NEW YORK.

Compensation of workmen for injuries.

[The compensation law of this State, chapter 67 of the Compiled Laws, added by chapter 41, acts of 1914, is amended in various

particulars by acts of 1917, 1918.

Section 2 is amended by chapter 249, acts of 1918, by the re- Employments enactment of groups 8 and 10 (relating to the operation of vessels covered. and longshore work), which were held to be beyond the power

of the State to control, by the decision of the United States Supreme Court, and which were subsequently made subject to State legislation by an act of Congress.

Group 14 of the same section is amended by chapter 635, acts of 1918, so as to read as follows:]

GROUP 14. Lumbering, except operations solely for the production of firewood in which not more than four persons are engaged by a single employer; logging, river driving, rafting, booming, saw mills, bark mills; shingle mills, lath mills, lumber yards; manufacture of veneer and of excelsior; manufacture of barrels, kegs, vats, tubs, staves, spokes, or headings.

[Group 34 of the same section is amended by chapter 705, acts of 1917, so as to read as follows:]

GROUP 34. Hotels having fifty or more rooms; bakeries, including manufacture of crackers and biscuits, manufacture of confectionery, spices, or condiments.

[Group 42 of the same section is amended by chapter 634, acts of 1918, by adding thereto "theatrical stage managers, property men, electricians, stage hands, flymen, lamp operators, and moving picture machine operators."

Group 44 is added as a new group by chapter 705, acts of 1917, as follows:]

Hazardous

GROUP 44. Employment as a keeper, guard, nurse, or orderly in a prison, reformatory, insane asylum, or hospital maintained or employments. operated by the State or municipal corporation or other subdivision thereof, notwithstanding the definitions of the terms “employment." "employer," or " employee" in subdivision five of section three of this chapter.

[A new group, numbered 45, is added by chapter 633, acts of 1918, as follows:]

GROUP 45. Employment as a district forest ranger, forest ranger, observer, chief railroad inspector, game protector, inspector, forester, land appraiser, surveyor, assistant on survey, engineer, or assistant on construction work, by the State, notwithstanding the definitions of the terms "employment," employer" or employee" in subdivision five of section three of this chapter.

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[A second group bearing the same number was also added by chapter 634, acts of 1918, as follows:]

GROUP 45. All other employments not hereinbefore enumerated carried on by any person, firm, or corporation in which there are engaged or employed four or more workmen or operatives regu Jarly, in the same business or in or about the same establishment, either upon the premises or at the plant or away from the plant of the employer, under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, except farm laborers and domestic servants.

[Subsections 5 and 13 of section 3 are amended by chapter 705, acts of 1917, so as to read as follows:]

Partial loss.

Medical, etc., treatment.

Notice of in

5. "Employment" includes employment only in a trade, business, or occupation carried on by the employer for pecuniary gain, or in connection therewith, except where the employer and his employees have by their joint election elected to become subject to the provisions of this chapter as provided in section two.

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13. Manufacture," "construction," "operation," and "installation" shall include "repair," demolition," and "alteration.” and shall include all work done in connection with the repair of plants, buildings, grounds, and approaches of all places where any of the hazardous employments are being carried on, operated, or conducted.

[Section 12 is amended by chapter 705, acts of 1917, so as to read as follows:]

SECTION 12. No compensation shall be allowed for the first fourteen days of disability, except the benefits provided for in section thirteen of this chapter: Provided, however, That in case the injury results in disability of more than forty-nine days the compensation shall be allowed from the date of the disability.

[Subsection 3 of section 15 is amended by chapter 705, acts of 1917, by inserting after the second sentence in the paragraph "Phalange of thumb or finger" the words: "Where the injury results in the loss of more than one finger, compensation therefor may be awarded for the proportionate loss of the use of the hand thereby occasioned;" also by adding after the paragraph "Loss of use a new paragraph, as follows:]

Partial loss and partial loss of use. For the partial loss or the partial loss of the use of a hand, arm, foot, leg, or eye, compensation therefor may be awarded for the proportionate loss or proportionate loss of the use of such hand, arm, foot, leg, or eye.

[Sections 13 and 18 are amended by chapter 634, acts of 1918, so as to read as follows:]

SEC. 13. The employer shall promptly provide for an injured employee such medical, surgical, or other attendance or treatment, nurse and hospital service, medicine, crutches, and apparatus as the nature of the injury may require during sixty days after the injury; but the commission may where the nature of the injury or the process of recovery requires a longer period of treatment require the same from the employer. If the employer fail to provide the same, after request by the injured employee, such injured employee may do so at the expense of the employer. The employee shall not be entitled to recover any amount expended by him for such treatment or services unless he shall have requested the employer to furnish the same and the employer shall have refused or neglected to do so, or unless the nature of the injury required such treatment and services and the employer or his superintendent or foreman having knowledge of such injury shall have neglected to provide the same. All fees and other charges for such treatment and services shall be subject to regulation by the commission as provided in section 24 of this chapter, and shall be limited to such charges as prevail in the same community for similar treatment of injured persons of a like standard of living.

SEC. 18. Notice of an injury for which compensation is payable Jury or death. under this chapter shall be given to the commission and to the employer within thirty days after the accident causing such injury, and also in case of the death of the employee resulting from such injury, within thirty days after such death. Such notice may be given by any person claiming to be entitled to compensation, or by some one in his behalf. The notice shall be in writing, and contain the name and address of the employee, and state in ordinary language the time, place, nature and cause of the injury, and be signed by him or by a person on his behalf or, in case of death, by any one or more of his dependents, or by a person on their behalf. It shall be given to the commission by sending it by mail, by registered letter, addressed to the commission at its office. It shall be given to the employer by delivering it to him or sending it by mail, by registered letter, addressed to the employer

at his or its last known place of business: Provided, That, if the employer be a partnership then such notice may be so given to any one of the partners, and if the employer be a corporation, then such notice may be given to any agent or officer thereof upon whom legal process may be served, or any agent in charge of the business in the place where the injury occurred. The failure to give notice of injury or notice of death unless excused by the commission either on the ground that notice for some sufficient reason could not have been given, or on the ground that the employer, or his or its agents in charge of the business in the place where the accident occurred or having immediate supervision of the employee to whom the accident happened, had knowledge of the accident, or on the ground that the employer has not been prejudiced thereby, shall be a bar to any claim under this chapter, but the employer and the insurance carrier shall be deemed to have waived such notice unless the objection to the failure to give such notice or the insufficiency thereof, is raised before the commission on the hearing of a claim filed by such injured employee, or his or her dependents.

[Section 20 is amended by chapter 705, acts of 1917, by striking out at the end of the third sentence the words together with a statement of its conclusions of fact and rulings of law."

Section 23 is amended by chapter 705, acts of 1917, so as to read as follows:]

SEC. 23. An award or decision of the commission shall be final and conclusive upon all questions within its jurisdiction, as against the State fund or between the parties, unless reversed or modified on appeal therefrom as hereinafter provided. Within thirty days after notice of the filing of the award or the decision of the commission has been sent to the parties an appeal may be taken to the appellate division of the supreme court, third department, from such award or decision by any party in interest including an employer insured in the State fund. If notice of such appeal is served upon the commission, the commission shall within thirty days thereafter serve upon the parties in interest a statement of its conclusions of fact and rulings of law in such case. The commission may also, in its discretion, certify to such appellate division of the supreme court questions of law involved in its decision. Such appeals and the questions so certified shall be heard in a summary manner and shall have precedence over all other civil cases in such court. The commission shall be deemed a party to every such appeal, and the attorney general, without extra compensation, shall represent the commission thereon. An appeal may also be taken to the court of appeals in all cases where the decision of the appellate division is not unanimous and by the consent of the appellate division or a judge of the court of appeals where the decision of the appellate division is unanimous in the same manner and subject to the same limitations not inconsistent herewith as is now provided in civil actions. It shall not be necessary to file exceptions to the rulings of the commission. The commission shall not be required to file a bond upon an appeal by it to the court of appeals. Otherwise such appeals shall be subject to the law and practice applicable to appeals in civil actions. Upon final determination of such an appeal, the commission shall enter an order in accordance therewith.

[Section 24 is amended by chapter 705, acts of 1917, by adding thereto the following:]

In case an award is affirmed upon an appeal to the appellate division, the same shall be payable with interest thereon from the date when said award was made by the commission.

[Section 27 is amended by chapter 705, acts of 1917, so as to read as follows:]

SEC. 27. If an award under this chapter requires payment of death benefits or other compensation by an insurance carrier or employer in periodical payments, the commission may, in its discretion, at any time, any provision of this chapter to the contrary notwithstanding, compute and permit or require to be paid

Appeals

Interest

Deposits.

Limitation.

Subrogation

into the State fund an amount equal to the present value of all unpaid death benefits or other compensation in cases in which awards are made for total permanent or permament partial disability for a period of one hundred and four weeks or more, for which liability exists, together with such additional sum as the commission may deem necessary for a proportionate payment of expenses of administering the fund so created. The moneys so paid in for all death benefits or other compensation to constitute one aggregate and indivisible fund; and thereupon such employer or insurance carrier shall be discharged from any further liability under such award and payment of the same as provided by this chapter shall be assumed by the special fund so created. All computations made by the commission shall be upon the basis of the survivorship annuitants' table of mortality, the remarriage tables of the Dutch Royal Insurance Institution and interest at three and one-half per cent per annum.

Such special fund shall be kept separate and apart from all other moneys of the State fund, and shall not be liable for any losses or expenses of administration of the State fund other than the expenses involved in the administration of such special fund, nor shall the State fund be charged with the losses or expenses of the aggregate special fund beyond the amount of such special fund.

The commission may in like manner, in its discretion, commute and permit or require to be paid, into said aggregate special fund, by one or more resolutions one or more awards computable under this section.

Any portion of such special fund may pursuant to a resolution of the commission approved by the superintendent of insurance be invested in any of the securities in which a life insurance corporation may invest its assets as provided in section one hundred of the insurance law.

[Section 28 is amended by chapter 634, acts of 1918, so as to read as follows:]

SEC. 28. The right to claim compensation under this chapter shall be forever barred unless within one year after the accident, or if death results therefrom, within one year after such death, a claim for compensation thereunder shall be filed with the commission, but the employer and insurance carrier shall be deemed to have waived the bar of the statute unless the objection to the failure to file the claim within one year is raised before the commission on the hearing of a claim for compensation filed by the injured employee, or his or her dependents.

[Section 29 is amended by chapter 705, acts of 1917, so as to read as follows:]

SEC. 29. If an employee entitled to compensation under this of employer to chapter be injured or killed by the negligence or wrong of another employee's rights. not in the same employ, such injured employee, or in case of death, his dependents, shall, before any suit or any award under this chapter, elect whether to take compensation under this chapter or to pursue his remedy against such other. Such elections shall be evidenced in such manner as the commission may by rule or regulation prescribe. If such injured employee, or in case of death, his dependents, elect to take compensation under this chapter, the awarding of compensation shall operate as an assignment of the cause of action against such other to the State for the benefit of the State insurance fund, if compensation be payable therefrom, and otherwise to the person, association, corporation, or insurance carrier liable for the payment of such compensation, and if he elect to proceed against such other, the State insurance fund, person, association, corporation, or insurance carrier, as the case may be, shall contribute only the deficiency, if any, between the amount of the recovery against such other person actually collected, and the compensation provided or estimated by this chapter for such case. Such a cause of action assigned to the State may be prosecuted or compromised by the commission. A compromise of any such cause of action by

the employee or his dependents at an amount less than the compensation provided for by this chapter shall be made only with the written approval of the commission, if the deficiency of compensation would be payable from the State insurance fund, and otherwise with the written approval of the person, associa tion, corporation, or insurance carrier liable to pay the same. Wherever an employee is killed by the negligence or wrong of another not in the same employ and the dependents of such employee entitled to compensation under this chapter are minors, such election to take compensation and the assignment of the cause of action against such other and such notice of election to pursue a remedy against such other shall be made by such minor, or shall be made on behalf of such minor by a parent of such minor, or by his or her duly appointed guardian, as the commission may determine by rule in each case.

[Section 50 is amended by chapter 705, acts of 1917, by inserting before the last sentence in subsection 3 thereof the following:]

The commission may also require an agreement on the part Security for of an employer to pay any awards commuted under section payments. twenty-seven of this act, into the special fund of the State fund, as a condition of his being allowed to remain uninsured pursuant to this section.

[Section 97 is amended by chapter 705, acts of 1917, by changing the word "six" to "twelve" where it occurs in subsection 4.]

CONSOLIDATED LAWS.

CHAPTER 28.-Employers' liability and workmen's compensation insurance.

SECTION 109 (added by chapter 524, acts of 1917). On and after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and eighteen, no policy of insurance against loss or damage resulting from accident to or injury suffered by an employee or other person and for which the person insured is liable, or, against loss or damage to property caused by horses or by any vehicle drawn, propelled or operated by any motive power, and for which loss or damage the person insured is liable, shall be issued or delivered to any person in this State by any corporation authorized under subdivision three of section seventy of this chapter [authorizing insurance against loss or damage resulting from accident to or injury suffered by an employee or other person, for which the person insured is liable], or, if a foreign corporation, authorized to do business in this State, unless there shall be contained within such policy a provision that the insolvency or bankruptcy of the person insured shall not release the insurance carrier from the payment of damages for injury sustained or loss occasioned during the life of such policy, and stating that in case of such insolvency or bankruptcy, an action may be maintained by the injured per son against such corporation under the terms of the policy for an amount not exceeding the amount of the policy.