Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/214

178 178 HARVARD LAW REVIEW made the paint very difficult of application, and he was required, at intervals, to heat it in a closed unventilated room provided for the purpose. After work- ing for two days on this employment, he contracted a severe case of lead poisoning, from the effects of which he died shortly thereafter. Held, that this was an injury by accident and not an occupational disease. Industrial Com- mission oj Ohio V. Roth, 120 N. E. 172 (Ohio). The courts have been very cautious in awarding compensation for diseases, other than occupational, because the danger of fraudulently attributing every illness to the industry is considerable. The strict compliance, therefore, with the provisions present in most acts, that the injury be traceable to accidental origin, and that the date of such be definitely fixed, has been required. Brintons, Ltd. v. Turvey, [1905] A. C. 230; Glasgow Coal Co. v. Welch, [1916] 2 A. C. i ; Vennen v. New Dells Lumber Co., 161 Wis. 370, 154 N. W. 640. The English courts, how- ever, in an important case seem to have imposed these requirements too strin- gently, in demanding that the injury result from a single fortuitous event, and to them it is insufficient to show that it must have been the outcome of one or more of a few occurrences. Eke v. Hart-Dyke, [191 o] 2 K. B. 677. The facts in the principal case are almost analogous to those in the English case, yet the Ohio court reached the opposite result. The facts in both show that the illness resulted from accidental source and the dates of such were suffici- ently fixed and certain. The causal connection in both was obvious and imposition was amply guarded against. It seems, therefore, that the Ohio court, in refusing to construe so strictly, has arrived at a more sound and just result. Mechanics' Liens — Right of Subcontractor to Lien Regardless of Original Contract. — A statute provided that a subcontractor shall have a lien for labor or material furnished for the erection of a house, such lien being perfected only after notice thereof had been filed within a period of sixty days. It further provided that "the risk of all payments made to the original con- tractor shall be upon the owner until the expiration of the 60 days hereinbefore specffied." Held, that the subcontractor's hen does not depend upon the terms of the original contract. Coates Lumber &* Coal Co. v. Klaas, 168 N. W. 647 (Neb.). The statute governing in the principal case is of the type which creates in favor of the subcontractor a direct hen, as distinguished from the type of statute which grants a hen derivatively, through the principal contractor's right thereto. See 2 Jones, Liens, § 1286. The former type of legislation has been frequently assailed on the ground of unconstitutionality, but the courts have declared in its favor in most jurisdictions. Thus, the validity of a statute securing a hen irrespective of the state of accounts between the owner and the principal contractor has been sustained practically in all states. Ballou V. Black, 21 Neb. 131, 31 N. W. 673; Mallory v. La Crosse Abattoir Co., 80 Wis. 170, 49 N. W. 1 071; Jones v. Great Southern Fireproof Hotel Co., 86 Fed. 370. Contra, Palm^ v. Tingle, 55 Ohio St. 423, 45 N. E. 313. And a statute con- strued to create a hen despite a stipulation against such in the original con- tract, though meeting with greater opposition, has been sanctioned by the weight of authority. Norton v. Clark, 85 Me. 357, 27 Atl. 252; Miles v. Coutts, 20 Mont. 47, 49 Pac. 393; Whittier v. Wilbur, 48 Cal. 175. Contra, Kelly v. Johnson, 251 111. 135, 95 N. E. 1068; Waters v. Wolf, 162 Pa. 153, 29 Atl. 646. It is true that such statutes do somewhat impair the freedom to contract and do create a danger of making the owner Uable to double pajmient, but no undue hardship results by requiring him to regard sufficiently the rights of a third person who has increased the value of his property. Again, the desirability of these statutes is obvious when we consider the encouragement they offer to a class which by its activities aids so materially in promoting the pubUc welfare.