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WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION AND INSURANCE cide whether or not each wished to come under the act In some states, another type o! statute called an elective presumptive act was passed. Under such an act, the employer or employee is presumed to come under the act unless he files to the contrary pnor to the occurrence of an injury In 1917, the United States Supreme Court finally declared that a state may en act and enforce a workmen's compensation law under its power (to provide for the public health, safety, and welfare) without violating the 14th Amendment to the Con stitution of the United States Many states then passed compulsory laws, compliance with which was mandatory for certain em ployments, with penalties imposed for noncompliance At the present time, compensation acts of one type or another are in effect m the fifty states and four territories * Purpose of laws One of the mam purposes of workmen's compensation laws was to eliminate the lia bility based solely on proof of the employ er's negligence and to substitute for it a system of liability for accidents regardless of the employer's fault This change was intended to prevent the injured worker from becoming a public charge who would have to be supported either by the taxpay ers or by charitable organizations The principle underlying these laws was that liability for industrial accidents should be regarded as part of the cost of operating a business so that the cost of such accidents would be transferred from the worker and the employer to the consumer Under the compensation system, the em ployer surrendered his right to insist on proof of negligence and his right to inter pose the common law defensesImd accepted a certain but limited liability without fault At the same time, labor surrendered its right to sue for unlimited damages and ac cepted a certain but limited liability of the employer This system eliminated specula tion bargaining on damages `Discussion in this paragraph and in sev eral preceding paragraphs adapted in part from Noel S Symons "Trends m Compen sation Attitudes " The Monitor (April 1952). Elements of Workmen's Compensation Laws State workmen's compensation acts gen erally cover accidental injuries arising out of and in the course of employment Since state acts vary, it is important to distin guish between accidental injury and dis ease In general, an accident may be defined as a sudden and unexpected event, occurring at a definite tune and place In most laws, the term also includes any disease directly the result of, or a pre existing condition aggravated by, an acci dental injury An industrial disease con tracted independently of an accidental in jury is another consideration and usually is treated separately under the heading "occu pational disease '* The requirement in most laws that the injury "arise out of and in the course of employment" is interpreted differently in various jurisdictions The trend, however, has been to award benefits where there is a causal relationship between the injury and the employment, no matter how slight In some jurisdictions, an employee may forfeit his right to compensation or have his benefits for a compensable injury re duced by intoxication, deliberate infliction of injury upon himself, violation of safety rules, violation of a law or an order, devia tion from his work to attend to personal affairs, or other actions that can be de scribed, as intentional or wilful misconduct Compulsory and elective laws Compensation laws are either compulsory or elective A compulsory statute requires eveiy employer withm its scope to jpay the compensation specified Under an elective act, the employer may either accept or re ject the act, but if he rejects it, he loses the customary common law defenses--as sumed nsk of employment, negligence of fellow servants, and contributory negli gence This loss of defenses and the limitation of liability are great incentives to employ ers to accept the act with its benefits as well as its burdens If the employee rejects the act, his employer retains his defenses if he himself has accepted the act Usually, agriculture, domestic service, casual employment, and (m some laws) JT-1