Mellen v. Hirsch

8 F.R.D. 250, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3265
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedMay 10, 1948
DocketNo. 3919
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 8 F.R.D. 250 (Mellen v. Hirsch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mellen v. Hirsch, 8 F.R.D. 250, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3265 (D. Md. 1948).

Opinion

CHESNUT, District Judge.

This case presents a common-law suit against employers by an employee to recover damages for an accidental personal injury arising in the course of his employment, at a time when the employee was a minor, and was allegedly employed contrary to the provisions of the applicable Child Labor Law, D.C.Code 1940, § 36—201 et seq. The jurisdiction of this court is based on diverse citizenship. The plaintiff and his father, by whom he sues as next friend, are citizens of Ohio, temporarily resident at the time of the accident in the District of Columbia. The defendants are citizens of the State of Maryland engaged in business as employers in the manufacture of tents and similar articles in the District of Columbia.

The defendants have filed an extended motion for summary judgment supported by affidavit, in which they set up as res adjudicata a prior suit between the same parties in the District of Columbia which was dismissed on motion on the ground that the plaintiff had no proper cause of action in a suit at common law because the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Act, 33 U.S.C.A. § 901 et seq., made applicable in the District of Columbia as a Workmen’s Compensation Act, District of Columbia Code 1940, §§ 36—501, 36—502, 45 Stat. 600, c. 612, 33 U.S.C.A. § 901 note, provided the exclusive remedy, 33 U.S.C.A. § 905. On appeal the judgment of dismissal was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, 159 F. 2d 461. In the opinion by Associate Justice Edgerton, after referring to the provisions of 33 U.S.C.A. § 905, that the employee’s remedy under the statute was exclusive “except that if an employer fails to secure payment of compensation as required * * *, an injured employee * * * may elect to claim compensation under this chapter, or to maintain an action at law”, it was said:

“Appellant does not contend that his case is within the stated exception. His contention is in effect that the court should add an exception covering cases in which the injured employee is employed, as appellant was, in violation of the child labor law. We agree with the District Court that no such distortion of the Compensation Act is permissible.”

A petition for certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court, 331 U.S. 845, 67 S.Ct. 1534, 91 L.Ed. 1855.

It will be noted that in the former case between the parties in the District of Columbia, the plaintiff did not contend that the employer had failed to secure payment of compensation as required by the Act. In the motion for judgment here defendants say that such a contention could readily have been made and should have been made by the plaintiff in the former suit and that [252]*252they are estopped now to make the point for the first time in this subsequent suit. However, the plaintiff has filed a long answering affidavit including an averment to the effect that he had not heretofore been able, in the exercise of diligence, to obtain or inspect the insurance policy obtained by the plaintiffs, “to secure payment of compensation as required”. And in the complaint in the instant case the statement is made that when the policy is produced by the defendants it will appear therefrom that “said policy will show that it covers only such employees of the defendants as were Legally Employed; that by reason of the plaintiff having been illegally employed he was not and is not covered thereby; that he is embraced and comes within the exception set forth in Section 90S of the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Act, and, therefore, claims the benefits set forth in said exception and elects to maintain his action through this court”

I agree with plaintiff’s counsel that the motion for judgment should not be granted where the papers submitted show a controversy with respect to any material fact; and therefore I put aside for the purpose of this case the defendants’ contention with respect to the particular point.

However, with the defendants’ motion for judgment there is filed a copy of the defendants’ policy referred to which the defendants say constituted a full compliance by them with the requirements of the Act to secure compensation to the plaintiff; and the latter’s extended reply affidavit does not dispute or in any way challenge the correctness of the policy in question. Therefore, the only issue now open for further litigation between the parties in this case is merely a question of law and not one of fact. And the question of law is whether the provisions of the policy do constitute in legal effect a securing of payment of compensation to the plaintiff of sums due under the Act. The contention heretofore made in the case in the District of Columbia to the effect that the plaintiff has the election to sue at law rather than make a claim for compensation under the Act because employed contrary to the local Child Labor Law, was definitely adjudicated against the plaintiff in that case and is not now open to further controversy.

It results that the only point now open, that is, whether the policy secured compensation under the Act, is purely a question of law to be determined on the face of 'the policy, I find and conclude as a matter of law that the policy did secure to the plaintiff all payments to which he would have been entitled under the Act.

The policy covered the period during which the accident occurred. It is on the standard form and is prominently stated to be “Standard Workmen’s Compensation and Employers’ Liability Application”. Section 1 (a) of the policy includes the obligation of the insurer (The New Amsterdam Casualty Company) “to pay promptly to any person entitled thereto under the Workmen’s Compensation Law and in the manner therein provided the entire amount of any sum due, and all installments thereof as they become due, (1) to such person because of the obligation for compensation for any such injury imposed upon or accepted by this Employer under such of certain statutes, as may be applicable thereto, cited and described in the Endorsement attached to this Policy, each of which statutes is herein referred to as the Workmen’s Compensation law, * * *.

“It is agreed that all of the provisions of each Workmen’s Compensation Law covered hereby shall be and remain a part of this Contract, as fully and completely as if written herein, so far as they apply to compensation or other benefits for any personal injury or death covered by this Policy, while this Policy shall remain in force.
“Nothing herein contained shall operate to so extend this policy as to include within its terms any Workmen’s Compensation Law, scheme or plan not cited in an Endorsement hereto attached.”

The policy contains several separate and distinct endorsements. One of them is entitled in prominent black print at the top “District of Columbia Standard Compensation Endorsement” which, among its provisions, includes the following:

“The Company agrees to abide by all the provisions of said District of Columbia Workmen’s Compensation Act and all law[253]*253ful rules regulations, orders and decisions of the United States Employees’ Compensation Commission and of the Deputy Commissioner for the District of Columbia having jurisdiction, unless and until set aside, modified or reversed by a court having jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
8 F.R.D. 250, 1948 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mellen-v-hirsch-mdd-1948.