MINERS ENTOMBED-RECOVERY.

RECOVERING BODIES OF MINERS.

LAWS 1889, P. 154.

MAY 9, 1889.

AN ACT to provide for the recovery of the bodies of workmen enclosed, buried, or entombed in coal mines.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.:

That whenever any workman or workmen shall heretofore have been or shall hereafter be enclosed, entombed, or buried in any coal mine in this Commonwealth, it shall be the duty of the court, sitting in equity, in the county wherein such workman or workmen are enclosed, entombed or buried, upon the petition of any of the relatives of those enclosed, entombed or buried, to make an order of court for the petitioner to take testimony in order that the court may ascertain whether such workman or workmen, or the body or bodies of such workman or workmen can be recovered or taken out of said mine.

If, after full hearing, it shall appear to the court that such undertaking is feasible or practicable, said court may forthwith issue a peremptory mandamus to the owner or owners, lessee or lessees, operator or operators of such coal company to forthwith proceed to work for and recover and take out the body or bodies of such workman or workmen, and said court shall have full authority to enforce such peremptory mandamus in the manner already provided for the enforcement of such process.

ANNOTATIONS.

JURISDICTION OF COMMON PLEAS COURT-NOTICE AND HEARING.

This act gives a common please court jurisdiction of the subject matter of the act, contemplates a full hearing and notice to the land owner and an opportunity to produce evidence.

Malitsky, In re, 6 Luzerne Leg. Reg. Rep. 6.

251

MINERS' EXAMINING BOARDS.

ANTHRACITE MINES.

BOARD OF EXAMINERS-ORGANIZATION.

LAWS 1870, P. 3.

MARCH 8, 1870.

AN ACT providing for the health and safety of persons employed in coal mines.

*

NOTE. The part of sec. 14 relating to a board of examiners is given under this title. The remainder of sec. 14, secs. 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, and 23 are under the title Inspectors and Inspection. (See p. 107.)

SEC. 14. Upon the passage of this act the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania shall upon the recommendation of a board of examiners selected for that purpose, composed of three reputable coal miners in practice and two reputable mining engineers, to be appointed by the judges of the court of common pleas of Luzerne County, all of whom shall be sworn to a faithful discharge of their duties, appoint three properly qualified persons to fill the offices of inspectors of coal mines and collieries for the counties of Luzerne, and Carbon.

ANNOTATIONS.

EXAMINING BOARD.

APPOINTMENT BY COURT-APPLICATION OF ACT.

Examiners must be appointed by the court before they can recommend persons for appointments as inspectors. The fact that the act did not pass until after the first term of the court in Luzerne County had passed will not defeat the purpose of the act and does not require the court to wait another year to appoint the examiners. The intention is manifest that the act was to go into full operation as soon as the organization of its machinery would permit. This provision must be held to apply to future years, for the fraction of the first year ensuing the passage of the act, the organization and appointment of the examiners are not referred to any period, but thereafter it is to be at the first term of the court in the year. The governor is therefore enabled to appoint inspectors as required by the act and put the intended reform of the mining policy in action.

Commonwealth v. Conygham, 66 Pa. St. 99, p. 101.

CREATION OF BOARDS-FILLING VACANCIES-EXAMINATION. LAWS 1885, P. 218.

JUNE 30, 1885.

AN ACT to provide for the health and safety of persons employed in and about the anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania and for the protection and preservation of property connected therewith.

ARTICLE II.

NOTE.--Secs. 2, 3, and a part of sec. 4 of this article are inserted here. Part of sec. 4, and secs. 5 to 13 are under the titie Inspectors and Inspection. (See p. 107.) The body of the act is under the title Mining Operations-Anthracite Coal Mines. p. 599.)

(See

SEC. 2. In order to fill any vacancy that may occur in the office of Inspector of mines by reason of expiration of term, resignation, removal for cause, or

from any other reason whatever, the judges of the court of common pleas of the county of Luzerne shall appoint an examining board for the counties of Sullivan, Susquehanna, Wayne, Luzerne, Lackawanna and Carbon, and the judges of the court of common pleas of the county of Schuylkill, shall appoint an examining board for the counties of Schuylkill, Northumberland, Columbia, Lebanon and Dauphin.

SEC. 3. The said board of examiners shall be composed of three reputable coal miners, in actual practice, and two reputable mining engineers, all of whom shall be appointed at the first term of court in each year to hold their places during the year. Any vacancies that may occur in the board of examiners shall be filled by the court as they occur.

SEC. 4. Whenever candidates for the office of inspector are to be examined, the said examiners shall give public notice of the fact, in not less than two papers published in the county and at least two weeks before the meeting, specifying the time and place when such meeting shall be held. The said examiners shall be sworn to a faithful discharge of their duties, and four of them shall agree in their recommendation of candidates to the governor, and shall recommend only such applicants as they find qualified for the office.

Should the board of examiners not be able to agree in their selection and recommendation of a candidate, the judges of the court of common pleas shall dissolve the said board and appoint a new board of like qualifications and powers. The said board of examiners shall be permitted to engage the services of a clerk, and they, together with the clerk, shall each receive the sum of five dollars per day, for every day they are actually engaged in the discharge of their duties under this appointment, and mileage, at the rate of six cents per mile, from their home to the place of meeting and return by the nearest practical railway route.

ARTICLE VIIL

NOTE.-Secs, 3 and 9 are given here.

Secs. 1, 2, 4. 5, 6, 7, and 8 are under the title Mine Foremen-Employment and Duties. (See p. 200.)

SEC. 3. For the purpose of examination of candidates for such certificates, a board of examiners shall be appointed in each of the inspection districts provided for by this act. The said board shall consist of the district inspector of mines, a practical miner, and one owner, operator, or superintendent of a mine. The said inspector shall act ex officio, and the said engineer and owner, operator, or superintendent shall be appointed in like manner, and at the same time, as the boards of examiners for candidates for mine inspectorship under this act are now appointed. The said board shall act as such for the period of one year from the date of their appointment. Meetings of the board may be held at any time, and they may make such rules and conduct such examinations as in their judgment may seem proper for the purpose of such examinations. The said board shall report their action to the secretary of internal affairs, and at least two of the members thereof shall certify to the qualification of each candidate who has passed such examination. The traveling expenses of the members of such board to and from their place of meeting, together with the sum of five dollars per day each to the said practical miner and owner, operator or superintendent, members of such board, for each day they are actually engaged therein, not exceeding ten (10) days in all during the year, shall be paid by the Commonwealth, on an order of the auditor general drawn on the State treasurer, upon the certificate of the mine inspector, member of such board.

SEC. 9. If any person or persons shall forge or counterfeit a certificate, or knowingly make or cause to be made any false statement in any certificate under this act, or in any official copy of the same, or shall urge others to do so, or shall utter or use any such forged or false certificate or unofficial copy thereof, or shall make, give, utter, produce or make use of any false declaration, representation, or statement in any such certificate, or copy thereof, or any document containing the same, he or they shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined two hundred dollars, or imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year, or both, at the discretion of the court trying the case.

CREATION OF BOARDS -EXAMINATION OF MINERS.

LAWS 1889, P. 142.

MAY 9, 1889.

AN ACT to provide for the examination of miners in the anthracite region of this Commonwealth and to prevent the employment of incompetent persons as miners in anthracite coal mines.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc.:

That hereafter no person whomsoever shall be employed, or engaged, in the anthracite coal region of this Commonwealth as a miner in any anthracite coal mine without having obtained a certificate of competency and qualification so to do, from the "miners' examining board" of the proper district, and having been duly registered as herein provided.

SEC. 2. That there shall be established, in each of the inspection districts in the anthracite coal region, a board to be styled the "miners' examining board" of the district, to consist of nine persons, who shall be appointed by the president judge of the proper county, from among the most skillful miners actually engaged in said business in their respective districts, and who must have had five years' practical experience in the same, three of whom to serve one year, three two years, and three five years, and thereafter annually three to serve for the term of three years. The said persons, so appointed, shall be and constitute the "miners' examining board" for their respective districts, and shall hold the office for the term for which they were appointed, or until their successors are duly appointed and qualified, and shall receive as compensation for their services three dollars per day for each day actually engaged in this service and all legitimate and necessary expenses incurred in attending the meetings of said board, under the provisions of this act, and no part of the salary of said board, or expenses thereof, shall be paid out of the State treasury. Each of said boards shall organize by electing one of their members secretary, and by dividing themselves into three subcommittees for the more convenient discharge of their duties; each of said committees shall have all the powers hereinafter conferred upon the board, and whenever in this act the words examining board are used they shall be taken to include any of the committees thereof. Every member of said board shall, within ten days of their appointment or being appraised (apprised) of the same, take and subscribe an oath or affirmation, before a properly qualified officer of the county in which they reside, that they will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of their office.

Any vacancies occurring in said board shall be filled in the manner hereinbefore provided, from among such only as are eligible for original appointment. SEC. 3. Each of said examining boards shall designate some convenient place within their districts for, the meetings of the several committees thereof, of which due notice shall be given, by advertisement in two or more newspapers of the proper county, and so divided as to reach, as nearly as practicable, all the mining districts therein. Each of said committees shall open, at the

designated place of meeting, a book of registration, in which shall be registered the name and address of each and every person duly qualified under this act to be employed as a miner in an anthracite coal mine. And it shall be the duty of all persons now employed as miners, or who shall hereafter desire to be so employed, to apply to said board and be registered as such within ninety days thereafter; application for registration only may be sent by mail to the board after being properly attested before any person authorized to administer an oath or affirmation in the county in which the applicant resides. The form of application shall be subject to such regulation as may be prescribed by the boards, but in no case shall any applicant be put to any unnecessary expense in order to secure registration.

SEC. 4. The said board shall be entitled to demand and receive from each applicant for examination and registration and for the certificate herein and after provided, a fee not exceeding fifty cents, and for registration only, a fee not to exceed twenty-five cents, and a like fee of twenty-five cents for registering any person who shall have been examined and registered by any other said board, and the amount derived from this source shall be held by said boards and be applied to the expenses and salaries herein provided, and such as may arise under the provisions of this act; and the said boards shall report annually to the court of common pleas of their respective counties and the bureau of statistics, all moneys received and disbursed under the provisions of this act, together with the number of miners examined and registered under this act and the number who failed to pass the required examination.

SEC. 5. That it shall be the duty of each of said boards to meet at least once every month, at such places as they may deem expedient, and examine all persons who shall desire to be employed as miners in their respective districts, and the said boards shall grant to such persons as may be qualified, certificates of competency or qualification, which shall entitle the holder thereof to be employed as, and do the work of, miners as may be expressed in the said certificate, and such certificate shall be good and sufficient evidence of regis tration and competency under this act, and the holder thereof shall be entitled to be registered without examination in any other of the anthracite districts, upon the payment of the fee herein provided. All persons applying for examination for a certificate of competency, or to entitle them to be employed as miners, must produce satifactory evidence of having had not less than two years' practical experience as a mine laborer.

And no

SEC. 6. That no person shall hereafter engage as a miner in any anthracite coal mine without having obtained such certificate as aforesaid. person shall employ any person as a miner who does not hold such certificate as aforesaid, and no mine foreman or superintendent shall permit or suffer any person to be employed under him, or in the mines under his charge and supervision, as a miner, who does not hold such certificate. Any person who shall violate or fail to comply with the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof, in the court of quarter sessions, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars. SEC. 7. That all persons who shall be actually engaged as miners at the time of the passage of this act, shall be entitled to registration without examination, upon producing satisfactory proof that they have been employed in an anthracite mine in this Commonwealth.

SEC. 8. It shall be the duty of the several miners' examining boards to investigate all complaints or charges of non-compliance or violation of the provisions of this act and prosecute all persons so offending, whenever, there shall appear to the board reasonable ground for such action.