Aho v. Chichagoff Mining Co.

6 Alaska 528
CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedApril 24, 1922
DocketNo. 2161-A
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 6 Alaska 528 (Aho v. Chichagoff Mining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aho v. Chichagoff Mining Co., 6 Alaska 528 (D. Alaska 1922).

Opinion

REED, District Judge.

From the argument of counsel for plaintiff, the prayer for damages in the sum of $7,500, and other indicia in the form of complaint, I take it that this action is not brought under the provisions of chapter 71, Session Laws of Alaska 1915, known as the Miners’ Compensation Act, but that it is brpught as a common-law action, for personal injuries, against the employer, for negligence, by the employee. In fact, the demurrer of the defendant is laid on that ground; that is to say, that it purports to be a common-law action, and should have been brought under the Compensation Act aforesaid. Under section 1, chapter 71, Session [530]*530Taws of Alaska 1915, known as. the Miners’ Compensation Act, it is provided that “any person, * * * association or corporation employing five or more employees, * * * who shall not have” rejected “the provisions of this act, * * * shall be liable to pay compensation, in accordance with the schedule herein adopted, to each of his, her, their, or its employees who receives a personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his or her employment, * * * provided, the employee so injured had not, prior to the time of being so injured, given notice” in the manner provided in the act of his or her election to waive or reject the provisions thereof. Then follows the schedule for compensation to the beneficiaries in case of death of the employee from such injury. The same section 1 of the act then provides that, where the employee receives an injury arising out of and in the course of his employment, as a result of which he is totally and permanently disabled, he shall receive compensation according to the schedule following. The section then provides for partial disability arising from an accident in the following language:

“Where any such employee receives an injury arising out of, • or in the course of, his or her employment, resulting in his or her partial disability, he or she shall be paid in accordance with the following schedule.” Section 1, subd. (e).

The section then further provides that, where an injury to an employee arising out of and in the course of his employment, by reason of which he is partially disabled and such disability is permanent in character, and does not come within the specified items scheduled, he shall receive compensation in a sum bearing the same relation to the amount receivable by him if he were totally and permanently disabled as the loss of his earning capacity bears to his normal earning capacity.

Section 7 of the act provides that the right to compensation for an injury and th^ remedy therefor granted by the act shall be in lieu of all other rights and remedies now existing under the common law or otherwise, and no rights or remedies, except those provided for by the act, shall accrue to employees entitled to compensation under the act.

Section 28 provides that, where five or more employees are employed in mining operations, it shall be presumed that the [531]*531employer has elected to come within the provisions of the act, and pay compensation according to the terms thereof to employees for personal injuries arising out of and- in the course of employment, and in such case shall be relieved from liability for recovery of damages or other compensation, except as provided in the act.

Section 30 provides that it shall be conclusively presumed that every such employer has elected to pay compensation to employees for injuries sustained by accident arising out of and in the course of employment, unless and until notice shall have been given as provided therein.

Section 32 provides that, where the employer and employee have not given notice to reject the terms of the act, the act shall constitute a part of every contract of hire, and the same shall be construed as an agreement on the part of the employer to pay, and on the part of the employee to accept, compensation in the manner provided by the act for all personal injuries sustained, arising out of and in the course of his employment.

Section 33 provides that all employees shall be conclusively presumed to have elected to take compensation in accordance with the terms and conditions and provisions of the act until notice in writing shall have been served on the employer and recorded as provided therein.

From the foregoing it must be concluded that, before an employee in mining operations can bring a common-law action against his employer for personal injuries sustained, arising out of and in the course of employment, it is necessary that he or his employer shall have rejected the terms of the act; and it is further necessary that, in such an action, he must affirmatively negative the presumption of the statute to the effect that he is without the terms thereof: Provided the injury shall have arisen by accident out of and in the course of his employment.

In the instant case, in the complaint, the defendant is alleged to be in the business of lode mining; that the defendant required him to lodge in a certain house, with a large number of other laborers, to wit, about 60; that said building was known to the plaintiff and such other occupants, and was used as the sleeping quarters of the employees of the defendant, and that said employees, including the plaintiff, were required [532]*532by defendant to lodge therein. Under this declaration, then, there can be no other conclusion than that the defendant company was employing five or more men in connection with mining operations within the territory, and therefore came within the provisions of the Miners’ Compensation Act aforesaid. The terms of the act, therefore, became a part of the contract of employment of defendant, and no action for compensation or damages will lie for an injury sustained by the defendant, arising out of or in the course of his employment, other than that provided by the act. Hence, if the injury complained of by the plaintiff arose by accident, out of and in the course of his employment, then this action would not lie.

The question, then, resolves itself into one proposition, namely, in the event a mining employer requires, in his contract of employment, his employees to lodge and sleep in a building provided by the employer for that purpose, and the employee, while so occupying the house, and not engaged in actual labor, is injured because of the defective construction of such building, whether such injury arose by accident out of and in the course of employment.

Undoubtedly the injury complained of in this case arose by accident. An accident, as used in the statute, denotes some mishap, unforeseen and unexpected, and, as was said by an eminent jurist, the statute contemplates injuries not expected or designed by the workman himself. The injtiry complained of arose from the collapse of the building in a high wind. Consequently, it could not reasonably have been foreseen or expected by the plaintiff, and therefore was an accident as contemplated by the statute.

But the question whether the injury arose out of and in the course of plaintiff’s employment is a more serious one. There has not been any clear or exact definition of the meaning of the expression “arising out of and in the course of employment.” The editor of Ruling Case Taw, in his discussion of that phrase, uses this language:

“Practically every court has offered an explanation for these words without success. The precedents of other courts are treated with suspicion.

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Bluebook (online)
6 Alaska 528, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aho-v-chichagoff-mining-co-akd-1922.