Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 2.djvu/246

 228 ^^^ YARD LA W RB VIB W.

in enacting certain restrictions after the nature of the English act For instance, compensation for personal injury shall not exceed four thousand dollars. For death, compensation shall not be less than five hundred dollars nor more than five thousand dollars, to be assessed with reference to the degree of culpability of the em- ployer or the person for whose negligence he is made liable. To maintain any action under the statute, notice of the time, place, and cause of the injury must be given to the employer within thirty days, and action begun within one year, from the date of the accident. An employer who has contributed to an insurance fund for the benefit of employees may prove in mitigation of dam- ages the proportional benefit which the employee seeking to recover compensation has received from such contribution. If the em- ployee knew of the defect or negligence, and failed to give notice thereof, he cannot recover. An employer is made liable to employees of a contractor or sub-contractor injured by reason of any defect in the condition of the ways, works, machinery, or plant, if they are the property of the employer or fur- nished by him, and if such defect arose, or had not been dis- covered or remedied, through the negligence of the employer or of some person intrusted by him with the duty of seeing that they were in proper condition. If an employee is instantly killed, the widow, or next of kin, if dependent upon the wages of deceased for support, may recover as if the death of the deceased had not been instantaneous, or as if the deceased had consciously suffered. Domestic servants and farm laborers do not come within the scope of the act.

In the Acts of 1888, chap. 155, it was provided that, if the incapacity of the person injured prevented the giving of the notice within the specified time, the said notice could be given within ten days after the incapacity was removed, or, in case of death, within thirty days after the appointment of the executor or adminis- trator.

Numerous cases on this statute have been before the Superior Court ; but as yet only one has been decided in the Supreme Court of the State.^

The facts were as follows : The defendant furnished a movable stage for the use of the plainti£E and a fellow-servant, each end

1 Ashley v. Hart, October, 1888 (not yet reported).