Chief of police to prosecute violations of preceding section. R. L. 106, § 63. Penalty for discharge of employee without notice. R. L. 106, § 10. Liability of employer to employee. R. L. 106, § 71. 1908, 420. paid thereafter on demand. The provisions of this section shall not apply to an employee of a co-operative corporation or association if he is a stockholder therein unless he requests such corporation to pay him weekly. The board of railroad commissioners, after a hearing, may exempt any railroad corporation from paying weekly any of its employees if it appears to the board that such employees prefer less frequent payments, and that their interests and the interests of the public will not suffer thereby. No corporation, contractor, person or partnership shall by a special contract with an employee or by any other means exempt himself or itself from the provisions of this and the following section. Whoever violates the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars. SECTION 113. The chief of the district police or an inspector of factories and public buildings may make a complaint against any person for a violation of the provisions of the preceding section. Complaints for such violation shall be made within thirty days after the date thereof, and, on the trial, no defence for failure to pay as required, other than the attachment of such wages by the trustee process or a valid assignment thereof or a valid set-off against the same, or the absence of the employee from his regular place of labor at the time of payment, or an actual tender to such employee at the time of payment of the wages so earned by him, shall be valid. The defendant shall not set up as a defence a payment of wages after the bringing of the complaint. An assignment of future wages which are payable weekly under the provisions of this act shall not be valid if made to the person from whom such wages are to become due or to any person on his behalf or if made or procured to be made to another person for the purpose of relieving the employer from the obligation to pay weekly. The word “person " in this section shall include the corporations, contractors, persons and partnerships described in the preceding section. SECTION 120. A person who being engaged in manufacturing requires from his employees, under penalty of forfeiture of a part of the wages earned by them, a notice of intention to leave such employ shall be liable to a like forfeiture, if, without similar notice, he discharges an employee. LIABILITY OF EMPLOYERS TO EMPLOYEES. SECTION 127. If personal injury is caused to an employee, who, at the time of the injury, is in the exercise of due care by reason of: First, A defect in the condition of the ways, works or machininery connected with or used in the business of the employer, which arose from, or had not been discovered or remedied in consequence of, the negligence of the employer or of a person in his service who had been entrusted by him with the duty of seeing that the ways, works or machinery were in proper condition; or, Second, The negligence of a person in the service of the employer who was entrusted with and was exercising superintendence and whose sole or principal duty was that of superintendence, or, in the absence of such superintendent, of a person acting as superintendent with the authority or consent of such employer; or, The employee, or his legal representatives, shall, subject to the provisions of the nine following sections, have the same rights to compensation and of action against the employer as if he had not been an employee, nor in the service, nor engaged in the work, of the employer. SECTION 128. If the injury described in the preceding section results in the death of the employee, and such death is not instantaneous or is preceded by conscious suffering, and if there is any person who would have been entitled to bring an action under the provisions of the following section, the legal representatives of said employee may, in the action brought under the provisions of the preceding section, recover damages for the death in addition to those for the injury; and in the same action under a separate count at common law, may recover damages for conscious suffering resulting from the same injury. SECTION 129. If, as the result of the negligence of an employer himself, or of a person for whose negligence an employer is liable under the provisions of section one hundred and twentyseven, an employee is instantly killed, or dies without conscious suffering, his widow or, if he leaves no widow, his next of kin, who, at the time of his death, were dependent upon his wages for support, shall have a right of action for damages against the employer. SECTION 130. If an action is brought under the provisions of the preceding section by the widow of the employee, or by the next of kin, who may have such right of action, or if the action is brought under the provisions of section one hundred and twentyseven by the legal representatives, such action shall not fail by reason of the fact that it should have been brought under the Damages. R. L. 106, $ 74. Notice. other section, but may be so amended as to provide against such failure at any time prior to final judgment. SECTION 131. If under the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-eight and one hundred and twenty-nine damages are awarded for the death, they shall be assessed with reference to the degree of culpability of the employer or of the person for whose negligence the employer is liable. The amount of damages which may be awarded in an action under the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-seven for a personal injury to an employee, in which no damages for his death are awarded under the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-eight shall not exceed four thousand dollars. The amount of damages which may be awarded in such action, if damages for his death are awarded under the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-eight shall not exceed five thousand dollars for both the injury and the death, and shall be apportioned by the jury between the legal representatives of the employee and the persons who would have been entitled under the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-nine to bring an action for his death if it had been instantaneous or without conscious suffering. The amount of damages which may be awarded in an action brought under the provisions of section one hundred and twentynine shall not be less than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars. SECTION 132. No action for the recovery of damages for injury or death under the provisions of the five preceding sections shall be maintained unless notice of the time, place and cause of the injury is given to the employer within sixty days, and the action is commenced within one year, after the accident which causes the injury or death. Such notice shall be in writing, signed by the person injured or by a person in his behalf. [; but] If the person injured dies within the time required for giving the notice his executor or administrator may give such notice within sixty days after his appointment. If from physical or mental incapacity it is impossible for the person injured to give the notice within the time provided in this section, he may give it within ten days after such incapacity has been removed, and if he dies [without having given notice and without having been for ten days at any time after his injury of sufficient capacity to give it] within said ten days his executor or administrator may give such notice within sixty days after his appointment. A notice given under the provisions of this section shall not be held invalid or insufficient solely by reason of an inaccuracy in stating the time, place or cause of the injury if it is shown that there was no intention to mislead, and that the employer was not in fact misled thereby. Liability of an employer to the employee of a contractor or subcontractor. § 76. SECTION 133. If an employer enters into a contract, written or verbal, with an independent contractor to do a part of such employer's work, or if such contractor enters into a contract with a sub-contractor to do all or any part of the work comprised R. L. 106, in such contractor's work with the employer, such contract or sub-contract shall not bar the liability of the employer for injuries to the employees of such contractor or sub-contractor caused by any defect in the condition of the ways, works, machinery or plant, if they are the property of the employer or are furnished by him and if such defect arose, or had not been discovered or remedied, through the negligence of the employer or of some person entrusted by him with the duty of seeing that they were in proper condition. SECTION 134. An employee or his legal representatives shall not be entitled under the provisions of sections one hundred and twenty-seven to one hundred and thirty-one, inclusive, to any right of action for damages to his employer if such employee knew of the defect or negligence which caused the injury, and failed within a reasonable time to give, or cause to be given, information thereof to the employer, or to some person superior to himself in the service of the employer who was entrusted with general superintendence. SECTION 135. An employer who shall have contributed to an insurance fund created and maintained for the mutual purpose of indemnifying an employee for personal injuries for which compensation may be recovered under the provisions of sections one hundred and twenty-seven to one hundred and thirty-one, inclusive, of this act or to any relief society formed under the provisions of sections seventeen, eighteen and nineteen of chapter one hundred and twenty-five of the Revised Laws, or under the provisions of sections forty-six, forty-seven and forty-eight of Part I of chapter four hundred and sixty-three of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and six, may prove in mitigation of the damages recoverable by an employee under the provisions of said sections, such proportion of the pecuniary benefit which has been received by such employee from any such fund or society on account of such contribution of said employer as the contribution of such employer to such fund or society bears to the whole contribution thereto. Employer not liable, when. R. L. 106, § 77. Evidence in damages. R. 106, reduction of L. §. 78. Plans of Form of agreement and method of signing. 1908, 489, § 3. Agreement to plan to be voluntary. Duration. 1908, 489, §§ 4, 5. Employees, SECTION 136. An employer of labor may submit to the state board of conciliation and arbitration a plan of compensation for employees in his employ, providing for payments to them in the event of injury in the course of their employment, based upon a certain percentage of their average earnings, and without reference to legal liability under the common law of the employers' liability act. After examination of such plan of compensation, and a public hearing thereon after public notice thereof, said board may, if it considers the plan fair and just to the employee, give its approval thereof by its certificate attached thereto; and, thereafter, the employer may enter into a contract with his employees by which they shall release him from liability in case of injury in the course of said employment and accept in lieu thereof the compensation provided in said plan. SECTION 137. Either parent or the guardian of any minor employee may agree to said plan of compensation in behalf of the minor. Such agreement shall be in writing signed by the employee, or, in the case of a minor employee, by either parent or the guardian, in the presence of two witnesses, of whom one shall be an employee at the time of such signature. SECTION 138. No employer shall require as a condition of employment that any employee shall assent to any plan of compensation or in any way waive his legal right to recover damages for an injury outside the provisions of such plan, and no contract under such plan of compensation shall be binding for more than one year from the date thereof. SECTION 139. The employees of any employer of labor, numbering at least ten per cent of those regularly employed during the preceding year, may submit to the state board of conciliation and arbitration a plan of compensation such as is described in section one hundred and thirty-six of this act. Such plan shall be referred to the employer, and in case no agreement between the employer and the employees is reached within thirty days and reported to said board, then after examination of the said plan of compensation, and a public hearing thereon after public notice thereof, the board of conciliation and arbitration may, if it considers the same fair and just to the employer and employees, recommend to the employer, the adoption of the same. Upon notice of acceptance of the plan duly filed by the employer the plan shall be deemed to be in force precisely as if it had been submitted and approved under the provisions of the preceding sections of this act. |