Claim of the Claim for Compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Law, on Account of the Death of Watkinson v. Hotel Pennsylvania

195 A.D. 624, 187 N.Y.S. 278, 1921 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4806
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 28, 1921
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 195 A.D. 624 (Claim of the Claim for Compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Law, on Account of the Death of Watkinson v. Hotel Pennsylvania) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Claim of the Claim for Compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Law, on Account of the Death of Watkinson v. Hotel Pennsylvania, 195 A.D. 624, 187 N.Y.S. 278, 1921 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4806 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1921).

Opinion

Van Kirk, J.:

The evidence in this case discloses that the deceased Watkinson was employed at the Hotel Pennsylvania, having more than fifty rooms, as a bellboy, working from twelve midnight to seven a. m. This was a hazardous employment under the Workmen’s Compensation Law. (See § 2, group 34, as amd. by Laws of 1917, chap. 705.) His duties were to attend guests to rooms and answer calls from rooms. He was engaged in his work on the morning of May 23,1920. He had answered a call to room 1529, returned his card for this call and taken another card for room 824. Evidently this latter call had not been filled; the hour stamped on this card was twelve-fifty. Early in the morning of May twenty-third search for Watkinson was instituted. Mr. De Mott went to the Pullman restaurant and was there told by the cashier that Watkinson had been there about one-thirty in the morning and purchased two sandwiches. Sometimes late at night bellboys went outside to get food for guests. Passenger elevator shaft No. 8 was usually closed about one or one-thirty in the morning and remained closed till six-thirty or seven a. m., when it was the custom for the elevator men to take the daily papers to the several floors and leave them for the bellboys to distribute to the several rooms. The bellboys usually rode from floor to floor in the elevators and sometimes they used elevators without pérmission. In the morning, when the search was instituted for Watkinson, it is said the car was at the fourth floor. Below the main floor (at which the car was usually left when the elevator was closed) is a basement, where there is a door into the elevator shaft. About one p. m. of May twenty-third Watkinson’s body was found at the bottom of. No. 8 shaft, with a mark on his head, showing a blow. The car in shaft 8 had been running since morning. In some [626]*626manner, not disclosed by the evidence, he fell down this shaft. He could not have been in the car, but must have gotten into the shaft below the car. There was no way to get into the shaft except through a door leading into it from one of the floors.

We have in the evidence, from established facts and fair inference, the framework of a valid claim under the Workmen’s Compensation Law. It appears that Watkinson met his death in the course of his employment; that the injury arose out of his employment; and it is a fair inference, from the known facts, that his was an accidental injury. The award was justified.

The award is $100 for funeral expenses and to the State Treasurer of the State of New York (1) $100 pursuant to the provisions of subdivision 7 of section 15 of the Workmen’s Compensation Law (added by Laws of 1916, chap. 622, as amd. by Laws of 1917, chap. 705); (2) $900 pursuant to the provisions of subdivision 8 of section 15 of the Workmen’s Compensation Law (as added by Laws of 1920, chap. 760).

No question is raised as to the award for funeral expenses, or the award under subdivision 7 of section 15, which is valid. (Edsall v. Edsall, 179 App. Div. 481, 485; affd., 222 N. Y. 651; Matter of State Industrial Commission v. Newman, Id. 363; Mountain Timber Co. v. Washington, 243 U. S. 219, 235; New York Central R. R. Co. v. White, Id. 188.)

The $900 award under subdivision 8 of section 15 is attacked upon two grounds:

(1) The Rehabilitation Law conflicts with article 3 of the State Constitution (§§ 1, 17) and subdivision 8 of section 15 of the Workmen’s Compensation Law falls with it.

(2) Subdivision 8 of section 15 conflicts with article 1, section 6, of the State Constitution and with section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution.

Considering the second criticism first:

Article 1, section 6, of the State Constitution is the Bill of Rights, and the due process of law clause and the just compensation clause are invoked. Under section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution the equal protection law clause is invoked. No question is open under the provisions of the State and Federal Consti[627]*627tutions invoked after the decisions above cited (particularly in Mountain Timber Co. v. Washington and New York Central R. R. Co. v. White), except whether or not the amount fixed in the statute is unfair or unreasonable. There may be an extravagant and arbitrary amount fixed. Is the amount here fixed such? All reasonable presumptions are in favor of the validity of the act, and the burden of proof and argument is upon those who seek to overthrow it. (Mountain Timber Co. v. Washington, supra, 237.) The sum fixed in the statute is not great, is not larger than could readily be awarded, had the deceased left dependents. There is no evidence in this ease showing that the sum fixed is so extravagant or arbitrary as to constitute an abuse of power. The court cannot say that $900 is an unfair or unreasonable sum for the purposes intended.

As to the first criticism:

Subdivision 8 of section 15 reads: “An employee, who as a result of injury is or may be expected to be totally or partially incapacitated for a remunerative occupation and who, under the direction of the State Board of Vocational Education is being rendered fit to engage in a remunerative occupation, shall receive additional compensation necessary for his maintenance; but such additional compensation shall not exceed ten dollars a week. The expense shall be paid out of special fund created in the following manner: The insurance carrier shall pay to the State Treasurer for every case of injury causing death, in which there are no persons entitled to compensation, the sum of nine hundred dollars. The State Treasurer shall be the custodian of this special fund and the Industrial Commission shall direct the distribution thereof.”

This subdivision was added on May 13, 1920, by chapter 760 of the Laws of 1920. The fund so provided for is payable to an employee who has been injured and totally or partially incapacitated for a remunerative occupation, and who is entitled to compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Law only.

Section 1 of article 3 of the State Constitution is: “ The legislative power of this State shall be vested in the Senate and Assembly.” And section 17 is: “No act shall be passed which shall provide that any existing law, or any part thereof, shall [628]*628be made or deemed a part of said act; or which shall enact that any existing law, or part thereof, shall be applicable, except by inserting it in such act.”

Chapter 760 of the Laws of 1920 is entitled: An act to accept the provisions of any law of the United States making an appropriation to the States for the rehabilitation of physically handicapped persons, to amend the Workmen’s Compensation Law, in relation to the maintenance of employees undergoing rehabilitation, and to amend the Education Law, in relation to the rehabilitation of physically handicapped persons, and making an appropriatioil therefor.”

■ The 1st section enacts subdivision 8 of section 15 of the Workmen’s Compensation Law as above quoted. The 2d section amends the Education Law and enacts a new article 47, known as the Rehabilitation Law, being sections 1200 to- 1210.

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195 A.D. 624, 187 N.Y.S. 278, 1921 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4806, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/claim-of-the-claim-for-compensation-under-the-workmens-compensation-law-nyappdiv-1921.