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INTRODUCTION

This Special Bulletin is in sequence to Special Bulletin Number Eighty-one issued in March, 1917. Bulletin Eighty-one presents the full texts of all New York court and Attorney-General opinions upon workmen's compensation down to August 1, 1916, and of several important court decisions of later date. This Bulletin presents all New York court decisions and AttorneyGeneral opinions upon workmen's compensation subsequent to those of Bulletin Eighty-one, including later decisions upon the cases presented in Bulletin Eighty-one. Its analytical or topical plan is the same as that of Bulletin Eighty-one, but it is issued in two separate parts in order to secure expedition and to include decisions pending while it has been in press. Part one covers the subjects of Constitutionality and Coverage from August 1, 1916, to May 1, 1918; part two covers Treatment and Care, Awards, Insurance Contracts, Evidence and other subjects from August 1, 1916, and Constitutionality and Coverage from May 1, 1918, to date of its issue.

Part one contains the texts of the important decisions of the United States Supreme Court upon Constitutionality, Interstate Commerce and Admiralty, including the decisions in the Washington and Iowa constitutional cases. It calls attention to the acts of Congress and the New York Legislature offsetting the decisions in admiralty and to proposed Congressional acts intended to offset the decision in interstate commerce. Over four hundred appeals from the Commission to the New York courts, involving interstate commerce and admiralty, were pending when the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its decisions. Rehearing of these has been the task of the Commission.

According to the report of the Workmen's Compensation Bureau of the State Industrial Commission for the year ending June 30, 1917, 58,562 compensatable cases came before the Commission during the year, as compared with 50,861 and 40,855, respectively, in the two years preceding. Fifty-five thousand two hundred and twelve of the 58,562 in 1916-17 were disposed of finally by the Commission's deputies, leaving 3,350 for consideration by the Commission proper. The proportion of agreement

cases to claim cases was in the ratio of 70 to 44 as compared with a previous ratio of 70 to 30. Twenty per cent of the agreement cases necessitated public hearings.

According to the report of the Legal Bureau for the same year, appeals were taken from the Commission to the Appellate Division in 488 cases and from the Appellate Division of the Court of Appeals in 53 cases. The Appellate Division affirmed 102 awards and reversed 32; the Court of Appeals affirmed 28 and reversed 10. Well nigh half of the cases before the Appellate Division were withdrawn.

The Workmen's Compensation Law has been extensively amended by a general act originating with the Commission each year since its enactment. In addition to the re-enacting act, L. 1914, ch. 41, effective March 16, 1914, there have been eleven later amendatory acts, namely, L. 1914, ch. 316, effective April 14, 1914; L. 1915, ch. 167, effective April 1, 1915, ch. 168, effective April 1, 1915, ch. 615, effective May 12, 1915, and ch. 674, effective May 22, 1915; L. 1916, ch. 622, effective June 1, 1916; L. 1917, ch. 705, effective July 1, 1917; and L. 1918, ch. 249, effective April 17, 1918, ch. 633, effective May 13, 1918, ch. 634, effective May 13, 1918, and ch. 635, effective May 13, 1918. These transforming changes have extended the law's coverage remarkably and have rapidly put important court decisions out of date. The first precaution in studying any particular decision should be inquiry as to its status under amendments to the Compensation Law subsequent to its rendition. The decisions in this Bulletin show the progress of the courts in interpreting the amendments of 1916.

While the headlines to the texts of court decisions consist of but single references, the table of cases gives full histories. Stenographic notes of hearings on claims are voluminous. The manuscript records of all cases are on file in the Commission's archives. The Commission makes formal findings of fact and rulings of law for every case appealed to the Appellate Division. The stenographic notes of hearings, commission findings, arguments of opposing counsel and other documents relative to each appealed case are printed under one cover for the court's consideration. Some work is being done by way of collecting and preserving these appeal papers in series of bound volumes. Many of the Commission's rulings in cases not subjected to appeal as

well as in appeal cases have been published in the Monthly Bulletin of the State Industrial Commission which has been in course of publication since October, 1915, and in the bi-monthly State Department Reports of Now York of which some fourteen bound volumes have been issued by the Miscellaneous Reporter's office. Reference to these two sources appear in this Bulletin under the abbreviations, Bul. and S. D. R., respectively. They duplicate each other in many cases, but now and then supplement each other. Sources for court decisions are indicated in the introduction to Bulletin Eighty-one.

Annually, upon adjournment of the Legislature, the Bureau of Statistics and Information of the Department of Labor issues an edition of the Workmen's Compensation Law with annotations to date, finding list of hazardous employments and general index.

CONSTITUTIONALITY

The Supreme Court of the United States sustained the Workmen's Compensation Law of New York, March 6, 1917, in New York Central Railroad Co. v. White. For the decision, it preferred this case to another pending New York case, Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, by which the Court of Appeals, the highest court of New York, had passed upon and upheld the act. The White case had followed the Jensen case in point of time in the New York courts and the award of compensation therein had been affirmed by them without opinion. From the point of view of the Supreme Court of the United States the Jensen case involved conflict between state and federal jurisdiction while the White case did not and was therefore capable of being decided solely upon constitutional merits.

In the main, the United States opinion in the White case and the New York opinion in the Jensen case make the same points. The Supreme Court of the United States takes occasion, however, to uphold liability without fault. In Ives v. South Buffalo Railway Co., 201 N. Y. 271, Mar. 24, 1911, the Court of Appeals of New York repudiated such liability. The Ives decision declared the earlier Workmen's Compensation Law of New York unconstitutional.

Briefly summarized, the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in New York Central Railroad Co. v. White holds that (1) Employers' liability law is not beyond alteration; (2) Liability may be imposed though fault be entirely absent; (3) The Workmen's Compensation Law of New York is (a) a reasonable exercise of the police power, (b) not unreasonable on grounds of natural justice, (c) not violative of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as relates either to due process or to equal protection. The full text of the unanimous decision is as follows:

NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD Co. v. WHITE, 243 U. S. 188, Mar. 6, 1917. MR. JUSTICE PITNEY delivered the opinion of the court.

A proceeding was commenced by defendant in error before the Workmen's Compensation Commission of the State of New York, established by the

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