Law of compensation

“ The Workmen’s Compensation Act will always, I think, be regarded as one of his greatest achievements, and mauled and mangled as it has been in the Law Courts it remains the most substantial benefit that the poor have received from the Legislature in my lifetime. ”

“ While they cover the whole subject, the committee urged an especially strong educational campaign for the recognition of three essential principles in compensation legislation, viz.: that a good workmen’s compensation law must encourage accident prevention; assure compensation, preferably by compulsory insurance, and cover all wage-workers. ”

“ It should not be cast aside on the presupposition that full faith and credit need not be given to a sister-state workmen's compensation statute if the law of the forum happens to be more favorable to the claimant. ”

“ The Workmen’s Compensation Act is a practical business machine of a complicated character, and it is scarcely a sensible thing that the men who have to keep it going should work under the theoretical direction of men who have never seen it working. ”

“ If some State will take the lead and adopt a comprehensive system of compensation, and put it up to the courts and have decisions rendered, we would then know just what we could do. In any event, gentlemen, I believe that the workingmen will not be at all satisfied either with the suggestion sometimes made of a contribution on their part or with any law that removes from the employer the incentive to prevent accidents. ”

“ It is the intent of the Workmen's Compensation Law that an employee, injured in the course of his employment, shall have relief in all cases where he would have had a right of action at common law, and, in addition thereto, to extend his right to recover in other cases, regardless of questions of negligence, contributory negligence, or assumption of risk. ”

“ Six thousand dollars, he maintains, is the maximum under the law of the 3d of March, 1841, applicable to every collector, and that the compensation of each, within that limit, and subject to the before-named condition, is regulated solely by the amount of labor performed. ”

“ One who knows or who has reason to believe that compensation is expected for goods or services tendered to him ought not to accept them unless he intends to pay for them. If he does his act of acceptance will be regarded as a promise of payment, and can be enforced. But if one accepts goods or services without knowledge or reason to believe that compensation will be expected, what then? ”

“ United States. [4] In that case a compensation was allowed for an extra service rendered by the collector, but it was allowed, for the reason that the service was rendered in pursuance of existing laws, and the appropriation for a compensation was made by law. ”

“ And be it further enacted, That no officer in any branch of the public service, or any other person whose salaries, or whose pay or emoluments is or are fixed by law and regulations, shall receive any extra allowance of compensation in any form whatever for the disbursement of public money, or the performance of any other service, unless the said extra allowance or compensation be authorized by law ”

“ In the absence of agreement, the additional compensation referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be fixed according to the normal results of economic exploitation of all the similar works of the same author.
(3) Where the price of the transfer or assignment of the economic rights in the work is calculated as a proportion of the income derived by the beneficiary from exploitation, the right to additional compensation shall apply only where the percentage established is clearly lower than that customarily paid in transactions of the same nature. ”

“ They naturally do not want a law which will cause employers to jump back and forth from the compensation features to the negligence features and vice versa, and experiment, but rather one which will induce all to come permanently under the compensation features or to stay out permanently. ”

“ The law expressed the constitutional and legislative policy of the state to be that the compensation to workmen for injuries received in their employment was a matter of public concern, and should not be left to the individual employer or employe, or be dependent upon or influenced by the hazards of controversy or litigation, or inequality of conditions. ”

“ The mutual insurance portion of the workmen's compensation is that which makes it really powerful and in the end, economical and just. Every state in this country adopting a workmen's compensation law will have to provide some such arrangement before thoroughly good results can be obtained. ”

“ I know that large employers in general are in favor of a fair compensation act, but I do not think they are in favor of double liability, because they will never know where they are. The laboring man quite properly wants to have a fair compensation act and wants a fair amount, but if he elects to go to common law, he should take that chance. ”

“ Therefore, I think, the idea that the working people have—that they want access to the courts under the law—is more of a bugaboo than anything else, and that after a good compensation law is passed we will have a great deal of trouble in our organization in trying to teach the people to take the compensation and stay out of the courts. ”

“ Section 5 of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act is nearly identical to § 7 (b) of the Federal Employees' Compensation Act in providing that ' (t) he liability of an employer * * * shall be exclusive and in place of all other liability of such employer to the employee, his legal representative, husband or wife, parents, dependents, next of kin, and anyone otherwise entitled to recover damages from such employer at law or in admiralty on account of such injury or death * * *.' [6] In Ryan Stevedoring Co. ”

“ The ascertainment of compensation is a judicial function, and no power exists in any other department of the government to declare what the compensation shall be or to prescribe any binding rule in that regard. ”

“ Provision is universally made in workmen's compensation acts for compensation not only to disabled employees but to the dependents of those whose injuries are fatal. And the two kinds of payment are 'always regarded as component parts of a single system of rights and liabilities arising out of' the relation of employer and employee. ”

“ Even if we suppose that strike benefits are made to compensate in a sense for the loss of wages, the principle of payments in compensation does not apply because the thing compensated for, the wages, had they been received, would have been included in gross income. ”

“ The Just Compensation Clause is self actuating, requiring that compensation be paid whenever governmental action results in a taking of private property regardless of whether the underlying authority for the action contemplated a taking or authorized the payment of compensation. ”

“ Workmen's Compensation legislation rests upon the idea of status, nor upon that of implied contract; that is, upon the conception that the injured workman is entitled to compensation for an injury sustained in the service of an industry to whose operations he contributes his work as the owner contributes his capital-the one for the sake of the wages and the other for the sake of the profits. ”

“ The statute has a limited application, being confined to the relation of master and servant, and the method of determining the questions of fact, which arise in the routine of making compensation awards to employees under the act, is necessary to its effective enforcement. The act itself, where it applies, establishes the measure of the employer's liability, thus leaving open for determination the questions of fact as to the circumstances, nature, extent, and consequences of the injuries sustained by the employee for which compensation is to be made in accordance with the prescribed standards. ”

“ Though the principle that compensation should be made, or relief given, is of universal application, the great diversity of conditions in the different sections of the United States may, in a wise application of the principle, call for differences between states in the amount and method of compensation, the periods in which payment shall be made, and the methods and means by which the funds shall be raised and distributed. ”

“ The Compensation Act establishes a scheme for compensation of an injured employee by the employer, and for the payment of benefits to a specified class of his dependents when the injury causes death. Where some person other than the employer is liable for damages for the injury, compensation is governed by section 33. ”

“ In order to avoid a similar double payment, we think that any overtime premium paid, even if for work during the first forty hours of the workweek, may be credited against any obligation to pay statutory excess compensation. ”

“ That cannot be said to be an unreasonable classification, as it provides for those cases where there are no persons entitled to compensation under the act, and thus the immediate employer and his insurer are relieved of the obligation to pay compensation. ”

“ Thus, where work is done by an employee, with the employer's consent, a labor organization's demand that the employee be compensated for time spent in doing the disputed work does not become an unfair labor practice. The transaction simply does not fall within the kind of featherbedding defined in the statute. In the absence of proof to the contrary, the employee's compensation reflects his entire relationship with his employer. ”

“ I agree with the Senator on the proposition that a State under its police power may establish a compulsory system of compensation so far as the employer is concerned. It seems to me, however, when we attempt to shift the basis of our present system from that of tort to compensation we are simply reading into the oral contract of employment between the employer and employe a guarantee on the part of the employer that up to a certain limit he will protect and insure the employe against the hazards of that trade. ”

“ It will not be pretended by any one, that the advance made to him was a portion of his yearly pay, yet the statute declares that the yearly pay shall be 'all the pay, compensation, and allowance that shall be received by any such officer or other person, under any circumstances whatsoever, except for travelling expenses, for which ten cents per mile may be allowed.'
Surely the phrase, 'under any circumstances whatsoever,' is broad enough to comprehend any casualty to which any person may be exposed. ”

“ As to origin, purpose, and scope of the Employers' Liability Act and the nature, methods, and means of state Workmen's Compensation Laws: The facts are of common knowledge. Do they manifest that, by entering upon one section of the field of indemnity or relief for injuries or death suffered by employees engaged in interstate commerce, Congress purpose to occupy the whole field? ”

“ State Workmen's Compensation Laws almost invariably contain provisions for liability either to independent contractors or to their employees, sometimes absolute and sometimes conditioned upon default by the immediate employer ”

“ The right to wages is unaffected also by damage done by the servant. For instance, if she injure articles or lose them in the course of the service, the party hiring can not without a specific agreement to such effect, deduct from the servant's wages their value, but must bring her cross-action against the servant for compensation. ”

“ In the case where the employee survives and accepts compensation as the only person entitled, it is clear that the statutory assignment vests in the employer the full right to recover damages from the third person. ”

“ There are provisions invalidating agreements by employees to waive the right to compensation, prohibiting any assignment, release, or commutation of claims for compensation or benefits except as provided by the act, exempting them from the claims of creditors, and requiring that the compensation and benefits shall be paid only to employees or their dependents. Provision is made for the establishment of a Workmen's Compensation Commission [2] with administrative and judicial functions, including authority to pass upon claims to compensation on notice to the parties interested. ”

“ Potential value may be taken into account, and also good-will of the property in a business. This rule, however, excludes any consideration of the principle of “betterment.” (2) Where land, although not taken, is “injuriously affected” by the works of the promoters, compensation is payable for loss or damage resulting from any act, legalized by the promoters’ statutory powers, which would otherwise have been actionable, or caused by the execution (not the use) of the works authorized by the undertaking. ”

“ Any employer who violates the provisions of section 6 or section 7 of this Act shall be liable to the employee or employees affected in the amount of their unpaid minimum wages, or their unpaid overtime compensation, as the case may be, and in an additional equal amount as liquidated damages. ”