Nettie Peck's Case
| Decision Date | 24 November 1924 |
| Citation | 250 Mass. 261 |
| Parties | NETTIE PECK'S CASE. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
October 27, 1924.
Present: RUGG, C.
J., BRALEY, CROSBY PIERCE, & SANDERSON, JJ.
Workmen's Compensation Act, To whom act applies. Agency, Existence of relation. County. Municipal Corporations, Officers and agents. Tuberculosis Hospital.
Whether counties employ the laborers at the tuberculosis hospitals established under St. 1916, c. 286, or whether they are employed by the trustees of hospital districts, is to be determined by ascertaining the purpose and intent of the Legislature. It would require clear language to justify the conclusion that the
Legislature intended that acts in which only a section of a county has an interest should be construed to be acts of the county.
The evident purpose and intention of the Legislature in making provision for the establishment of tuberculosis hospitals was to create tuberculosis hospital districts as separate entities to be managed by the county commissioners of their respective counties as trustees. An employee in the laundry of the tuberculosis hospital in the county of
Bristol established in accordance with G.L.c. 111, Sections 78-91, is not an employee of the county of Bristol nor entitled to the benefits of the workmen's compensation act, the provisions of which had been accepted by the county.
CERTIFICATION to the Superior Court under the provisions of the workmen's compensation act of a decision of the Industrial Accident Board that the claimant, employed in the laundry of the Bristol County Tuberculosis Hospital, was a laborer employed by the county of Bristol at the time of her injuries and was entitled to compensation.
In the Superior Court, the claim was heard by Lummus, J., by whose order a decree was entered directing that compensation be paid to the claimant as a laborer employed by the county of Bristol. The county of Bristol appealed.
The case was submitted on briefs.
F. S. Hall & S.
P. Hall, for the county of Bristol.
M. E. McGuire, for the employee.
This case was heard by a single member of the Industrial Accident Board and then by the full board on review. Upon certification to the Superior Court under the provisions of the workmen's compensation act, a decree was entered April 10, 1924, adjudging that Nettie Peck, the employee, was a laborer employed by the county of Bristol and awarding her compensation. Bristol County appealed from this decree.
The decisive question on this appeal is whether Nettie Peck, the claimant was an employee of Bristol County. She was employed at the tuberculosis hospital in that county, established in accordance with the provisions of St. 1916, c. 286 (G.L.c 111, Sections 78-91), and on August 14, 1923, received an injury to her hand while working at a mangle in that hospital. She testified that she received her pay by check from the hospital; and the doctor who first attended her testified that his bill was paid by the trustees of the Bristol County Tuberculosis Hospital. The county treasurer testified that he was treasurer of the hospital, but that this was a separate office from that of county treasurer; that the funds are borrowed for the hospital and turned over, the money being raised from all the cities and towns in the county, except New Bedford and Fall River; that these two cities pay nothing toward its support, each having its own hospital; that the treasurer sends his checks to the superintendent of the hospital, who was appointed by the trustees in 1919; that patients from outside the county are received upon the payment of $25 a week in advance, and the charge for patients from Bristol County is $9.10 a week; that there had been a deficit which was made up by assessing the towns and cities in the "district"; and that the trustees of the hospital have not accepted the workmen's compensation act. The general superintendent and resident physician testified that he received his appointment from the trustees of the Bristol County Tuberculosis Hospital; that he has been secretary to the trustees ever since the hospital has been in existence; that the county clerk has nothing to do with the trustees; that when the trustees organized to establish this hospital there were present at the first meeting the three county commissioners, the county treasurer and the witness; that applications for admission to the hospital are made through local boards of health, and payment for patients from Bristol County is made by town treasurers by checks drawn to the treasurer of the hospital.
The county of Bristol, in 1913, accepted St. 1913, c. 807, providing for payment of compensation to laborers, workmen and mechanics. The act providing for the establishment of tuberculosis hospitals (St. 1916, c. 286) is entitled "An Act to provide for the construction by counties of tuberculosis hospitals for cities and towns having less than fifty thousand inhabitants." By its provisions, as afterwards amended, the county commissioners of each county except Barnstable, Hampshire, Suffolk, Nantucket and Dukes County were required to provide adequate hospital care for all persons residing in towns having less than fifty thousand population within their boundaries and suffering from tuberculosis. G.L.c. 111, Section 78. The responsibility for acquiring land and constructing and maintaining buildings for such hospitals is placed largely on the county commissioners. In the counties where hospitals are to be established, they are required to erect one or more hospitals. G.L.c. 111, Section 81. They are authorized to raise and expend money for acquiring land and constructing and equipping hospitals and for all other necessary purposes to carry out the provisions of the act. They may borrow on the credit of the county and issue notes to be signed by the county treasurer and countersigned by the county commissioners. These securities may be sold by the county at public or private sale, but the proceeds are to be used only for the purposes specified in the act which authorized the establishment and maintenance of these hospitals. The county commissioners are to apportion the cost to the several towns liable in accordance with their valuations used in assessing county taxes, and each town liable to contribute to the construction and equipment of a hospital is to pay its proportion of expenses into the county treasury in such manner as the county commissioners shall direct. G.L.c. 111, Section 83. By Section 85 of the act the county must provide for the care, maintenance and repair of the hospital, the cost thereof to be apportioned by the county commissioners to the towns liable. In Section 86 the county commissioners are authorized to purchase, lease, or take by eminent domain such land not exceeding five hundred acres as they deem necessary or convenient for the purposes set forth in the act.
Section 87 provides that the county commissioners shall be trustees of the hospitals erected thereunder, and shall make suitable regulations for their government, and shall appoint superintendents and other officers and employees necessary for the proper conduct thereof.
It appears from these statutory provisions that the entire cost of the hospital completed and equipped, as well as the annual cost for the care, maintenance and repair of the hospital, is to be paid by the towns liable. The towns thus liable in Bristol County are all the...
To continue reading
Request your trial