Heirs of Rodríguez v. Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico

53 P.R. 784
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedNovember 9, 1938
DocketNo. 32
StatusPublished

This text of 53 P.R. 784 (Heirs of Rodríguez v. Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heirs of Rodríguez v. Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico, 53 P.R. 784 (prsupreme 1938).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Del Toro

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a petition filed by the Heirs of Vicente Rodriguez to review an order of the Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico of the 4th of last February, in which it was concluded as follows:

“First, That Santiago Guzman was working for bis employers,. Heirs of Vicente Rodríguez, at the time of the accident; second, that Santiago Guzman suffered an accident while working for wages for his employers, Heirs of Vicente Rodriguez, in the course of an act or function inherent in his work and as a consequence thereof, the result of such accident being the loss of his life, for which reason he is en[785]*785titled to all the protection afforded by Act No. 45 of April 18, 1935; third, that the employers, Heirs of Vicente Bodriguez, were employing more than four workmen at the time of the accident suffered by Santiago Guzmán, and were not insured with the State Insurance Fund, in violation of the provisions of Act No. 45 of April 18, 1935, and therefore said employers are liable for the accident in the instant case. ’ ’

The aggrieved party moved for a reconsideration and the commission denied the same by an order of February 15, 1938, whereupon the said party duly filed in this court the appeal provided for in section 11 of Act No. 45 of 1935, to promote the welfare of the inhabitants, etc. . . . Laws of 1935, p. 288.

The grounds of the appeal are nine. In the first five grounds the constitutionality of the Act is challenged in so far as it creates the Industrial Commission and the State Insurance Fund, it being alleged: (1) That the commission was without jurisdiction to take cognizance of this matter which is of a judicial nature as being an institution apairt from the Department of Justice and established in contravention of section 37 of the Organic Act; (2) that the said commission was actually constituted to work as an Executive Department of the Insular G-overnment, in contravention of said section 37 of the Organic Act; (3) that the State Insurance Fund and its manager, similarly authorized to function independently of the Treasury Department, were created in contravention of the Organic Act; (4) that Act No. 45 of 1935, whereby the Industrial Commission and the State Insurance Fund were created, tends to deprive citizens of their property without due process of law; (5) that powers, are illegally delegated by such act.

The first question that arises when considering the' above grounds is whether or not the appellants are precluded! by their own acts from advancing the same.

In 71 C. J. 303, citing the cases of Marshal Field v. Industrial Commission, 137 N.E. 121, 305 Ill. 134; Shoal Creek Coal Co. v. Industrial Commission, 133 N.E. 218, 300 Ill. 551, [786]*786it is stated that “an employer who submits without objection to the jurisdiction of the Industrial Commission waives his right to insist that the statute purporting to confer such jurisdiction was an invasion of his constitutional right.”

However, as the constitutionality of the act has been questioned and as arguments have been advanced showing an extensive study of the matter, the public interest requires that the situation should be clarified as» soon as possible for the sake of the stability of our institutions.

The determination of the proceedings herein really required from the Industrial Commission the consideration of allegations, the hearing and weighing of evidence, and the application of legal provisions and judicial decisions, involving the exercise of powers which under our system of government are inherent in courts of justice. This is the reason why said body has been considered as being a quasi judicial one. However, such circumstance in itself does not imply the unconstitutionality of the commission because, although the latter has that character, the very law that created it provides for an appeal to judicial tribunals, thus reserving to the latter the last word in the exercise of the judicial power.

Recently in Montaner v. Industrial Commission, 52 P.R.R. 890, this court said:

“The legislator, as the regulating power of the organization created by him for the operation and application of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, created the Industrial Commission and invested it with -quasi judicial and quasi tutorial powers, so that it would be such a ■commission and not the ordinary courts of justice who should decide, in first, instance, the controversies which might arise between the Manager, as executive officer, and injured workmen or their beneficiaries regarding the compensation to which they may have been entitled.”

Shortly before, in Caraballo v. Industrial Commission, 51 P.R.R. 157, it had held “that the Industrial Commission is a quasi judicial body with full power to pass upon all questions of law and facts properly coming before it.”

[787]*787The establishment of such commissions or boards has become necessary by reason of the complexity and strenuousness of life, of the necessity for specialization, and of the speed and uniformity required in the settlement of the questions submitted to them. As stated by William E. Schneider on page 60 of Yol. I of his work, The Law of Workmen’s Compensation, “Establishing a board does not violate the constitutional provision that no courts other than provided for by the constitution shall be established since the board is not a court and ample provision is made for review by the courts.”

The creation and operation for years of bodies similar to our Industrial Commission in the States and Territories of the Union, without conflicting with the Constitution, is so patent that our island shall not become an exception, especially as our Organic Act contains no special provisions in opposition thereto. On the contrary, from its text, as a whole, from its special provisions and from the construction which the Supreme Court of the United States itself has put upon the sort of government established by the Congress for this island, it can be seen that in its essential principles and tendencies it is the same as that which obtains in the continental United States.

A few months ago the Supreme Court of the United States, in Puerto Rico v. Shell Co., 302 U. S. 253, 261, speaking "through Mr. Justice Sutherland, said:

“The aim of the Foraker Act and the Organic hct was to give Puerto Rico full power of local self-determination, with an autonomy similar to that of the states and incorporated territories. Gromer v. Standard Dredging Co., 224 U.S. 362, 370; Porto Rico v. Rosaly y Castillo, supra, p. 274. The effect was to confer upon the territory many of the attributes of gmsi-sovereignty possessed by the states— as, for example, immunity from suit without their consent. Porto Rico v. Rosaly y Castillo, supra. By those acts, the typical American governmental structure, consisting of the three independent departments — legislative, executive and judicial — was erected. ‘A body politic’ — a commonwealth — was created. 31 Stat. 79, sec. 7, c. 191. [788]

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Related

Barbier v. Connolly
113 U.S. 27 (Supreme Court, 1884)
Gromer v. Standard Dredging Co.
224 U.S. 362 (Supreme Court, 1912)
Mountain Timber Company v. State of Washington
243 U.S. 219 (Supreme Court, 1916)
Puerto Rico v. Shell Co. (PR), Ltd.
302 U.S. 253 (Supreme Court, 1937)
State Ex Rel. Johnson v. Hughes Electric Co.
199 N.W. 128 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1924)
Miller-Todd Coal Co. v. State Compensation Commissioner
175 S.E. 856 (West Virginia Supreme Court, 1934)
Shoal Creek Coal Co. v. Industrial Commission
133 N.E. 218 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1921)
Marshall Field & Co. v. Industrial Commission
137 N.E. 121 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1922)

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53 P.R. 784, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heirs-of-rodriguez-v-industrial-commission-of-puerto-rico-prsupreme-1938.