the agents or employees thereof, and such contracts shall be absolutely null and void. TITLE 18.-Mine regulations. Right of ac SECTION 2582. For any injury to person or property tion for inju occasioned by any violation of this chapter, or any willful ries. failure to comply with its provisions, a right of action against the party at fault shall accrue to the party injured for the direct damages sustained thereby, and in any case of loss of life, by reason of such violation or willful failure, a right of action against the party at fault shall accrue to the administrator of the estate of the person whose life shall be lost, for like recovery of damages for the injuries sustained: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be so construed as to prevent the recovery of any lawful damages against the person or company operating mines if said company should be found in fault or shall have contributed to any accident by means of carelessness on their part: And provided further, That in no case shall the State be liable for damages under this chapter. DIVISION 3. TITLE 4.-Right of action for injuries causing death. accrues. SECTION 3448. Whenever the death of a person shall be When right caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default, and the act, neglect, or default is such as would (if death had not ensued) have entitled the party injured to maintain an action to recover damages in respect thereof; then, and in every such case, the person who, or the corporation which, would have been liable if death had not ensued, shall be liable to an action for damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured, and although the death shall have been caused under such circumstances as amount in law to murder in the first or second degree, or manslaughter. SEC. 3449. Every such action shall be brought by, and Who may sue. in the name of, the personal representative of such deceased person; and the amount recovered in every such action shall be distributed to the parties and in the proportions provided by law, in relation to the distribution of personal estates left by persons dying intestate. In every such case the jury shall give such damages as they Damages. shall deem fair and just, not exceeding five thousand dollars, and the amount so recoverd shall not be subject to any debts or liabilities of the deceased: Provided, That Limitation. every such action shall be commenced within two years after the death of such deceased person. That portion of the statute which limits damages to the amount of $5,000 is repugnant to the constitution, but is susceptible of being separated from the remainder of the act, which is not open to the same objection. 73 Pac. Rep., 524. S. Doc. 243, 59-1-vol 5-73 Employees do not assume risk, when. UNITED STATES. COMPILED STATUTES, 1901. TITLE 56a.-Safety appliances on railroads (common carriers engaged in interstate commerce). (Page 3174. Act of March 2, 1893.) SECTION 8. Any employee of any such common carrier who may be injured by any locomotive, car, or train in use contrary to the provisions of this act shall not be deemed thereby to have assumed the risk thereby occasioned, although continuing in the employment of such carrier after the unlawful use of such locomotive, car, or train had been brought to his knowledge. Courts will take official cognizance of the effect of this statute, though the plaintiff in no way indicates that he relies on it for recovery. Couplers which have become worn and inoperative are not a compliance with the requirements of this act, though of proper form and style. A car designed for use in interstate traffic, though empty, is within the provisions of the statute. 116 Fed. Rep., 867. Per contra, an empty dining car, used daily for interstate traffic, was held not to be within the statute while being moved on a side track at a terminal point. 117 Fed. Rep., 462. Failure by a railroad company to equip its cars with couplers as required by this statute is negligence per se, and the defense of contributory negligence can not be made against an employee injured because of such failure, even if the employee was thus negligent. 122 N. C. Rep., 977. And an employee remaining in service does not assume the risk. 30 S. E. Rep., 115. Absence of grab irons does not prove such negligence on the part of the company as to abrogate the defense of contributory negli gence. 91 Fed. Rep., 224. A locomotive is not a car requiring automatic couplers under this statute. 117 Fed. Rep., 462. |