particular hazard to which their employees or any class or part thereof may be exposed. SEC. 4. The State Workmen's Insurance Fund, and every insurance association, and corporation which insures employers against liability for compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1915, shall file with the Commissioner of Insurance its classification of risks and premiums, together with basis rate and schedule or merit ratings, if a system of schedule or merit rating be in use; none of which shall take effect until the Commissioner of Insurance shall have approved the same as adequate for the risks to which they respectively apply. The Commissioner of Insurance may withdraw his approval of any premium rate or schedule made by the State Workmen's Insurance Fund, or any insurance corporation or association, if, in his judgment, such premium rate or schedule is inadequate to provide the necessary reserves. Such premium rates or system of schedule or merit rating shall take no account of any physical impairment of employees or the extent to which employees have persons dependent upon them for support. On and after January 1, 1916, neither the State Workmen's Insurance Fund nor any insurance association or corporation may issue, renew, or carry beyond anniversary date any insurance for compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1915, at premium rates which are less than those approved by the Commissioner of Insurance for such carrier as adequate for the risks to which they respectively apply: Provided, however, That if the Commissioner of Insurance shall have previously approved a system of schedule or merit rating, filed with him by the State Workmen's Insurance Fund or any insurance association or corporation, it may apply the same to risks subject thereto; but any reduction from the basis rate filed with and approved by the Commissioner of Insurance on account of the application of such system of schedule or merit rating, shall be clearly set forth in the insurance contracts or the indorsements attached thereto. The statistical and actuarial data compiled by the State Workmen's Insurance Fund shall at all times be available to the State Insurance Commissioner for his use in judging the adequacy or inadequacy of rates and schedules filed, and it shall be the duty of the manager of the State Workmen's Insurance Fund to render all possible assistance to the State Insurance Department in carrying out the provisions of this act. The Commissioner of Insurance may require every insurance association or corporation which insures employers or employees under the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1915, to file with its annual statement a sworn report of its loss experience in such detail and form as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of Insurance. The Commissioner of Insurance shall have the power to suspend or revoke the license of any insurance association or corporation which violates any of the provisions of this act. SEC. 5. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed. EXEMPTION-SUPPLEMENT. LAWS 1915, P. 777. JUNE 3, 1915. A SUPPLEMENT to an act, entitled "The Workmen's Compensation Act of 1915," to exempt domestic servants and agricultural workers from the provisions thereof, SEC. 1. Nothing contained in any article or any section of an act entitled the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1915 shall apply to or in any way effect any person who, at the time of injury, is engaged in domestic service or agriculture. 125672°-2063 EXPENSES FOR ADMINISTERING FUND. LAWS 1917, P. 1139. JULY 20, 1917. AN ACT to amend an act approved June 2, 1915, entitled "An act, etc. (same as in sec. 1), by making money paid in premiums by subscribers available for the payment of expenses for administering the State Fund, and by increasing the salary of the assist ant manager. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: That section 8 of the act approved June 2, 1915, entitled "An act providing for the creation and administration of a State Fund for the insurance of compensation for injuries to employes of subscribers thereto; declaring false oaths by the subscribers to be misdemeanors; and providing penalties for the violation thereof," which reads as follows (here follows sec. 8 of the act of 1915, see page 987), is hereby amended to read as follows: SEC. 8. The expenses of the organization and administration of the Fund shall, until the first day of July, 1919, be paid out of the money appropriated by sec tion 28 of this act, and out of such money, paid in premiums by subscribers, as is made available for the expenses of the administration of the Fund by section 11 of this act. The expenses of the administration of the Fund shall, after the first day of July, 1919, be paid out of such money, paid in premiums by subscribers, as is made available for the expenses of the administration of the Fund by section 11 of this act. SEC. 2. That section 11 of said act, which reads as follows: (here follows sec. 11 of the act of 1915, see page 988), is hereby amended to read as follows: SEC. 11. The money paid in premiums by subscribers is hereby made available for the expenses of administering the Fund. The Board shall keep an accurate account of the money paid in premiums by the subscribers, and the disbursements on account of injuries to the employes thereof and on account of administering the Fund; and if, at the expiration of any year, there shall be a balance remaining, after deducting such disbursements, the unearned premiums or undetermined risks, and the percentage of premiums paid or payable to create or maintain the surplus provided in section 9 of this act, and after setting asidej an adequate reserve, so much of the balance as the Board may determine to be safely distributable shall be distributed among the subscribers, in proportion to the premiums paid by them; and the proportionate share of such subscribers as shall remain subscribers to the Fund shall be credited to the instalment of premiums next due by them, and the proportionate share of such subscribers as shall have ceased to be subscribers in the Fund shall be refunded to them, out of the Fund, in the manner hereinafter provided. SEC. 3. That section 26 of said act, which reads as follows: (here follows see. 26 of the act of 1915, see page 992), is hereby amended to read as follows: SEC. 26. The Board may, with the approval of the Governor, appoint a manager, at a salary not to exceed seven thousand five hundred dollars; an assistant manager, at a salary not to exceed six thousand dollars; an actuary, at a salary not to exceed four thousand five hundred dollars; and may, with the approval of the Governor, appoint at salaries fixed by the Board, with the approval of the Governor, such underwriters, bookkeepers, comptrollers, auditors, inspectors, examiners, medical advisers, agents, assistants, and clerks as may be necessary for the proper administration of the Fund and the performance of the duties imposed upon the Board by the provisions of the act. The Commissioner of Labor and Industry shall include in his annual report a full and complete statement of the administration of the said Fund. SEC. 4. The provisions of sections 1 and 2 of this act shall become effective on the first day of January, 1918. The provisions of section 3 of this act shall become effective upon approval by the Governor. WRONGFUL DEATH. ACTIONS-LIMITATION. LAWS 1851, 669, P. 674. AN ACT • relative • APRIL 15, 1851. to actions for damages sustained by injuries • done to the person by negligence or default. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: SEC. 18. That no action hereafter brought to recover damages for injuries to the person by negligence or default, shall abate by reason of the death of the plaintiff; but the personal representatives of the deceased may be substituted as plaintiff, and prosecute the suit to final judgment and satisfaction. SEC. 19. That whenever death shall be occasioned by unlawful violence or negligence, and no suit for damages be brought by the party injured during his or her life, the widow of any such deceased, or if there be no widow the personal representatives, may maintain an action for and recover damages for the death thus occasioned. PERSONS ENTITLED TO DAMAGES. LAWS 1855, P. 309. APRIL 26, 1855. AN ACT relating to damages for injuries producing death. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: That the persons entitled to recover damages for any injury causing death shall be the husband, widow, children, or parents of the deceased, and no other relative; and the sum recovered shall go to them in proportion they would take his or her personal estate in case of intestacy, and that without liability to creditors. (Amended. See following act.) SEC. 2. That the declaration shall state who are the parties entitled in such action; the action shall be brought within one year after the death, and not thereafter. ANNOTATIONS. DAMAGES FOR DEATH-ACTS 1851, 1855. 1. PURPOSE OF ACT-COMPENSATION. 2. MEASURE OF DAMAGES. 3. KNOWLEDGE OF DANGER-RECOVERY. 4. FELLOW SERVANTS-NEGLIGENCE-LIABILITY OF OPERATOR. 5. NEGLIGENCE OF CONTRACTOR-LIABILITY OF OPERATOR. 6. DEATH OF SUING PARENT-ABATEMENT OF ACTION. 1. PURPOSE OF ACT-COMPENSATION. The object of the act of April 15, 1851 (P. L. 674), as well as of the act of April 26, 1855 (P. L. 309), was to provide a mode by which the family of a person who lost his life under circumstances named might recover a reason able compensation for the pecuniary loss sustained. It was not intended to make the family suddenly rich by the loss of its head nor to result in an equal division of property; but if enforced in a spirit of impartial justice it will prove beneficial. Mansfield Coal & Coke Co. v. McEnery, 91 Pa. St. 185, p. 189. Under the act of April 26, 1855 (P. L. 309), as well as under the act of April 15, 1851 (P. L. 674), the damages for the death of a miner can be compensatory only and can not be enhanced by any consideration of pain to the deceased or anguish to the survivors. The question is one of compensation only. Mansfield Coal & Coke Co. v. McEnery, 91 Pa. St. 185, p. 189. 2. MEASURE OF DAMAGES. The measure of damages under this act, as well as under the act of April 26, 1855 (P. L. 390), in an action for the death of a miner, is the pecuniary loss suffered by the parties entitled to sue, and such loss is what the deceased would have probably earned by his intellectual or bodily labor in his business or profession during the residue of his lifetime, and which would have gone for the benefit of his children, taking into consideration his age, ability, and disposition to labor and his habit of living and expenditure. A jury in assessing the damages in such a case may include wages and all such services as a father could render of pecuniary value to the wife and children, and they may consider questions of health, liability to accident, or death, but a jury can not consider the opportunities of acquiring wealth or fortune by a change of circumstances in life. Mansfield Coal & Coke Co. v. McEnery, 91 Pa. St. 185, p. 189. 3. KNOWLEDGE OF DANGER-RECOVERY DENIED. There can be no recovery for the death, under this statute, of a coal driver, caused by the fall of a bridge over which he was required to pass with his team and car of coal, where the deceased had been using the bridge constantly for months prior to his death and drove a mule team of loaded cars over it daily or several times each day; where he had knowledge that the bridge was in an exceedingly dangerous condition, that it swayed from side to side as the team passed over it, and where with such knowledge he voluntarily continued in the service and gave no notice to the mine operator of its dangerous condition, and made no protest against being subjected to such peril. Under such circumstances the deceased was guilty of gross negligence in exposing himself upon such a structure and took upon himself the risk of injury from such cause. Mansfield Coal & Coke Co. v. McEnery, 91 Pa. St. 185, p. 189. 4. FELLOW SERVANTS-NEGLIGENCE-LIABILITY OF OPERATOR. Under this act a mining boss is a coemployee or a fellow servant of a miner employed in the mine and a mine operator is not liable to an injured miner for the negligence of such mining boss. Delaware & Hudson Canal Co. v. Carroll, 89 Pa. St. 374, p. 380. 5. NEGLIGENCE OF CONTRACTOR-LIABILITY OF OPERATOR. Where a coal mine operator exercised ordinary care and skill in the selec tion of an experienced mechanic and contractor to construct a bridge over which the coal from his mine was to be hauled and such contractor and builder had supervision of the work in the construction of the bridge, the coal mine operator can not be held liable on the ground of negligence for the death of a coal driver, caused by a fall of the bridge by hauling coal over it. Mansfield Coal & Coke Co. v. McEnery, 91 Pa. St. 185, p. 189. 6. DEATH OF SUING PARENT-ABATEMENT OF ACTION. An action by the father alone for the wrongful death of his son under the Pennsylvania statute providing that the husband, widow, children, or parents may recover damages for any injury causing death, abates on the death of the father and there can be no valid action pending after his death, and his administrator can not be substituted to carry on the suit, nor can it be revived in the name of the mother. Kluchnik v. Lehigh Valley Coal Co., 228 Federal 880, p. 881. LAWS 1911, P. 678. ALIEN RELATIVES-RECOVERY. JUNE 7, 1911. AN ACT to amend section one of an act, entitled "An act relating to damages for injuries producing death," approved April 26, 1855, so as to provide that certain surviving relatives to the deceased may recover damages, whether such surviving relatives be citizens of this Commonwealth or not. SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc. : That section one of an act, entitled "An act relating to damages for injuries producing death," approved April 26, 1855, which reads as follows: (here follows sec. 1 of the act of 1855, see preceding act), be amended so as to read as follows: SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.: That the persons entitled to recover damages for any injuries causing death shall be the husband, widow, children, or parents of the deceased, and no other relatives; and that such husband, widow, children, or parents of the deceased shall be entitled to recover, whether he, she, or they be citizens or residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or citizens or residents of any other State or place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, or of any foreign country, or subjects of any foreign potentate; and the sum recovered shall go to them in the proportion they would take his or her personal estate in case of intestacy, and without liability to creditors under the laws of this Commonwealth. ANNOTATIONS. RECOVERY BY ALIEN PARENTS. This act authorizes the parents of one whose life was lost through the negligent act of a citizen or corporation of this Commonwealth to maintain an action therefor even though they were citizens or residents of a foreign country or the subjects of any foreign potentate. Gosh v. Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Co., 68 Pa. Super. Ct. Rep. 63, p. 67. |