CHAPTER 138.-Right of action for injuries causing death. SECTION 2902. Whenever the death of a person shall be caused by the wrongful act, neglect, or default of any person or corporation, or of any ship or vessel, and the act, neglect, or default is such as would (if death had not ensued) have entitled the party injured to maintain an action, or to proceed in rem against said ship or vessel, or in personam against the owners thereof or those having control of her, and to recover damages in respect thereof, then, and in every such case, the person who, or corporation or ship or vessel which, would have been liable, if death had not ensued, shall be liable to an action for damages, or, if a ship or vessel, to a libel in rem, and her owners or those responsible for her acts or defaults or negligence to a libel in personam, notwithstanding the death of the person injured, and although the death shall have been caused under such circumstances as amount in law to a felony. A trainman injured by reason of the unusual and improper making up of a train is not a fellow-servant with the conductor whose duty it is to direct the making up of such train, and the burden of proving that the injury did not result from the negligence of the conductor rests on the company. 78 Va. 745. Using a freight car with a broken and defective ladder is such negligence as will charge the company with liability for the death of an employee occasioned by such defect. 78 Va. 93. Right ac crues, when. Who may SEC. 2903. Every such action shall be brought by and in the name of the personal representative of such deceased person, and sue. within twelve months after his or her death. The jury in any such action may award such damages as to it may seem fair and Damages. just, not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and may direct in what proportion they shall be distributed to the wife, husband, parent and child of the deceased. But nothing in this section shall be construed to deprive the court of the power to grant new trials, as in other cases. CHAPTER 178.-Exemption of wages from garnishment, etc. SECTION 3652. Wages owing to a laboring man being a householder, not exceeding fifty dollars per month, shall also be exempt householder from distress, levy, or garnishment. Wages of exempt. CHAPTER 180.-Negligence of drivers, conductors, etc. SECTION 3682. If any driver, conductor, or captain of any vehi Negligence cle or boat for public conveyance, in the management of such causing injury. vehicle or boat, willfully or negligently inflict bodily injury on any person, he shall be punished as for a misdemeanor. CHAPTER 185.-Sunday labor. SECTION 3799. If a person, on a Sabbath day, be found laboring Sunday labor at any trade or calling, or employ his apprentices or servants in forbidden. labor or other business, except in household or other work of necessity or charity, he shall forfeit two dollars for each offense. * * Observance of SEC. 3800. The forfeiture, declared by the preceding section, shall not be incurred by any person who conscientiously believes the seventh that the seventh day of the week ought to be observed as a Sab- day. bath, and actually refrains from all secular business and labor on that day, provided he does not compel an apprentice or servant, not of his belief, to do secular work or business on a Sunday, and does not on that day disturb any other person. Running SEC. 3801. No railroad company, receiver, or trustee controlling or operating a railroad, shall, by an agent or employee, load, trains, etc. unload, run, or transport upon such road on a Sunday, any car, train of cars, or locomotive, nor permit the same to be done by H. Doc. 733, 58-2-76 Definition. Penalty. Application of law. any such agent or employee, except where such cars, trains, or locomotives are used exclusively for the relief of wrecked trains, or trains so disabled as to obstruct the main track of the railroad; or for the transportation of the United States mail; or for the transportation of passengers and their baggage; or for the transportation of live stock; or for the transportation of articles of such perishable nature as would be necessarily impaired in value by one day's delay in their passage: Provided however, That if it should be necessary to transport live stock or perishable articles on a Sunday to an extent not sufficient to make a whole train load, such train load may be made up with cars loaded with ordinary freight. This act is constitutional. Running empty coal cars on Sunday to a mine in West Virginia is a violation. 24 S. E. Rep. 837. SEC. 3802. The word "Sunday" in the preceding section shall be construed to embrace only that portion of the day between sunrise and sunset; and trains in transitu having started prior to twelve o'clock on Saturday night, may, in order to reach the terminus or shops of the railroad, run until nine o'clock the following Sunday morning, but not later. SEC. 3803. Any railroad company, receiver, or trustee violating the provisions of section thirty-eight hundred and one, shall be deemed to have committed a separate offense in each county or corporation in which such car, train of cars, or locomotive shall run, or in which such car or train of cars shall be loaded or unloaded; and shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars for each offense. ACTS OF 1887, EXTRA SESSION. CHAPTER 391.-Payment of wages. SECTION 1. All persons, firms, companies, corporations, or associations in this Commonwealth, engaged in mining coal, ore, or other minerals, or mining and manufacturing them, or either of them, or manufacturing iron or steel, or both, or any other kind of manufacturing, shall pay their employees as provided in this act. Monthly pay SEC. 2. All persons, firms, companies, corporations, or associaday. tions engaged in the business aforesaid shall settle with their employees at least once in each month, and pay them the amounts Lawful mon- due them for their work or services in lawful money of the United States, or by the cash order as described and required in section three of this act: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall affect the right of an employee to assign the whole or any part of his claim against his employer. ey. Scrip, etc., to SEC. 3 (as amended by chapter 118, Acts of 1887-88). be redeemable. it shall not be lawful for any person, firm, company, corporation, or association, engaged in the business aforesaid, their clerk, agent. officer, or servant in this State, to issue for payment of labor, any order, or other payment whatever, unless the same purports to be redeemable for its face value in lawful money of the United States, made payable on demand and without condition, to employee or bearer, bearing interest at legal rate, and redeemable by the person, firm, company, corporation, or association, giving, making, or issuing the same; and any person, firm, company, corporation, or association engaged in the business aforesaid, their clerks, agents, officers, or servants, who shall issue for payment of labor any paper or order, other than the one herein specified, in violation of this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one hundred dollars in the discretion of the court. Company stores. SEC. 4. From and after the passage of this act, it shall be unlawful for any person, firm, company, corporation, or association engaged in mining or manufacturing, either or both, as aforesaid, and who shall likewise be either engaged or interested, directly or indirectly, in merchandising as owner or otherwise, in any money per centum, profit, or commission arising from the sale of any such merchandise, their clerks, servants, officers or agents, to knowingly and willfully sell or cause to be sold to any employee, any goods, merchandise, or supplies whatever for a greater per centum of profit than merchandise and supplies of like character, kind, quality, and quantity are sold to other customers buying for cash and not employed by them; and shall any person or member of any firm, company, corporation, or association, his or their clerk, agent, or servant, violate this section of this act, they shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one hundred dollars, in the discretion of the court. ACTS OF 1889-90. CHAPTER 49.-Sunday labor. Running SECTION 1. No steamboat company shall, by any agent or employee, load or unload on a Sunday any steamship or steamboat steamboats. arriving at any port or landings on the bays, rivers, or other waters of this State, or permit the same to be done by any such agent or employee, except where such steamship or steamboat is for the transportation of the United States mails, or for the transportation of passengers and their baggage, or for the transportation of through freight in transitu, or of live stock, or of articles of such perishable nature as would be necessarily impaired in value by one day's delay in their passage: Provided, That noth- Proviso. ing in this act shall be construed as preventing any steamship or steamboat arriving at any port or landing on the bays, rivers, and other waters of this State, not its final point of destination, from unloading any and all freight intended for delivery at such intermediate port or landing, or from loading and taking on any and all freight intended for shipment from such intermediate port or landing, to the final destination of said steamship or steamboat. SEC. 2. Any steamship or steamboat company violating the pro- Penalty. visions of this act shall be deemed to have committed a separate offense in each county or corporation in which said steamship or steamboat shall land and be unloaded, and shall be fined in a sum not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars for each offense. CHAPTER 193.—Employment of women and children. Limit of SECTION 1. No female and no child under fourteen years of age shall work as an operative in any factory or in any factory or day's labor. manufacturing establishment in this State more than ten hours in any one day of twenty-four hours. All contracts made or to be made for the employment of any female or of any child under fourteen years of age, as an operative in any factory or manufac turing establishment to work more than ten hours in any one day of twenty-four hours, are and shall be void. SEC. 2. Any person having the authority to contract for the employment of persons as operatives in any factory or manufacturing establishment, who shall engage or contract with any female or any child under fourteen years of age to work as an operative in such factory or manufacturing establishment during more than ten hours in any one day of twenty-four hours, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be fined not less than five nor more than twenty dollars. CHAPTER 199.—Fire escapes on factories, etc. Penalty. a Fire escapes SECTION 1. It shall be the duty of the owner or owners of all factories, workshops, in this State of over three stories to be provided. * * * in height, SEC. 2. The character and design of said fire escapes shall, in Design of escities and towns, be selected by the council of said cities and capes, Council to act. Penalty. Blacklisting forbidden. Sending claim out of State. towns; and where the buildings are not located in cities and towns, by a board composed of the county judge, the county school superintendent, and the chairman of the board of supervisors. SEC. 3. Any owner or owners of such buildings shall have the right to require the council of the city or town in which said buldings are located, or in the counties the board designated by this act, to make such selection of said fire escapes as is provided by this act; and, in case of their failure or refusal, they shall be compellable by mandamus. SEC. 4. Any owner or owners of such buildings who shall fail to comply with the first section of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, for each month they shall fail to provide such fire escape. ACTS OF 1891-92. CHAPTER 622.-Blacklisting. SECTION 1. No corporation, manufacturer, or manufacturing company doing business in this State, or any agent or attorney of such corporation, manufacturer or manufacturing company, after having discharged any employee from the service of such corporation, manufacturer, or manufacturing company, shall willfully and maliciously prevent or attempt to prevent, by word or writing, directly or indirectly, such discharged employee from obtaining employment with any other person or corporation. For any violation of this section the offender shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction thereof, be fined not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars. But this seetion shall not be construed as prohibiting any corporation, manufacturer, or manufacturing company from giving in writing, on application from any other person or corporation, a truthful statement of the reason for such discharge. ACTS OF 1895-96. CHAPTER 286 (as amended by chapter 628, Acts of 1897–98).—E♣emption of wages-Unlawful assignment of claims. SECTION 1. It shall be unlawful for any person to institute, or permit to be instituted, proceedings in his own name, or in the name of any other person, or to assign or transfer, either for or without value, any claim for debt or liability of any kind, held by him against a resident of this State who is a laboring man and a householder, for the purpose of having payment of the same, or any part thereof, enforced out of the wages exempted by section three thousand six hundred and fifty-two of the Code of Virginia, by proceedings in attachment or garnishment, in courts or before justices of the peace in any other State than in the State of Virginia, or to send out of this State by assignment, transfer, or in any other manner whatsoever, either for or without value, any claim or debt against any resident thereof for the purpose or with the intent of depriving such person of the right to have his wages exempt from distress, levy, or garnishment according to the provisions of section three thousand six hundred and fifty-two of the Code of Virginia. And the person instituting such suit, or permitting such suit to be instituted, or sending, assigning, or transferring any such claim or debt for the purpose or with the intent aforesaid shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not less than ten dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, and shall in addition thereto, be liable in an action of debt to the person from whom payment of the same, or any part thereof, shall have been enforced by attachment or garnishment or otherwise, elsewhere than in the State of Virginia, for the full amount, payment whereof shall have been so enforced together with interest thereon. and the costs of the attachment or garnishee proceedings, as well as the costs of said action. Recovery ex SEC. 2. The amount recovered in such action shall stand on the same footing with the wages of the plaintiff under section three empt. thousand six hundred and fifty-two of the Code, and shall also be exempt and free from any and all liability of the plaintiff to the defendant in the way of set-off or otherwise. SEC. 3. The fact that the payment of a claim or debt against any person entitled to the exemption provided for in section three thousand six hundred and fifty-two of the Code has been enforced by legal proceedings in some State other than the State of Virginia, in such manner as to deprive such person to any extent of the benefit of such exemption, shall be prima facie evidence that any resident of this State, who may at any time have been owner or holder of said claim, or debt, has violated this law. CHAPTER 351.-Protection of wages of laborers on buildings, etc. Evidence. claims. SECTION 1. No assignment or transfer of any debt, or any part Prior adjustthereof, due or to become due to a general contractor by the owner for the construction, erection or repairing of any building, strucment of wage ture, or railroad for such owner, shall be valid or enforceable in any court of law or equity by any legal process, or in any other manner, by the assignee of any such debt, unless and until the claims of all subcontractors, supply men and laborers against such general contractor for labor performed and materials furnished in and about the construction, erection and repairing of such building, structure or railroad shall have been satisfied: Provided, That if such subcontractors, supply men and laborers shall give their assent in writing to such assignment, it shall be thereby made valid as to them, but the payment or appropriation of such assignment by the owner without such assent in writing shall not protect such owner from the demands of such subcontractors, supply men and laborers to the extent of such assignment. SEC. 2. No debt or demand, or any part thereof, due or to become due by the owner of any building, structure or railroad to ment. a general contractor for the construction, erection or repairing of such building, structure or railroad, shall be subject to the payment of any debt or the lien of any judgment, writ of fieri facias or any garnishee proceeding obtained or sued out upon any debt due such general contractor which shall have been contracted in any other manner or for any other purpose than in the construction, erection or repairing of such building, structure or railroad for such owner unless and until the claims due by such general contractor to all subcontractors, supply men and laborers for materials furnished and labor performed in and about the construction, erection or repairing of such building, structure or railroad shall have been paid. CHAPTER 644.-Employment of children-Certain employments forbidden. Suspension of garnish Acrobatic, mendicant, etc., SECTION 2. It shall be unlawful for any person having the care, custody or control of any child under the age of fourteen years to sell, apprentice, give away, let, or hire out, or otherwise dis- tions. pose of such child to any person in or for the vocation or occupation, service, or purpose of rope or wire walking, begging or peddling, or as a gymnast, contortionist, rider, or acrobat in any place whatsoever, or for any obscene, indecent or immoral purpose, exhibition, or practice whatsoever, or for or in any business, exhibition or vocation injurious to the health or morals or dangerous to the life or limb of such child, or cause, procure, encourage or permit any such child to engage therein. occupa Hiring for SEC. 3. It shall also be unlawful for any person to take, receive, hire, employ, use, exhibit, or have in custody any child under the such purposes. age aforesaid for any of the purposes prohibited in the second section of this act. |