June 2, 1916. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 1053 SOME RECENT DECISIONS UNDER THE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT. [Specially Contributed.] Idleness Rewarded. Compensation payments all too frequently engender a disposition to rely exclusively upon them, and a disinclina- tion to make.' any effort to develop earning capacity. This has been shown in an application at Doncaster County Court for an increase of compensation to a workman who was formerly in the service of the Denaby. and Cadeby Collieries Company; Limited. In 1909', when 16 years of age, and employed by the company as a rope lad, his right leg was severely crushed,' and amputation became necessary. In accordance, with Schedule 1 of the Act, the usual compensa- tion _is a payment not exceeding half the. average weekly . earnings, or in any case £1, but when the workjnan is under 21 years of age the payment may be the fullamount of the average weekly earnings, but must not exceed 10s. In this case the youth’s wage was 10s., and he received the maximum compensation,.also 10s. As he. was now 23 years of age, application was made that the compensation should be .increased to £1 a week on the ground that but for the: accident he would have been earning at least £2 a week. The applicant admitted that he had not tried to. find work, and had been convicted eight times for gambling. He did not get his <£1 a week, but notwithstanding his interesting admissions he was awarded 16s. Illness as an Accident. In the light of a recent important judgment in the House of Lords, a decision which has since been given in the Dumbarton Sheriff Court is of interest. On behalf of herself and her children, compensation was claimed by the widow of a workman who had been employed ms a pit brasher by the Woodilee Coal and Coke Company. The material facts, as found by the Sheriff, were that when the illness was con- tracted the workman had finished his work on the . night shift about 4.30 a.m., and went to the bottom of the shaft to be taken to the surface.. ;,Owing to a breakdown of the bell .wire, the repairs at the statutory inspection of the shaft on that morning took longer than usual, the cage taking about an hour to descend. During that time the man was standing in a cold current of air, and owing to the exposure he contracted a chill from which tonsilitis, kidney trouble, and pneumonia developed with fatal results. On these facts the Sheriff held that there had been no “ injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment.” The House of Lords judgment referred to at the opening of this paragraph is that in the case of Welsh v. the Glasgow Coal Company Limited, which was reported in our issue of March 10, and was the subject of an editorial comment the following week. It may be remembered that the workman contracted rheumatism through standing in water breast- high for eight hours, having been sent to bale out water which had flooded the bottom of the pit owing to a break- down of the pumping machinery. It was held that contract- ing rheumatism in this way was an “ injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment.” Such a decision may be expected to give rise to appeals in other cases .in which the circumstances may seem to justify Such a course. Similarity of circumstances, however, may be only superficial, and there is always the possibility that there may be material points of difference to affect the result of an appeal. .12s. 6d. a week,; on the ground; that a jobbing; gardener in ' - the district could earn from 25s.' to 30s. a week. The Court of Appeal disallowed the award'. The Master of the Rolls could not accept the contention that they should have regard to the fact that the man’s income was derived partly from a contract of service within the meaning of the Act, and partly from other work which did not come within it. They knew what the workman earned from the same employer, and must fix the compensation on that basis. Another recent decision- of ’ the Court of Appeal reminds applicants that a special risk will not necessarily be held to have arisen ‘‘ out of ” the employment if it was avoidable at the discretion of the workman, for in that case it is not incidental to the employment. A youth'whose duty it was to go once a week to a place 10 miles away, sometimes went and returned by train, but as the trains" were not always convenient, he at other times made the double journey by bicycle, a proceeding- of which the employer was aware, and did not disapprove. Returning on his bicycle on one occa- sion,, the youths collided with a motor-car, and was killed. The Court of-Appeal reversed the finding of a county court judge that the accident arose out of and in the course of -the employment, The Master of the Rolls pointing out that , the employer did not direct the journey to be made by bicycle, and that the road travelled was a main road, with no peculiar risk. -There was no ground for the suggestion that a bicycle was such a dangerous article that permission to use it occasionally made the employer liable for the conse- quences of an accident oh the road. The facts being admitted, it became a question of law whether the accident arose out of the employment. Notes from the Coal Fields. [Local Correspondence.] South Wales and Monmouthshire. Patent Fuel — Evasion of Licence Conditions Reported— Ebbw Vale and Powell's Tillery Amalgamate—Serious Breaches of Electrical Regulations—Dust from Collieries and an Adverse By-law—Compensation Case. On Monday a meeting of patent fuel manufacturers took place at Cardiff Exchange in compliance with a request from the Board of Trade to the Chamber of Commerce. The board desired that consideration should be given to the question of limiting the price of patent fuel exported to France. Mr. T. E. Watson occupied the chair. The meeting agreed that the maximum price should be 30s. per ton, plus the Is. for exporters’ remuneration; this price, however, to be subject to coal owners agreeing to supply small coal for fuel manufacture at a maximum of 20s. per ton. The members of a committee appointed to deal with matters arising out of this ■ arrangement are : Mr. T. J. Callaghan (Anchor Company), Major Cochran (Crown Company), Mr. W. H. Renwick (Pacific Company), and Mr. W. T. Tarr (Graigola-Merthyr). An attempt to export Staffordshire coal under a licence granted for South Wales has been brought to light, and the secretary of the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce was desired to draw the attention of members of that Chamber to the fact. The South Wales Coal and Coke 'Supplies Committee have also been- notified. The Coal Exports Committee of London would have taken action, but the. coal was already in the dock at Cardiff, and as its. return would have meant burdening the railways, the export to France was allowed. The latter committee have announced, however, that in future no such practice will be tolerated, as, quite apart from the serious character of such an evasion of the licence conditions, it is impossible for any effective control "over the allocation of the coal throughout the country to be exercised if, without the knowledge of the committee, coal for export is suddenly to be drawn from such unusual and unauthorised quarters. A considerable extension of the Ebbw Vale Company’s great undertaking is foreshadowed in regard to Powell’s Tillery collieries. At present there are ironworks as well as collieries, the largest and most modern coke ovens installa- tion in the Kingdom, sheet steel and galvanised iron shops among the different branches of the Ebbw Vale property, which also includes iron mines in England and elsewhere. Its present output (is about 2,000,000 tons of coal and 250,000 tons of steel, and. its capital approximately £1,400,000. The original establishment dates back to 1780. Powell’s Tillery has an output of 900,000 tons per annum, and the company being a private one, no particulars of divi- dends are obtainable. Joined with the Ebbw Vale Company in the acquisition are Messrs. T. Beynon and Company, of Newport, who will act as sales agents, this enabling their agency to control about six millions of tons per annum, for they already act on account of the Ebbw Vale, Newport- Abercarn, Griffin-Nantyglo, and Fernhill. Announcement of the intended amalgamation occasioned advance in the value of Ebbw Vale shares. A case which has been before the Merthyr court twice previously was concluded last week, when the stipendiary gave his decision in respect of several charges against the agent and the manager of Hill’s Plymouth Colliery, Pentrebach. Originally there were nine summonses for breaches of the'electrical regulations of the Coal Mines Act, but one case was dismissed. The stipendiary announced that the agent had done all that could be reasonably expected of him, and therefore the summonses against him would be dismissed. With regard to the manager, how- ever, he had had ample’opportunity of observing the condi- tion of the electrical plant—a matter involving the safety of hundreds of men. Although no doubt the electricians were primarily, liable, the manager should see that subordinates carried out their duties. Fines totalling £35 were imposed upon the manager, who was ordered also to pay £15 costs. Mr. J. A. Findlay, following a breakdown in health, has retired from the position of traffic manager of the London and North-Western Railway for the South Wales and West of England district, and, in recognition of his association with them for the past 15 years, the. company’s employees, in that district made presentations to Jiim at, Abergavenny, for^aif'cmp!oyer who engaged' him for two" days week .at " What the coroner., described ast‘Ta very:'.serious:state^of> ; r ° k. In addition, he earned things ” was disclosed at4 an inquest in the Rhondda. .Through, the snapping?of'a shackle-Jive trams ran wiklion a - .steep deci i vity ah theICa iribrian Colliery;,- a nd-. .in ■ thp opinion'; Some Recent Appeals. In dealing with. workmen’s compensation in this column, we are, of course,. specially concerned with colliery cases, which form so large a proportion of the whole. As regards appeal cases, however, it is desirable to refer, if only briefly, to various important decisions, whether they relate to colliery accidents or not. In the first place, this may be. necessary for the purpose of indicating the trend' of judicial interpreta- tion ; and, in the second place, a decision may sometimes be of general application, irrespective of the particular employ- ment. Two recent decisions affecting seamen may be noted. In one case, a ship’s captain was injured by slipping on. a piece of orange peel on his way back to the docks after visit- ing the City on business connected with the ship. The acci- dent happened in a crowded street full of hawkers stalls, and as the applicant was compelled to pass through the street to reach his ship, the county court judge was of opinion that he was exposed to a special risk, and that the accident arose not only in the course of the employment, but out of it. The Court of Appeal, however, reversed the decision. The second of the two cases referred to provided an example of a kind of accident that might occur anywhere, and is rather the outcome of a workman’s own carelessness than of the circumstances of his employment. On board a ship drinking water was obtained by the crew from the pump, but in a warm latitude the water was .tepid to the taste, and it was the practice of the crew to take it in tins or cans to a cool place, and partake of it as required. One day a seaman drank from a tin which he thought contained drinking water, but contained a solution of caustic soda, which had been put there for cleansing purposes by the owners of the tin, two other seamen who messed together, and used the tin for brew- ing tea. As the man’s mouth and throat were badly burned, he°claimed compensation. According to the evidence, it was quite common for one man to drink water which had been carried from the pump by another man; the man found the tin on deck in a place where there was sometimes a draught of air; and the practice of placing cans of water in cool places was not forbidden by the ship’s officers, but was never done by their orders. The claim was made in Scotland, and the Sheriff Court decision was that the accident arose out of the employment. . The decision was affirmed in the Court of Session, but was disallowed in the House of Lords. In the course of his judgment, Lord Shaw said that if a workman saw fit to drink from another’s tin, he did so for his own convenience, and at his own risk. In the recent .case of Sales v. Abbott, the Court, of Appeal decided an interesting .point in connection with the basis on which an arbitrator should calculate the earnings of a man who is employed for one or two days a -week, and during the other days earns money, but not' under contract of service which, -would bring him within the, provisions of the Act. The man was injured while working as a jobbing gardener ’ - <■ <-■ " " ' ” ’ ' ’ " wages' amounting to 10s.' a week, about' 6 s. a week from casual; jobs,10s... from cutting .and sellino' firewood, and 3s. from his'own, garden. The Act.pro,-s -----,7-,.-.--------------------- c x vides^that compensation shad be a wceklv pavmcnt not of Mr. Dyer Lewis, H.M. inspector, the trams, running at. - tion sclnmc on behalf of the coal expcMe^-rMe^rs/. 1 abb exceeding 50 per cent, of the average weekly' earnings in the “ ' 1-u.a Kv.:; . MJ W employment of the same' employer.' Tn this case a deputy county 'Court judge'awarded compensation- at the ’ rate of ., by the falls. -It was suggested that the shackle might have been overlooked when the last periodical-annealing -took- place; and the agent stated that in a recent consignment of shackles, 65 out of 120 had to be returned owing to defects?...^ The jury, who returned a verdict of “ Accidental death.,” recommended that shackles should bear the maker’s mark, and also a mark as to annealment. .. . A case that recalls the enquiry of last year as to the prevalence of pitch cancer among patent fuel .workers came: before the Cardiff coroner. A patent fuel, worker; aged.. 61,. who had for about forty years been engaged in.the.tra.de, gave up work two years ago because he , had. contracted “ pitch disease,” and the doctor, whom fie. .then consulted noticing a ‘‘pitch wart,” ; recommended an immediate operation, which he said would then have been certainly successful, for the disease was only in its .early .stage. But the deceased refused; also refused on subsequent occasions. As a result, the disease spread rapidly, causing death. The verdict of the jury was ‘‘ Death from "heart/failure following cancer.” '"f‘f'ff y0 Mr. C. Jones, who has been elected president qof:. the - South ? Staffordshire and 'Warwickshire, branch. of.:< the Association of Mining Electrical Engineers,. , was,, formerly : engaged in the Rhondda. He was electrician at the Ocean-- Collieries, and a teacher of electrical subjects at Treorkyand Ton Pentre Schools. The position he now holds is that of, chief electrical engineer, at Cannock Chase Colliery. Although £5 per-ton has recently „ been., pa id for a cargo from the North of England to Genoa, it hay tp be notedj.bat the rate on Cardiff market is decidedlylower,^fixtures.having.- : been made at £4; and the outlook, is that similar arrange^ merits to those effected for France will still further re.duge . ■ the rate. . ■ Mountain Ash Council, in .the Aberdare Valley, .arc seeking sanction from the Local (Government Board fur .a new by-law which is of peculiar interest to all engaged in colliery operations. They would ordain that the occupier of any colliery ‘‘ shall not emit from any ventilating' shaft or chimney in connection with the colliery or workshop, 'any dust, ashes, soot, grit, gritty particles, of other 'mat’ter iii such a manner as to be a nuisance.”' The proposed penalty - is £5, with a continuing penalty of £2:p0r, flay after nbt:cc- has been given. The council are acting as' the result of' complaints that have been, made of dust Unit san co'-’from collieries. ’ A penalty of £140 has to be met by workmen of the Oakwood Colliery, Pontrhydyfen, 30. of whom. had been summoned for breach of contract. ’It'was announced on Monday, at Aberavon court, that the case had been settled on terms. The amount stated was agreed as damages, to be divided amongst all the men responsible fo'r the stoppage', and deducted in weekly instalments from (heir wages. The men also undertake to carry out in future tile ; Conciliation Board agreement. In the Bridgend county court, a point of general interest has been raised. A collier applied for review of his com- , pensation allowance, and, after decision had ..been given, the. i; employers’ solicitor desired the judge to order That the costs of? both sides should, be set off one, against the other /as Maesteg was the'only district in the coal field where ■’workmen would' not pay the owners’ costs. Counsel for thq-collier Questioned- whether the judge had power to make such-an brfleT-,Lbut ' bis Honour said his opinion was. that he had power, ami he . made.order accordingly, adding, ” Any balance will-be paid ; . by the other side.” • ’ ’ ' .................... vrA. The Alexandra /Newport .and South Wales) Docks and'' Railway Bill was/ read , a third time in the House' of Commons and passed. •- ' ~ -- - - ■■ - - The summer mining and engineering school "for’.,South Wales coal field .will be held during.. August at the/Technical// College, Swansea. Courses will be provided in mining engi-.i' neering, .mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering i (to include laboratory .work). Full paiticulars, prospectus," and forms of application may bb obtained on teceipt“’of a’ stamped addressed foolscap envelope from the Chief Educa- tion Official, County H/all, Cardiff5. ” ‘ Northumberland arid Durham’. C Boy Falls from Tub — Tar Ablaze — Cruelly to ■ Pony-; • D.C.M. for Bravery—Coal Price ('oi)iniitlee--Que.siiou . . of Holidays—Belief Fund. . ,. . - Alexander W. Lightley, 14, driver at Dinningfon Colliery, was riding on the shafts of a tub, and fell, the tub passing over him and breaking, his. neck......... A A spark from a' passing locomotive' set1' ’fire to 'some hundreds of gallons of liquid tar Which'had been ran" on to 5 . a grass field adjoining the, by-product, works./, of Messrs. Walter Scott, Limited, at Trimdon Grange Colliery. A youth who, acting as ; pony driver at - Kiniblesworth . ■ ■ Colliery, got his fingers nipped in the tubs,'struck'his pony several severe blows across its hind quarters, with' the iron sprag he was using, causing Wounds which laid the animal off work for three days, for which he was fined/£2 by the Durham magistrates last week. ' " ' J . // u / Sergt. A. L. Fenwick, of . South Newsfiani, .a- worker oin Crofton Colliery before tfie war, received ,the, D.C.M.-.for • 1 bravery some time ago. Recently he, was. regaining tluq , parapet of his trench, after haying gone out to resepe’ an/ officer whom he believed to be wounded but whom h/e fopnd.. to be dead, when he was killed by a sniper’s bullet. He, was ' , 21 years of age. .... .. . /'7 Dealing with the housing question ip Dnr|i'ain.co\uity,/Mp. T. H. Cann says, in his most recen’t circular ;to’ Diirhajp , miners : ‘‘ Comparison with other mining" centres’ thafi not possess the free house system is greatly to our disadvantage, and the condition of overcrowding in some of our largest districts constitutes'kb seriofrs a problem'-thateitinK-JL would be a lasting blot on the name-, of . theJDurhaniTnineiAL >W'5iE^ highly-of Duffys outstandihgmnetit JntthfeetlW©hbS magnificent energy in digging out'buried men on mkny“’pi> ./occasions. ;; “A ‘U “ A . The following firms-..haveReern.ekx4ed^a&-the Newcastle local committee to carry out the French coal prices restric- and Burleston ; Rymari/ Bell, and Coriaphny-pWor'Dis^ ’and~ tT 1 < ^WaecliteK/ ''iahduc-fe-iwprainyQf' Rm:dSxp;r.r& Dagliesh; Robert Thor.mampsHiBlriDuinfoM>hndnGtopany a tremendous rate, had iknockedbout timber supports-.;in two?: places> •bringing about two falls,.' because' they leftnfihe rails Company.; y-Bessler and swung against? the side. -' Two, men.were) fatallyanjurcd K -