Kelley v. St. Louis Smelting & Ref. Co.

Decision Date06 April 1923
Docket NumberNo. 15128.,15128.
Citation307 Ill. 367,138 N.E. 618
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
PartiesKELLEY v. ST. LOUIS SMELTING & REFINING CO.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Action by Corbett E. Kelley against the St. Louis Smelting & Refining Company. Judgment for defendant when demurrer to the declaration was sustained, and plaintiff appeals.

Reversed and remanded.Appeal from Circuit Court, Madison County; J. F. Gillham, judge.

Harold J. Bondy, of Granite City, for appellant.

E. J. Verlie, of Alton, and William E. Wheeler, of East St. Louis (A. M. Fitzgerald, of Springfield, and D. H. Mudge, of Edwardsville, of counsel), for appellee.

THOMPSON, C. J.

Appellant filed his declaration in the circuit court of Madison county charging appellee with a willful violation of the Occupational Disease Act and seeking to recover damages for injuries to his health resulting from such violation. Appellee filed a general and special demurrer to the declaration, contending that the right of action created or preserved by section 15 of the act had been taken away from appellant by the amendment of 1921, which limited him to the recovery of compensation as provided by the Workmen's Compensation Act (Hurd's Rev. St. 1921, c. 48, §§ 126-152i). The demurrer was sustained, and a judgment entered in favor of the appellee. This appeal followed.

Section 15 of the Occupational Disease Act of 1911 provides:

‘For any injury to the health of any employee proximately caused by any willful violation of this act or willful failure to comply with any of its provisions, a right of action shall accrue to the party whose health has been so injured, for any direct damges sustained thereby; and in case of the loss of life by reason of such willful violation or willful failure as aforesaid, a right of action shall accrue to the widow of such deceased person, his lineal heirs or adopted children, or to any other person or persons who were, before such loss of life, dependent for support upon such deceased person, for a like recovery of damages for the injury sustained by reason of such loss of life, not to exceed the sum of $10,000: Provided, that every such action for damages in case of death shall be commenced within one year after the death of such employee.’ Laws of 1911, p. 334.

The act of 1921, which purports to amend this section, reads as follows:

Sec. 15. (a) Disablement and Accident. The disablement of an employee engaged in occupations covered by section two (2) of this act resulting from an occupational disease arising as a result of the work, labor, manufacture or process referred to in said section two (2), shall be treated as the happening of an accidental injury within the terms and meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act.

(b) Definition. The term disablement means the state of being disabled from earning full wages at the work at which the employee was last employed by the employer from whom he claims compensation.

(c) Employee's Right to Recover Compensation. If any employee employed in occupations covered by section two (2) of this act is disabled or dies and his disability or death is caused by a disease arising out of the occupations referred to in section two (2) of this act which disease arises out of and in the course of his employment, he or his dependents shall be entitled to compensation for his death or for the duration of his disability in accordance with the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act.

(d) Limitation of Right to Recover Damages. No common law or statutory right to recover damages for injury or death sustained by an employee from an occupational disease other than the compensation provided in the Workmen's Compensation act shall be available to any employees engaged in any work, manufacture or process referred to in section two (2) of this act, to any one wholly or partially dependent upon him, the legal representatives of his estate or to any one otherwise entitled to recover damages for such injury.

(e) Extent of Amendment. Except as amended herein said section fifteen (15) shall be and remain in full force and effect as heretofore.’ (Laws of 1921, p. 444.)

Appellant contends that the act of 1921 is unconstitutional because it purports to amend the Occupational Disease Act and the Workmen's Compensation Act without inserting at length in the new act the sections amended. The appellee contends that the act of 1921 does not amend the Workmen's Compensation Act, and that it amends the Occupational Disease Act by repealing section 15 thereof and substituting therefor the new act.

It is clear that the Legislature did not intend to repeal section 15, because in paragraph (e) of the new act the section is declared to be and remain in full force and effect except as amended. This declaration is clearly in violation of section 13 of article 4 of the Constitution of 1870, which declares:

‘No law shall be revived or amended by reference to its title only, but the law revived, or the section amended, shall be inserted at length in the new act.’

The argument of the appellee that paragraph (e) ‘is absolutely meaningless,’ and that ‘it is null and void and should be stricken out for that reason,’ cannot be sustained. The language used is clear and unambiguous, and the court has no authority to ignore it. The act shows on its face that it is an attempt to amend the existing law by intermingling new and different provisions with the old ones, so as to create out of the existing...

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5 cases
  • Boshuizen v. Thompson & Taylor Co.
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Illinois
    • April 17, 1935
    ......First Nat. Bank v. Wedron Silica Co., supra; Kelley" v. St. Louis Smelting & Refining Co., 307 Ill. 367, 138 N. E. 618.    \xC2"......
  • People v. Murray
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Illinois
    • April 6, 1923
  • People v. Spain
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Illinois
    • April 6, 1923
  • People v. Skar
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Illinois
    • March 18, 1964
    ......Michael O'Brien, Asst. Attys. Gen., and Elmer C. Kissane and Louis B. Garippo, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel), for defendant in error. ......
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