Oriental Laundry Co. v. Industrial Commission

127 N.E. 676, 293 Ill. 539
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJune 16, 1920
DocketNo. 13152
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 127 N.E. 676 (Oriental Laundry Co. v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oriental Laundry Co. v. Industrial Commission, 127 N.E. 676, 293 Ill. 539 (Ill. 1920).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Carter

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant in error, Jeanette E. Curtis, made application for compensation for an injury sustained by a fall on an icy sidewalk in Chicago while soliciting laundry business for plaintiff in error. On a hearing under the Workmen’s Compensation act the arbitrator found for the plaintiff in error. On review before the Industrial Commission some additional testimony was heard, and the commission found that.the applicant’s injury arose out of and in the course of the employment and that she was entitled to compensation, specifying the amount due her,- which award the circuit court confirmed on review, and the case is now here by writ of error.

Plaintiff in error’s laundry was operated by and used power-driven machinery. It does not appear that the company had filed with the Industrial Commission any notice of its application to come within the act.

Jeanette E. Curtis at the time of her injury, and prior thereto, was employed by plaintiff in error in soliciting laundry orders from families at a salary of $12 a week. She mailed in the orders as she received them and called in person at the laundry office each Tuesday night for her salary. On the day of her injury, December 27, 1916, she was walking along Huron street, between Central and Pine avenues, to solicit orders in an apartment building, when she fell to the icy pavement and broke her hip bone, from which injury she was confined to her bed six weeks and for two weeks longer was obliged to be lifted from the bed to a chair.

Counsel for defendant in error have raised a question of procedure, which should be first determined. The decision on review by the Industrial Commission was dated June 20, 1918. The attorney here of record filed an affidavit in the circuit court May 13, 1919, stating that the files-in said cause were turned over to him by the former attorney for plaintiff in error and affiant, had made diligent search in said files for the writ of certiorari and the writ of scire facias issued by the clerk at the time the prcecipe was filed on July 9, 1918, but the same could not be located; that they had not been delivered to the sheriff and had been lost. The same day an order was entered in the circuit court directing the clerk to issue an alias writ of certiorari and scire facias and to place the cause at the foot of the workmen’s compensation calendar. The alias writ of scire facias to summon the defendant in error was issued May 20, 1919. On June 13, 1919, a special appearance was entered by defendant in error for the sole purpose of contesting the jurisdiction of trie circuit court as to her, and moving, by the same motion, to quash the alias writ of scire facias and the alleged service.

It is argued by counsel for defendant in error that as this is purely a statutory proceeding no process can issué except as provided for in the act; that there is no provision for an alias writ of scire facias or alias writ of certiorari in the act; that it was the intention of the Workmen’s Compensation act that all process should be served before the return day, and that as these alias writs were void the plaintiff in error is without remedy in the procedure pursued.

'Paragraph (/) of section 19 of the Workmen’s Compensation act provides, in part, as follows: “The circuit court of the county where any of the parties defendant may be found shall by writ of certiorari to the Industrial Board have power to review all questions of law presented by such record. Such writ shall be issued by the clerk of such court upon prcecipe. Service upon any member of the Industrial Board or the secretary thereof shall be service on the board, and service upon other parties in interest shall be by scire facias, or service may be made upon said board and other parties in interest by mailing notice of the commencement of the proceedings and the return day of the writ to the office of said board and the last known place of residence of the other parties in interest at least ten days before the return day of said writ, or any party in interest may commence a suit in chancery. * * * Such suit by writ of certiorari or in chancery shall be commenced within twenty days of the receipt of notice of the decision of the board.” .(Hurd’s Stat. 1917, p. 1461.) That section also provides for the giving of a bond by the party bringing the suit. A prcecipe and bond were filed in the time required by the statute.

It will be noted from the quoted provision of the statute that the writ is to be issued upon the filing of a prcecipe and that the suit must be commenced within twenty days of the receipt of the notice of the board’s decision. It is true that there is no provision for the issuance of alias writs. All proceedings under the Workmen’s Compensation act are statutory. (People v. McGoorty, 270 Ill. 610.) The question as to the construction of the statute on this point has not been directly decided by this court. In Fruit v. Industrial Board, 284 Ill. 154, the question was indirectly under consideration, and the fair inference from the decision is that an alias writ would be authorized under the statute, for it was there held that where the original praecipe was filed within the statutory period, if service was not had according to statute this “necessitated the issuance of the alias writ.”

It is argued, by counsel for defendant in error that as an alias writ is not mentioned in the Workmen’s Compensation act, under the reasoning of this court in construing the Attachment act an alias writ here could not be held authorized. (See Pack, Woods & Co. v. Savings Bank, 172 Ill. 192, and Keeley Brewing Co. v. Carr, 198 id. 492.) In Schroeder v. Merchants and Mechanics Ins. Co. 104 Ill. 71, this court said (p. 74) : “What is the commencement of a suit? It is not claimed that it is the service of process on the defendant. It is believed that no case can be found that holds the suit is not commenced until service or appearance of the defendant. We may therefore conclude that jurisdiction of the person of the defendant is not essential to the commencement of a suit. But it is apparent that a suit is not commenced until the court has in some manner acquired jurisdiction of something in relation to the controversy. It must, therefore, be over the person of the.plaintiff or the subject matter, or both. The court acquires jurisdiction of the plaintiff when he applies for its power and assistance to compel the defendant to render him his rights under the law; but this aid must be sought according to prescribed forms, and under our practice that form requires that he file with the clerk of the court a praecipe for the process he desires. * * * The court clearly has jurisdiction of the plaintiff when he thus invokes its aid. When he thus submits his person to the court, he, by asking its aid, gives the court jurisdiction over, the subject matter in controversy.”

Attachment proceedings such as are referred to in the aboye cases cited by counsel for defendant in error are instituted upon the filing of an affidavit and bond instead of a prcecipe,. and it is the facts set forth in the affidavit at the time of the filing that are grounds for the issuance of the attachment. A writ of attachment performs a double office. It is a summons and an execution upon which the property of the defendant is seized before judgment. (Keeley Brewing Co. v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pantle v. Pantle
153 N.E.2d 740 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1958)
Matthews v. Trinity Universal Insurance
69 N.E.2d 368 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1946)
Zee v. Gary
189 So. 34 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1939)
Illinois Publishing & Printing Co. v. Industrial Commission
132 N.E. 511 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1921)
McNaught v. Hines
133 N.E. 53 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1921)
Bishop v. Illinois Western Electric Co.
221 Ill. App. 141 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1921)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
127 N.E. 676, 293 Ill. 539, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oriental-laundry-co-v-industrial-commission-ill-1920.