Labor Laws

States provide for compensation or for liability for such death or injury.

SEC. 41. Previous Injuries and Actions. The provisions of this act shall not apply to injuries or actions brought on account of injuries sustained before January 1, 1914.

SEC. 42. Failure to Observe Act. Any employer who has accepted part B of this act and who thereafter fails to conform to any of the provisions of Section thirty of part B, shall thereby forfeit all benefits thereunder and shall be liable as if he had not accepted the same. Any such employer who shall fail to conform to any of the other provisions of part B shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars for each offense.

SEC. 43. Definitions. "Commissioner" shall mean that compensation commissioner, as constituted in this act, who has jurisdiction in the matter referred to in the context. "Commission" shall mean the five commissioners, or a majority of them, acting as a board. "Dependents" shall mean members of the injured employee's family or next of kin who were wholly or partly dependent upon the earnings of the employee at the time of the injury. "Employee" shall mean any person who has entered into or works under any contract of service or apprenticeship with an employer. "Employer" shall mean any natural person, corporation, firm, partnership, or joint stock association, the state, and any public corporation within the state using the services of another for pay; it includes also the legal representative of any such employer. Masculine terms include males, females, and legal persons. "Outworker" shall mean a person to whom articles or materials are given to be treated in any way on premises not under the control or management of the person who gaye them out. As the natural interpretation of the context may require, singular terms may be taken to include the plural, and plural to include the singular.

SEC. 44. Unconstitutionality. In case any provision of this act shall be held by the courts to be unconstitutional and invalid, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect any other provision which can be given effect without the provision held invalid.

PART C. EMPLOYERS' MUTUAL INSURANCE.

SECTION I. Mutual Associations Authorized. With the approval of the insurance commissioner, employers who have accepted the provisions of part B of this act and are bound to pay compensations to their employees thereunder, may associate themselves, in accordance with the law for the formation of corporations without capital stock, for the purpose of establishing and maintaining mutual associations to insure their liabilities under this act, but no such association shall be formed to include employers not in the same or similar trade or business, or in

trades or businesses with substantially similar degrees of hazard of injury to employees.

SEC. 2. Approval by Insurance Commissioner. With a view to his approval, the insurance commissioner may require the incorporators of any such association to include in their proposed certificate of incorporation such lawful provisions for the regulation of the affairs of the association and the definition of its powers and the powers of its officers, directors, and incorporators as shall satisfy him that it is well designed and wisely adapted to its proposed purposes. When such a certificate, in form and substance acceptable to the insurance commissioner, has been approved by and filed with the secretary of the state, the incorporators shall forthwith cause copies thereof to be filed in the offices of the insurance commissioner and each of the compensation commissioners.

SEC. 3. Membership. Membership in such associations shall be limited to such employers as are subject to part B of this act, and each association shall have power, by appropriate by-laws, to provide for the admission, suspension, withdrawal, or expulsion of members.

SEC. 4. Control of Associations. Except as herein otherwise provided, such associations shall be subject to the same regulation and control as is or may be imposed by law upon other corporations or associations taking similar risks in this state, and over them the insurance commissioner shall have all the jurisdiction given him by Chapter 186 of the public acts of 1909 over insurance companies.

SEC. 5. Policies. No policies shall be issued by any such association until members in such numbers and with such numbers of employees as the insurance commissioner may decide will give a fair diffusion of risks shall have obligated themselves to take policies immediately upon their authorization, nor shall any policies be issued except such as the insurance commissioner shall have approved as conforming in all respects to the requirements of this act. Conformably to the provisions of Section thirty of part B of this act, policies may be issued covering claims only in excess of a certain amount. If at any time, by the retirement of members, reduction of numbers of employees, or other cause, the membership of any association shall appear to the insurance commissioner no longer to afford a fair diffusion of risks, he may suspend or forbid the further issue of policies until the former conditions of the association have been restored.

SEC. 6. Officers and Voting. The affairs of all associations incorporated under this act shall be managed by such officers and directors as may be chosen in manner prescribed by the bylaws of the association, provided every member shall be entitled to cast at least one ballot in all elections and votes, that any member having had for six months an average of more than one hun

dred and not more than five hundred employees to whom he is bound to pay compensation under this act shall be entitled to cast two ballots, that each additional five hundred employees shall entitle such member to an additional ballot, and that no member shall be entitled to cast more than eight ballots.

SEC. 7. Safety Rules. Each association shall have power to prescribe and enforce reasonable rules for safety regulations on the premises of its members, and for that purpose, its inspectors shall have free access to all such premises during regular working hours.

SEC. 8. Premiums. Each association shall have power to determine the comparative premium rates for each occupation or risk insured by it and to prescribe rates of cash premiums sufficient to cover the current cost. Said premium rates shall prevail for the fiscal year of the association, but annually they may be changed at any time by the directors. The current cost herein specified shall be such an amount as is estimated to cover the expenses and the claims or portions of claims payable within the same fiscal year within which they originated. Members of each association shall be required to pay yearly in advance cash premiums for current costs, and in addition thereto an amount in negotiable notes sufficient to maintain a reserve equal to that required of stock or commercial casualty companies by the general statutes for similar classes of risks. These notes shall be payable on the call of the treaurer of the association, as they may be required to meet estimated losses or expenses in excess of the current cost or to meet claims covering losses not payable with:n the same fiscal year within which the claim originated. The directors may, in their discretion, fix rates of interest on either notes or balances.

SEC. 9. Assessments. If an association is not possessed of funds sufficient for the payment of incurred losses and expenses, it shall make an assessment for the amount needed to pay such losses and expenses, upon the members liable to assessment therefor, in proportion to their several liabilities.

SEC. IO.

Investments. The funds of each association shall be invested by the directors in the same classes of securities and in the same manner in which the funds of domestic life insurance companies are by law required or permitted to be invested.

SEC. 11. By-laws and Regulations. Each association shall have power to determine the premiums, contingent liabilities, assessments, penalties, and dividends of its members, and to enforce, or administer the same without the limitations imposed upon corporations without capital stock by Section ninety of Chapter 194 of the public acts of 1903. It shall also have power to make and amend by-laws or regulations not inconsistent with its certificate of incorporation for the prompt, economical, and safe conduct of its affairs. All by-laws and regulations of each

association shall be filed with the insurance commissioner, and shall be subject to his approval. If not disapproved by him, they shall go into effect thirty days after filing, or at such later date as may be indicated in the by-laws or regulations.

SEC. 12. Appeals to Superior Court. From any decision or order of the insurance commissioner affecting any association, such association shall have the right of appeal to the superior court for Hartford county.

GENERAL PROVISIONS.

SEC. 13. Acts Repealed. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with any provision of this act are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency.

SEC. 14. When Effective. So much of this act as directs the appointment of compensation commissioners and authorizes the formation of employers' mutual insurance associations shall take effect upon its passage; so much as empowers the commission to adopt and publish rules, procedure, and forms shall take effect October 1, 1913; all other provisions of this act shall take effect January 1, 1914.-Public Acts of 1913, Chapter 138.

Bulletins containing forms and rules to be used in connection with the operation of the Workmen's Compensation Act have been issued by the Compensation Commission, and may be obtained upon application to Town Clerks.

INDEX TO LABOR LAWS.

Section. Page.

Accidents, involving public service corporations, duties
of public utilities commission, concerning

to be reported

to workmen, injured in the course of their em-
ployment, (see Workmen's Compensation).

148

Acrobat, unlawful exhibition of child as
Administrator or Executor, order of claims against de-
cedent estate, how paid by