MINERS-SOLICITING FUNDS FROM PROHIBITED. SOLICITING FUNDS FROM MINERS PROHIBITED. LAWS 1897, P. 157. JUNE 15, 1897. AN ACT for the better protection of employees in and about the coal mines, by preventing mine superintendents, mine foremen and assistants from receiving or soliciting any sums of money, or other valuable consideration, from men while in their employ, and providing a penalty for violation of the same. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: That on and after the passage of this act that any mine superintendent, mine foreman or assistant foreman, or any other person or persons, who shall receive or solicit any sum of money, or other valuable consideration, from any of his or their employees for the purpose of continuing in his or their employ, or for the purpose of procuring employment, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be subject to a fine not less than fifty dollars, nor more than three hundred dollars, and undergo an imprisonment of not less than six months, or both, at the discretion of the court. SEC. 2. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith be and the same are hereby repealed. ANNOTATIONS. SOLICITING MONEY FROM MINERS. 1. CONSTRUCTION AND APPLICATION OF ACT-PENAL PROVISIONS. 3. VIOLATION BY MINE FOREMAN, 1. CONSTRUCTION AND APPLICATION OF ACT-PENAL PROVISIONS. This statute is not to be construed to mean that miners are in the actual employ of a mine foreman, and the words "his or their employees" should not be given a literal meaning. Commonwealth v. Jones, 64 Pa. Super. Ct. Rep. 385, p. 387. This act should be interpreted in the spirit in which it was written and with the legislative intent in mind. The rule of strict construction of penal statutes is not violated by giving the words a meaning according to the sense in which they were intended to be used. The act should not be so strictly construed as to defeat the intention of the legislature and in such manner as to take from the words used the meaning intended and apply to them a meaning that might obtain by a literal interpretation. Commonwealth v. Jones, 64 Pa. Super. Ct. Rep. 385, p. 387. The words of this statute “his or their” are used in a descriptive sense. The foreman, and superintendent being referred to in his representative capacity having the right or power to employ, control and discharge; and when the words “his or their” are used as to the employees it describes the relation between them and the foreman, the persons who are affected by this act as being under his or their immediate control and supervision and for this purpose they are his or their employees. It is a colloquial expression of employees to speak of a foreman as their employer, rather than the owner or operator. Commonwealth v. Jones, 64 Pa. Super. Ct. Rep. 385, p. 388. 2. PURPOSE OF ACT TITLE. It was the purpose of this act to strike down an intolerable practice enforced by unscrupulous persons desiring to profit from persons dependent upon their grace for daily wages. Commonwealth v. Jones, 64 Pa. Super. Ct. Rep. 385, p. 388. The title of this act clearly indicates its purpose to be for the better protection of employees in and about coal mines by preventing mine foremen from receiving any consideration from miners while they are employed with him in a mine. Commonwealth v. Jones, 64 Pa. Super. Ct. Rep. 385, p. 387. 3. VIOLATION BY MINE FOREMEN. A mine foreman who receives money from an employee for the purpose of continuing him in the employment is guilty of a misdemeanor under section 1 of this act. Commonwealth v. Jones, 64 Pa. Super. Ct. Rep. 385, p. 388. MINERS' WAGES. INSOLVENT MINE OPERATORS-MINERS' WAGES. LAWS 1849, P. 337. APRIL 2, 1849. AN ACT for the protection of miners, mechanics and laborers in certain counties. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc. : That in all assignments of property, whether real or personal, which shall hereafter be made by any person or persons, or chartered company, engaged in the mining of coal, either as owners of the soil or having a lease of a coal mine or mines, or by any person or persons owning or leasing forges, furnaces, rolling mills, nail factories, machine shops or foundries, to trustees or assignees, on account of inability at the time of the assignment to pay his or their debts, the wages of the miners, mechanics and laborers employed by such person or persons, or chartered company, in and about such business aforesaid, shall be first preferred and paid by such trustees or assignees before any other creditor or creditors of the assignor: Provided, That the claims of each miner, mechanic and laborer thus preferred, shall not exceed fifty dollars. SEC. 2. That in all cases of the death of any person or persons engaged in the operations aforesaid, the wages of each miner, mechanic and laborer employed as aforesaid, not exceeding fifty dollars, shall rank and be paid immediately before rents as they are now payable in such cases by existing laws. SEC. 3. In all cases of execution, landlords' warrants, attachments and writs of a similar nature, hereafter to be issued against any person or persons, or chartered company, engaged in the operations before mentioned, it shall be lawful for such miners, laborers and mechanics to give notice of their claim or claims, and the amount thereof, to the officer executing either of such writs, at any time before the actual sale of property levied on, and such officers shall pay to such miners, mechanics or laborers out of the proceeds of sale, the amount each is justly and legally entitled to receive, not exceeding fifty dollars, in like manner as rents are now payable in such cases: Provided, That the provisions of this act shall only extend to Schuylkill, Berks, Washington, Center, Somerset, Westmoreland and Carbon Counties. (Amended. See pp. 371, 373.) ANNOTATIONS. MINERS' WAGES. 1. CONSTRUCTION OF ACT. 2. APPLICATION TO PROPERTY OF MINE OPERATORS. 3. MINERS AND LANDLORD-PRIORITY OF RIGHT TO PROCEEDS OF JUDICIAL SALE. 4. PRESENTMENT AND PAYMENT OF CLAIMS. 5. DEBTS DUE MINERS-LIABILITY OF STOCKHOLDERS. 6. SALE OF PARTNER'S INTEREST-RIGHTS OF MINERS. 7. LEASE-LESSEE'S RIGHT TO MINE. 1. CONSTRUCTION OF ACT. This act of April, 1849, confined to the counties named, gives the preference to miners and others employed in and about the business of mining coal for the purpose of securing their wages but limits the amount to $50. Reed's Appeal, 18 Pa. St. 235, p. 237. The act of April 2, 1849, is for the protection of miners and employees in mines in certain counties and is not affected by the act of March 30, 1859, the provisions of which are limited to collieries and coal mining. Vastine's Appeal, 38 Pa. St. 164, p. 165. The word "lien" is of the same origin as the word liable and the right of lien expresses the liability of certain property for a certain legal duty, or a right to resort to the property in order to enforce the duty. Wood's Appeal, 30 Pa. St. 274, p. 279. See Vastine's Appeal, 38 Pa. St. 164, p. 165. 2. APPLICATION TO PROPERTY OF MINE OPERATORS. There is nothing in the language in the act which limits the liens of miners and laborers to the property at the mines. This, in case of insolvency, may be insufficient for the payment of the claims of the miners, mechanics, and laborers. The property usually consists of cars, mules, mining tools, and machinery employed in preparing coal for market. There is no presumption from the character of this property, that it is a result of the labors of the miners and these have no peculiar equity against such property arising from the presumption that it is a result from their own labor. The money arising from the coal mined and sold is the real product of the labor of the miner. If an equity exists in favor of the miners for labor performed it is more in the property purchased with money derived from the sale of coal and owned by the mine operator than in the small and perhaps practically valueless property actually used in mining. The lien given by this statute, therefore, is not limited to the immediate property used in mining the coal. Reed's Appeal, 18 Pa. St. 235, p. 237. The miner engaged in his subterranean employment has limited opportunities for ascertaining the circumstances of his employer in time to adopt measures to secure his wages, and his circumstances preclude an early and vigilant assertion of his claim by process of law which the other creditors may adopt without hazarding their means of subsistence. The legislature by the act of 1849 sought to give the miner a sufficient remedy for securing the amount due him for his labor. Under this act a preference given for the amount due for service is not limited to the personal property at the mine but extends to the entire personal estate of the mine operator.. Reed's Appeal, 18 Pa. St. 235, p. 238. 8. MINERS AND LANDLORD-PRIORITY OF RIGHT TO PROCEEDS OF JUDICIAL SALE. The legislature did not intend by the act of April 2, 1849, to do anything that is unreasonable or dishonest. The act intended to give to the miner a preference in the distribution of the proceeds of a judicial sale of the property that truly belongs to their employers, but it did not intend that other people's property should be taken to pay the miners. The law declares that a landlord's right to resume his title for arrears of rent is discharged by the judicial sale and such a sale disposes not only of the tenant's right but also a part of the landlord's. This right of the landlord is a contract right and the legislature did not intend to impair it. For these reasons the arrears of rent on a judicial sale by the landlord are payable out of the proceeds of such sale, in preference to the claims of miners and mechanics under this statute. Woods Appeal, 30 Pa. St. 274, p. 279. 125672°-20-24 The act of April 2, 1849, does not take away from the landlord, in favor of miners and laborers, the priority to which he was entitled by the law as it stood when the lease was made. Wood's Appeal, 30 Pa. St. 274, p. 279. Where a landlord had, by express contract, as well as under the law, a right of distress for his rent and a preference therefor over all other claims in case of judicial sale, it can not be supposed that the legislature meant to disregard this right by the enactment of this statute. The landlord's preference, given under existing statutes under such, is superior to the preference given the miners by this act. Where the proceeds of the sale are not sufficient to pay the rent due the landlord, the whole must go to him in preference to the miners. Wood's Appeal, 30 Pa. St. 274, p. 280. See Vastine's Appeal, 38 Pa. St. 164, p. 165. The legislature by this act intended to give the claims of miners and laborers not exceeding $50 a preference over the rights of execution creditors where the money for distribution arises from the sale of the personal property of the employer. Vastine's Appeal, 38 Pa. St. 164, p. 165. Under the act of April 2, 1849, where a fund for distribution arises from the proceeds of the sale of the personal property of a mine operator on execution in favor of general creditors, the miners and employees in and about the mine operated by the execution debtor have a preference right not exceeding $50 over the rights of the execution creditors. Vastine's Appeal, 38 Pa. St. 164, p. 165. 4. PRESENTMENT AND PAYMENT OF CLAIMS. This act allows miners a new remedy for their claims by declaring that they may present them for payment to the sheriff, and that such claims shall be paid in a like manner as rents are payable in such cases. But the act says nothing about the order of payment, and therefore it does not affect the priority that was given to the landlord by existing statutes. The act did not intend to change the rights of landlords, but to give a new and speedier remedy to miners against the property of their employer. Wood's Appeal, 30 Pa. St. 274, p. 280. Under this act the claims of miners are preferred liens against the debtor's goods to be settled out of the proceeds of a sale upon execution before the execution creditor can take anything. Beatty's Appeal, 3 Grant's Cases, 213, p. 215. 5. DEBTS DUE MINERS-LIABILITY OF STOCKHOLDERS. Under the supplemental act of March 27, 1854 (P. L. 215), stockholders of corporations are jointly and severally liable for debts due miners, quarrymen, and other laborers employed by such companies. Weiss v. Mauch Chunk Iron Co., 58 Pa. St. 295, p. 303. 6. SALE OF PARTNER'S INTEREST-RIGHTS OF MINERS. A judicial sale of the separate interest of one partner does not entitle the miners employed by the partnership to a preferred payment out of the proceeds of such sale. Beatty's Appeal, 3 Grant's Cases 213, p. 215. |