n, and 668n; Wills v. Montfair Gas Coal Co., 104 W. Va. 12, 21, 138 S. E. 749. Such being the principle of law which should control the decision in this case, it is my considered opinion that it was within the sole province of the jury to find that, if plaintiff had not been working at defendant’s sawmill in the manner disclosed by this record, he would not have been injured; and, therefore, defendant’s violation of the statute, under the verdict of the jury, was the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injury. After all, it must be said that Code, 21-6, the child labor statute, was enacted with the underlying salutary purpose of protecting children from the hazards of dangerous employment. The statute, therefore, in its very terms is remedial, and, being clear in its terms, should be liberally applied to effectuate the intention of the Legislature. As Code, 21-6, in Section 1 thereof is remedial in its nature, and in Sections 9 and 10 thereof is penal in its terms, the statute, in so far as it is remedial, should be liberally applied to the end that the evil sought to be corrected and the relief which the Legislature intended to afford should be effectuated. State ex rel. Reeves v. Ross, 62 W. Va. 7, 57 S. E. 284. In so far as the statute is penal in its nature, it should be strictly con*933strued and applied. State v. Cunningham, 90 W. Va. 806, 111 S. E. 835.
I simply say with deference to the members of this Court, who participated in the opinion of the Court, that this case has been decided in direct contravention of the clear and mandatory provisions of the child labor law, contained in Code, 21-6, and in disregard of the mandate of the legislative fiat contained therein.
For these reasons I would affirm the judgment of the Circuit Court of Boone County.