Document k9QQokM4nRe0rwZ1XYEEpo3pO

FILE NAME: Maryland Casualty Company (MCC) DATE: 1934 July 28 DOC#: MCC010 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Article from The Weekly Underwriter - Disease or Injury-Occypational Disease-Negligence [Legal Case] '7. r jijJUjA U 'fol Published every Satur day by the Under writer Pig. and Pub. Co., 80 Maiden Lane, New York, N. Y. Sub scription-Five Dollars per annum in advance. Single copies, 25 cts. Canadian subscription, $8 per annum. f e tfSMlg Im tariter BSTABLISHBD 1839 This paper is indexed in The Industrial Arts Index Entered at Second Class Matter March 28, 1880, at the Post Office at New York, N . Y u n d e r the act o f March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1933, The Underwriter Printing and Publishing Co. wrJ 1WWWW^ W'WMMWWawMBffliWBWW r SWW L. A l e x a n d e r M a c k , President P ercy W. B a s in g e r , Secretary F ia n k 33. S iM r s o N , Statistician C h a r l e s F. H o w e l l , Vice-President and Editor E. T. C u n n i n g h a m , Editor Casualty Dept. W a l t e r E. S c h r a m , Editor Fire Dept. C. B . P e t r i e , Editor L ife Defft. F r e d . S. K n i g h t , Editor Ingal D ept Voi. 131 SATURDAY, JU L Y 28, 1934 No. 4 Semi-Annual Index Bus Regulation Accompanying this issue as Part Two is our regular As a result of the shocking bus accident at Ossining, semi-annual index which makes available hundreds of N. Y., Gov. Lehman plans legislation to protect travelers items of insurance interest published in this publication dur who use this mode of transportation. Rigid inspection of ing the first half of the year. This compilation is a valuable buses used in New York city was ordered by Mayor La- reference work and is frequently used by readers to look Guardia who termed the ownership) of these machines as up topics upon which they desire to refresh their minds. "elusive and irresponsible" in many instances. Following the Ossining mishap, the police were unable to locate the Dan Cupid Back in Form owner of the bus. It bore New Jersey markers but in Of general insurance interest is the survey just com quiry at the address of the concern supposed to own the pleted by the Metropolitan Life which shows that, his machine, which was a garage, elicited the information activities curtailed for sometime by the economic depres that the owners simply called for their mail at that loca sion, Dan Cupid has flashed hack in old time form and, tion. It appears the total insurance carried on the bus as a result, the number of marriages gained in every sec was $5.000--a sum wholly inadequate to compensate the tion of the country for the first half of the year. From dependents of those whose lives were snuffed out. This 1920 to 1932, in the States covered by the survey, the accident, while, one of the most serious, climaxed a num marriage rate dropped 7.5 per cent from normal but the ber of bus cashes throughout the country in the past few rate increased 4.3 per cent in the same States late last year months. The owners of these conveyances have a definite and this increase held for the first six months of 1934, responsibility to the public and the authorities should see the statistics show. Improved economic conditions in that State and municipal regulations are strictly adhered Chicago resulted in 407 divorce suits being withdrawn, to. Testimony of those who escaped at Ossining was to Judge C. J. Harrington of that city announces. Some the effect that the driver, previous to the car getting out thing lias happened to change the marriage'ideas of co-eds of control, complained that the brakes were out of order. attending the University of California at Los Angeles In all probability the New York legislature will pass what who this year admit by a large majority that they prefer ever new laws Gov. Lehman asks but laws are useless marriage to a career. Last unless enforced and the trag year the vote was just about edy at Ossining again demon the reverse. Every town strates the care that must be clerk in the country, accord exercised in the transportation ing to the survey, reports "the of passengers by motor buses. biggest June for marriage ap plications since 1929" with Can't Stop U. S. Chicago having 5,145 June Notwithstanding all the weddings compared with 3,754 conservatism of the stand last year. Even in Reno, the patters and the radicalism of divorce mill of the nation, the radicals nothing can pre Cupid triumphed in June there vent the United States from being 621 weddings against resuming normal economic 220 divorces. Officials asked conditions in the very near in the Metropolitan's survey future, Dr. S. S. Huebner, of to account for the change the University of Pennsyl agreed that re-employment, in vania, told the Indiana Chap creased earnings and better ter of Chartered Life Under business prospects was the an writers. Dr. Huebner, who swer. This survey is good is widely known throughout news for the insurance busi the insurance fraternity for ness--and every other busi his accurate economic prognos ness. Newly-weds, exped tications, discussed the eco ience shows, arc the best type nomic situation at s o m e of prospects for various kinds length before the C. L. U. of insurance, starting with wed men and then made the above ding gifts. I t's the success of prediction which, needless to * Dan Cupid, after all, that say, was enthusiastically ac [ makes the world go 'round. claimed by his audience. July 28, 1934 181 was riding seven cars back from the engine and got off at the switch to get the engine as it ran around the cars ; that he stepped upon a piece of coke which rolled under his foot, and fell backward hitting his head upon a rail. After the cars were weighed, in which operation claimant assisted, they were put in the cokcyard. The movement was entirely local within the switchyards. He testified that he did not know whether the cars went any place after they were weighed and placed upon another track nor did he know how long they remained after they were put there. He did not assist in mak ing any delivery to any connecting rtilroad, had no waybills for the cars, and "it was just a local switching movement within the yard." Upon cross-examination plaintiff tes tified that at the time of the accident the cars were going to the scales loaded with coke which was going to the yard, that "some of it goes to South Chicago, some of it goes up for the furnaces." Claimant also testified that at the time of the injury he was en gaged in miscellaneous switching and all of his work was up at the coke ovens and in the switchyard ; that the nature of his work was switching cars and working on a switch engine. The Industrial Board dismissed the application for the adjustment of claim for compensation on the ground of lack of juris diction. Claimant appealed. Held, that Section 2 of the Workmen's Compensation Act provides that the act shall not apply to railroad employees "engaged in train service." Section 19 provides that the act shall not apply to employees engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, nor to their employers in case the laws of the United States provide for compensation or for lia bility for injury or death by accident of such employees. The railroad employee claiming compensation has the. burden of showing that he comes within the Workmen's Compensa tion Act and therefore that he was not engaged in train service or interstate trans portation at the time of the injury. The evi dence conclusively showed that claimant was engaged exclusively in switching cars from one part of the local yard to another, and at no time was engaged in train service. The term "train service" should be construed to include employees who are actually engaged in the movement of trains which means a connected line of cars or carriages on a railroad being transported from one terminal to another. This does not mean a mere move ment of cars in a switchyard either for the purpose of making up trains or placing them in one part of the yard from another. Claim ant was engaged exclusively in the local movement of cars loaded with coke which had been picked up at the coke ovens and which were eventually placed within the rail road yards. As claimant's service was ex clusively within the yards as switchman he could not be said to be engaged in interstate commerce within the meaning of the W ork men's Compensation Act. Award denying petition for adjustment of claim reversed. Award of the Industrial Board here re versed by the Appellate Court of Indiana. 190 North Eastern 879. (June 22, 1934.) North Carolina M cN eely v. Carolina A sbestos Co. Disease or Injury--Occupational Disease --Negligence Plaintiff brought a common law action to recover damages alleging that he was em ployed by the defendant as a spinner from December, 1929, to March, 1931; that the room in which he worked was improperly ventilated; that the atmosphere therein was impregnated with fine asbestos d u st; that such dust was permitted to accumulate by reason of the negligent failure of the de fendant to provide a dust system or suction system, or to take any other precaution for the protection of the health of an employee, and that by reason of such negligence the inhalation of such dust impaired and de stroyed his health, resulting in pulmonary asbestosis. Defendant denied the allegation of negligence and alleged that both plaintiff and defendant were operating under the North Carolina Workmen's Compensation Act, and that the rights and remedies con ferred by the act were exclusive of all other rights and remedies. On the trial the plain tiff testified that he had been working for the defendant for about fifteen months, and that his duties required him to work in a room filled with asbestos dust which was poorly ventilated. He further testified that when he entered the service of the Carolina Asbestos Company the condition of his health was good, and that during the first ten months he worked for the defendant com pany he never lost a day and during the last five months he got to coughing and at the time he quit he was not able to work. A physician examined as a witness for plaintiff testified that plaintiff was suffering with pul monary asbestosis. At the conclusion of the evidence for the plaintiff the trial court sus tained a motion of non-suit. Plaintiff ap pealed. Held, that both employer and employee are presumed to have accepted the North Caro lina Workmen's Compensation Act. As the evidence disclosed that at all times the de fendant had in its employ more than five employees the jurisdictional question was not involved. Section 8081 (i), Code 1931 pro vides that " `injury and personal injury' shall mean only injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment, and shall not include a disease in any form, except where it results naturally and un avoidably from the accident." The term occupational disease has been defined as a disease contracted in the usual and ordinary course of events which from the common experience of humanity is known to be in cidental to a particular employment. The allegation and the proof of the plaintiff es tablished the fact that his injury was caused by the negligence of the employer and hence was not "the usual incident or the result of a particular employment in which the work man is engaged." The word "accident" has been defined as an unlooked for and untoward event which is not expected or designed by the person who suffers the injury. As used in the North Carolina Workmen's Compen sation Act the expression "injury by acci dent" refers to an injury produced without the design or expectation of the workman. The unforeseen and therefore accidental in halation of deleterious matter cannot be de prived of its accidental quality by the mere consideration of whether it took five days or five months to produce the same result. The injury alleged in the complaint was com pensable and therefore the trial court prop erly directed a verdict for the defendant. Judgment affirmed. Judgment of the Superior Court, Mecklen burg County, here affirmed by the Supreme Court of North Carolina. 174 South Eastern 509. (May 23, 1934.) l n r i i N 5URANCE LAW i l r ^ V JOURNAL it^ f l ] [| i| n O fT O M U * am... mtdgmm ha MUDM tew " a * *15.00 yer STUDY INSURANCE LAW! 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