tions by employés to a hospital fund, or funds to provide resident physicians in remote camps, and to procure first aid and competent care in sickness and injury, are not prohibited by a provision making it unlawful for the employer to deduct his premiums from the wages of the employés." That the Compensation Act, under which insurance is taken out, is declared unconstitutional after expiration of the policy, will not prevent recovery of unpaid premiums." Payment of a premium into the Ohio state insurance fund has no retroactive effect, so as to relieve an employer from a direct liability accruing prior to such payment.98 Under the Washington Act, an employer who defaults in the payment of any premium is in default in all of his operations." The hazard of the business or enterprise determines the application of this Act, rather than the degree of hazard to which the individual any accident mentioned in part 2 of the Act the employer would have no right or authority to collect from the workman a sufficient amount to pay the premium, and any agreement that might be forced from or voluntarily obtained from the workman to pay any premium on accidents covered by the Workmen's Compensation Act would be void as against public policy. Op. Atty. Gen. on Minn. Wk. Comp. Act, Bul. 9, p. 11. 96 (Wk. Comp. Act Wash. § 4) Rulings Wash. Indus. Ins. Com. 1915, p. 10. As to administration of Washington Act, see § 11, ante. 97 New Amsterdam Casualty Co. v. Olcott, 165 App. Div. 603, 150 N. Y. Supp. 772. 98 In a case under the Ohio Act the Industrial Commission held that an employer who was not a subscriber to the state insurance fund prior to January 1, 1914, and who failed to pay his premium into the fund until May 2, 1914, was in default from January 1, 1914, until the date of such payment, and that the payment had on retroactive effect, and that therefore the employer was liable to pay compensation direct to injured employés and the dependents of those killed, on account of injuries or death occurring between January 1, 1914, and May 2, 1914. Biddinger v. Champion Iron Co., vol. 1, No. 7, Bul. Ohio Indus. Com. p. 70. ** (Wk. Comp. Act Wash. § 8) Rulings Wash. Indus. Ins. Com. 1915, p. 18. workman is subjected. Hazardous departments are the unit of contribution, even though embracing employés who are rarely in danger of injury. This Act divides employments into fortyseven different classes, and the amount of the premium each employer must pay is based upon whatever class he is in. 1 (Wk. Comp. Act Wash. § 4) Op. Atty. Gen. Sept. 8, 1911. When the 2 Class 1 of "Construction Work" includes all underground work of whatever character in connection with sewer construction, includes tunneling and shafting and work at the entrance thereof, and also such work in open trenches exceeding six feet in depth, but does not include excavations. (Wk. Comp. Act Wash. § 4, class 1) Rulings Wash. Indus. Ins. Com. 1915, p. 10. The absence of power driven machinery does not exempt occupations named in this class, nor does the small number of employés engaged, nor the short time required to accomplish the work. Id. p. 7. Class 9 is construed as continuously operating plants or factories instead of construction or contracting enterprises, and exempts from automatic continuous monthly assessment. Id. p. 11. Class 13 does not include elevators and individual steam heating plants in office buildings, hotels, apartment houses, residences, retail and wholesale stores. Opinion Atty. Gen. Wash. Sept. 8, 1911. "Telegraph and telephone systems" (class 15) includes line and repair work, but excludes telegraph and telephone operators. Rulings Wash. Indus. Ins. Com. 1915, p. 11. "Coal mines" (class 16) includes shaft sinking in connection with coal mines, and excludes only the office force. Id. "Mines other than coal" (class 17) includes shaft sinking in connection with mines other than coal. Id. p. 12. "Quarries" (class 17) includes stone-cutting when such operations are conducted on territory contiguous to and subject to quarry operation hazard. Id. "Gas works" (class 19) excludes meter readers, complaint men, solicitors, storeroom employés, and chauffeurs. Id. "Grain elevators" (class 21) includes flouring mills (2 per cent.); grain warehouses, chop and feed mills (2 per cent.); operation of wholesale warehouses operated independently or in connection with another business; teaming operation of transfer companies; operations in retail lumber yards with or without machinery; and all operations of retail fuel yards; but excludes threshing machine and hay baling outfits, without machinery. Id. "Laundries" (class 22) excludes hand laundries, but otherwise only the office force. Id. Class 34 includes beveling glass (21⁄2 per cent. rate), sheet metal and tin shops, whether equipped with hand, foot or mechanical power. Id. Class 35 includes the manufacture of glass jars, insulators, etc. Id. "Working in food" (class 39) includes candy and cracker factories, but excludes the office force of all factories in the class. p. 13. Class 41 includes linotype compositors, proofreaders, and foremen in the room with machinery or shafting, and excludes bookkeepers and office force and hand engravers not in a room with machinery. Id. "Stockyards and Id. funds of any particular class are insufficient to pay an award the Commission will certify and the state auditor will issue warrants to be cashed by the individual employer. The legislative intent is that each of the forty-seven funds shall be automatic and selfadjusting. The rate is fixed; time of payment varies with the need. The actual premium (percentage of pay roll) cannot, however, be determined in advance.* Since student trainmen are entitled to compensation if injured during the period of their studentship, the employer is required to make contribution on an amount equivalent to the average rate of pay for such work." A bonus system prevailing in connection with logging operations is regarded as additional compensation to employés and should be added to the pay roll. After December 31st of each year, whether the contributor operated at full capacity, with reduced force, on part time, or not at all, a credit found to exist is available for further assessments, or cash refund where the business ceases." Whenever packing houses" (class 43) includes teaming in connection with stockyards and packing houses, but excludes retail meat markets and delivery wagons. Id. Class 44 includes ice wagon drivers and helpers, but excludes refrigerators of retail meat markets. Id. "Theater stage employés" (class 45) includes moving picture operators. Id. The following occupations have been ruled outside the act: Operating and maintaining of elevators and individual steam heating plants in office buildings, hotels, apartment houses, residences, and retail stores, and farm hands grubbing stumps, even with blasting powder, as an incident to the business of farming. (Wk. Comp. Act Wash. § 4) Id. p. 13. 3 (Wk. Comp. Act Wash. § 5) Id. p. 16. Id. p. 9. The premium of any establishment given an average rate is credited pro rata to the respective classes represented by the department payrolls. Id. p. 13. After the 31st day of December of any year the actual pay roll of each establishment is obtained, and all contributions made during the year are adjusted to as many twelfths of such actual pay rolls as there have been monthly assessments paid into the fund during the year. (Wk. Comp. Act Wash. § 4) Id. p. 9. 5 (Wk. Comp. Act Wash. § 5) Id. p. 16. a special assessment is ordered on any particular class under this Act, the basis is the average monthly pay roll determined by reports on file in the Commission's office. A new establishment is required to contribute an initial premium on an estimated three months' pay roll, but is omitted from the list specially assessed for such months, except on the difference between the estimated and actual pay rolls. Claims for contributions to the Washington state fund are not entitled to any priority over a mortgage debt.10 The phrase "at the end of the year," within a provision of this Act that payment accounts shall be adjusted at the end of the year, necessarily contemplates the allowance of a reasonable time after the end of the year for the examination of the pay rolls and proofs in order to make adjustment. The power given to make demand for a payment due the accident fund from an employer necessarily contemplates the power to allow a reasonable time after notice of demand for compliance.12 Thirty days has been held not unreasonable.13 $ 38. 11 Excessive contributions and credits Excess contributions collected under the Washington Act on any estimated pay roll over the proper premium on the actual pay roll stand as a credit to the contributor at the end of the year adjustment, and such contributor is entitled to exhaust such credit before making further payments into the accident fund.1 Where an establishment contributes as an operating concern under one 8 Id. p. 9. 9 Id. 10 Mississippi Valley Trust Co. v. Oregon-Washington Timber Co. (D. C.) 213 Fed. 988. 11 Barrett v. Grays Harbor Commercial Co. (D. C.) 209 Fed. 95. 12 Id. 13 Id. 14 (Wk. Comp. Act Wash. § 4) Rulings Wash. Indus. Ins. Com. 1915, p. 9. class and afterwards performs construction work necessitating payment into funds of another class, the operating plant being shut down meantime, transfer of credits on the books of the Commission will be made.15 Contributions made to the insurance fund under a misapprehension of the scope of the Act will be promptly refunded.16 The provision of this Act that "any class having sufficient funds credited to its account at the end of the first three months, or any month thereafter, to meet the requirements of the accident fund, that class shall not be called upon for such month," does not seem equitably to apply to owners and contractors in construction work, as continuous monthly contribution is required to place operators in such work on the same competitive plane.1 Payments into accident fund for public work under the Washington Act are to be made out of the treasury of the city, county, school, port, drainage, or taxing district; abstracts of contractors' pay rolls, as well as of the direct employés in hazard, are to be forwarded to the insurance department monthly. Contractors in such work are required to file their pay rolls monthly with the city, county or district.18 Where public work of a city is done by contract, the city may collect from the contractor such sums as it is obligated to pay the accident fund on account thereof,19 or this sum may be retained from an amount due the contractor.20 In the case of such contracts, the state may wait until the contracts are completed before attempting to collect payments and may then cal 15 Id. p. 10. 18 (Wk. Comp. Act Wash. § 4) Id. p. 13. 17 Id. p. 9. 18 (Wk. Comp. Act Wash. § 17) Id. p. 22. 19 State v. City of Seattle, 73 Wash. 396, 132 Pac. 45. |