American Coal Co. v. County Commissioners

Burke, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is the defendant’s appeal from a judgment for sis hundred dollars entered against it in the Circuit Court for Allegany County. The suit was brought to recover certain assessments for which it is claimed the defendant—which is a corporation engaged in the mining of coal and clay in that county-—is liable under the provisions of Chapter 153 of the Act of 1910 (page 484), as amended by the Act of 1912, Chapter 445. The single question in the case relates to the constitutionality of this legislation, and this question was raised by a demurrer to the amended declaration.

It will be necessary to quote such portions of the Acts which it is claimed are invalid both under the State and Bed eral Constitutions. The object of these Acts was the creation of a fund to be known as “Miners and Operators Co-operative Relief Bund” for the relief and sustenance of employees injured in coal and clay mining in Allegany and Garrett Counties and the dependents of employees injured or killed in such mining. Section 2 of Chapter 153 of the Act of 1910 declared that the word “operator,” as used in the statute should include every corporation, person, partnership or association engaged in the business of coal mining or clay mining in those coun ⁵⁶⁶ ties, and that the word “employee,” as used therein, should include miners, helpers, laborers, drivers, trappers, roadmen, propmen, repairers, foremen, superintendents and every employee engaged directly in or about the coal and clay mine of an operator. Provision is made as follows by section 3 of the Act for the creation and maintenance of the fund: “Upon each employee in Allegany and Garrett Counties, a tax of twenty-seven cents for each month or fraction of a month that he is employed by any operator, and upon each operator a like tax of twenty-seven cents for each month or fraction of a month in respect to each employee paying the tax aforesaid, and employed by said operator in Allegany and Garrett Counties.

Such tax shall be due and payable - monthly to the Treasurers of Allegany and Garrett Counties, respectively, in which the mine is operated, and be payable on or before the twenty-fifth day of the month next succeeding the month for which such tax is payable. In order to secure the effectual payment of such tax each operator is authorized and required to deduct and retain from the wages of each employee employed by him, on his pay rolls in Allegany and Garrett Counties, the sum of twenty-seven cents per month or fraction of a month, if said employee be employed for less than a month, and on or before the fifteenth day of the month next succeeding the month for which such deduction is made, shall make a report of the number of employees so employed, under oath, to the Treasurers of Allegany or Garrett County, where the particular mine is located, and on or before the twenty-fifth day of said succeeding month shall pay over unto the Treasurers of Allegany or Garrett County, as the case may be, the total amount so deducted and retained from the wages of the employees for the preceding month, together with a like amount to be paid by the operator. It shall be the duty of the County Commissioners of Allegany and Garrett Counties, respectively, to enforce, by appropriate remedies, the collection and payment of the ⁵⁶⁷ tax hereby levied; and to all taxes in default there shall he added and collected interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum from the date when due.” Section 4 deals with the custody and safekeeping of the fund. Section 5 deals with the disbursements from the funds.

The provisions of this section is here quoted: “The Treasurers of Allegany and Garrett Counties, respectively, shall make payments out of the fund, when directed by the County Commissioners of each county, as follows: (a) In the event of personal injuries to any person received while in discharge of his duty as an employee of any operator, subject to the provisions of this Act and which shall have complied with the provisions hereof; in case of loss of: both hands, severance at or above the wrist joint, seven hundred and fifty dollars; both feet hy severance at or above the ankle joint, seven hundred and fifty dollars; one hand and one foot at or above the said joints, seven hundred and fifty dollars; either hand by severance at or above the wrist joint, three hundred and seventy-five dollars; either foot hy severance at or above the ankle joint, three hundred and seventy-five dollars; entire sight of both eyes, if irrecoverably lost, seven hundred and fifty dollars; entire sight of one eye, If irrecoverably lost, throe hundred and seventy-fivc dollars, (ft) Tit event of personal injuries as aforesaid resulting in any of the losses hereinbefore designated, the additional amount of one dollar per day, not including Sundays, excluding the first week following 1 he injury, while he is being treated, for a period not exceeding twenty-six weeks. (c) In the event of personal injuries as aforesaid not resulting in any losses hereinbefore designated, but resulting in total disability, one dollar per day, not including Sundays, excluding the first week following the injury, for a period not exceeding fifty-two weeks. (<?) In the event of personal injuries as aforesaid resulting in death within a period of one year, one ⁵⁶⁸ thousand five hundred dollars, provided that in case of any payments shall have been made on account of the above mentioned losses or disability during treatment, or total disability resulting from said injuries, the amount thereof shall be deducted from the sum payable upon death of the person injured, (e) In case of death resulting from having come in contact with any of the mine gases, one thousand five hundred dollars. When any such employee shall have suffered loss from injury in the discharge of his duty, as aforesaid, the County Commissioners for the county in which he shall have suffered said loss from injury, shall, within thirty days after the receipt by them of satisfactory proof thereof, direct the Treasurer of the county to pay unto said employee upon his proper receipt therefor the sum of relief money as provided herein for such loss from injury; when such injury shall result in disability as aforesaid, the said County Commissioners shall within thirty days after the receipt by them of satisfactory proof of the injury and disability, direct the said Treasurer to pay said employee the per diem relief money as herein provided.

When such injury shall result in death or the employee shall have been killed by coming in contact with mine gases, as aforesaid, said County Commissioners shall, within thirty days after the receipt of satisfactory proof of the injury and death, direct the said Treasurer to pay unto the personal representative of the deceased the relief money as herein provided, to be disbursed by him under the direction of the County Commissioners, as hereinafter provided, for the sustenance of the dependents of said deceased employee. The County Commissioners shall determine the manner and form of the proof herein required; provided, that such proof shall at least consist of a certificate of the mine foreman or superintendent, and of the mine inspector, that the injury was received by the employee in the discharge of his duty, and the certificate of a reputable physician setting forth the injury in detail; ⁵⁶⁹ and, in the case of continuing disability, an additional certificate, monthly, of such physician, certifying as to the period that the employee has been unable to resume his duties as a direct result of the injury; and in the case of death, an additional certificate of such physician that death has resulted from said injury. Tf the County Commissioners shall fail or refuse to direct the Treasurer to pay or the Treasurer shall fail or refuse to pay unto any employee or personal representative of a deceased employee the relief money provided under this Act, suit may he brought by him, and in such suit the County Commissioners of the proper -county shall he made defendant and shall defend such suit as other cases and have power to compromise the same in the exercise of a just discretion, and if not compromised the Court shall determine whether such relief money ought to he payable under this Act, but any judgment rendered in such cases shall only he payable out of the Relief Fund; provided, that any such suit shall he brought by the employee within twelve months from the date of the injury and by the per■sonal representative within six months from the date of the death of the deceased employee, and failure to commence such suits within said periods shall forfeit all right or claim of said parties to any payments out of said fund.” Section 6 confers power upon the County Commissioners ■of the respective counties, to determine certain questions, arisr ing upon the application of a personal representative of a ■deceased employee for relief-money, and provides that: “Erom any order passed by said County Commissioners under this section the personal representative or any person claiming to he a dependent may appeal within sixty days to the Circuit Court of such county, whereupon such Circuit Court shall have jurisdiction to determine the issues of fact and law raised by such appeal, and may pass such rules as may he judged ■necessary to expedite and effectuate the determination ⁵⁷⁰ of such issues, in which appeals the County Commissioners shall he party defendant.” Sections 9 and 10 of the Act. are here transcribed: “Sec. 9. No suit or action shall lie or he brought or maintained against any operator for or in respect of the death of any employee whose personal representative shall have accepted the relief money provided for in this Act, and no such suit or action shall be brought before the expiration of six months from the date of the employee’s death, nor while any suit brought by the personal representative for such relief' money is pending.

In case any suit or action is brought against any operator by any person claiming-damages for or in respect of injury or disability received in the discharge of his duty as an employee of' such operator, all right and claim of such person to any payments out of the fund shall be thereby forfeited. When any person claiming that he has sustained injury or disability shall accept any relief' money, provided for in this Act, for and in respect of' such injury or disability, or shall commence any suit against the County Commissioners for such relief' money, the operator in whose employ such persons sustained the injury or disability shall be exempt from, liability therefor, and thereafter no suit or action shall' lie or be brought or maintained against such operator for or in respect of such injury or disability or death resulting therefrom. Provided, that the provisions of' this section shall not apply to cases where the operator has been in default in compliance with the provisions of this Act at the time of the injury, disability or death.” “Sec. 10. If any suit or action be brought against' any operator for or in respect of any injury or disability received by an employee while in discharge of' his duty or for death resulting therefrom, including-death from contact' with mine gases, and said operator shall appear and defend such suit or action, and' ⁵⁷¹ a judgment shall be rendered against him, he shall, after satisfying said judgment and upon filing with the County Commissioners a certified copy of said judgment and the order of satisfaction, he entitled thereafter to deduct from the payments required to he made by him hereunder to the County Treasurer, a sum equal to the amount of said judgment and costs; provided, that said operator shall have notified the County Commissioners of the pendency of said suit or action; and, provided further, that at the time of the injury, disability and death the operator has complied with the provisions of this Act.” The Act of 1912, Chapter 445, repealed and re-enacted sections 3 and 7 of the above mentioned Act, hut the only provision of the amendatory Act which relates to the question before us is that which increased the tax upon operators and employees in Garrett County from twenty-seven cents per month to thirty-eight cents per month.

The reasons which induced the Legislature to pass these Acts are set out in the preamble to the Act of 1910, Chapter 153, as follows: “Whereas, it is the duty of the Government to provide sustenance in ihe case of helpless indigence to those who are or may become paupers and charges upon the public and is the settled practice of Governments to do so; and “Whereas, experience has shown that the occupation of coal and clay mining in Allegany and Garrett Counties is attended with peril peculiar to the occupation itself, and that a great number of employees in the mines, without estates and having large families and dependents are annually disabled or killed in consequence of injuries sustained in their employment, and they and their families become objects of charity and charges upon the public authorities, and their infant children are unable to secure the proper support and education; and ⁵⁷² “Whereas, it appears that such injuries, disabilities and death occur with such regularity as to be susceptible of approximation in advance and are inherent in the occupation and a part of the business itself, and the monetary loss therefrom ought to be charged up to the occupation and business; and “Whereas, sound policy requires that some provisions be made for the sustenance of the family and dependents of such injured or disabled employees and the widows and infant children and dependents of such employee when death results from such injuries.” It is contended that this legislation is void, in that (a) it is an attempt to deprive the appellant of its property contrary to the law of the land, and is invalid under Article 23 of the Declaration of Rights of this State; (b) because it authorizes the taking of private property for public use without just compensation as agreed upon between the parties or awarded by a jury, contrary to section 40, Article 3 of the Constitution of Maryland; and (c) because it attempts to deprive the appellant of its property without due process of law, and denies to it the equal protection of the law, and that in these respects it violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The legislation we are considering was professedly passed in the exercise of the police power of the State. That power has been the subject of a multitude of cases in all the courts in the country; but it will be sufficient to refer to a few of these adjudications which announce principles which refer more particularly to the question before us. Justice Miller, in the Slaughter House cases, 16 Wallace, 36, said: “This power is, and must be from its very nature, incapable of any very exact definition or limitation.

Upon it depends the security of social order, the life and health of the citizen, the comfort of an existence in a thickly populated community, the enjoyment of private and social life, and the beneficial use of property.” It is now well settled, both in the ⁵⁷³ Federal and State courts, that this power extends to the protection of the lives, limbs, health, comfort and quiet of all persons, and the protection of all property within the State, and persons and property are subjected to all kinds, of restraints and burdens in order to secure the general comfort, health and prosperity of the State. The provisions in the Declaration of Eights and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, relied upon by the appellant and referred to above, were not intended to- restrain the reasonable exorcise of the police power by the