Springfield Coal Mining Co. v. Indus. Comm'n, 13095.
| Decision Date | 18 February 1920 |
| Docket Number | No. 13095.,13095. |
| Citation | 291 Ill. 408,126 N.E. 133 |
| Parties | SPRINGFIELD COAL MINING CO. v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Error to Circuit Court, Sangamon County; E. S. Smith, Judge.
Proceedings by Mary Wiley, administratrix of William Wiley, deceased employé, for compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act, opposed by the Springfield Coal Mining Company, employer. The Industrial Commission awarded compensation, and on certiorari the circuit court quashed the writ, confirmed the award, and certified that the case is one proper to be reviewed by the Supreme Court.
Affirmed.
A. M. Fitzgerald, of Springfield, and Harleigh H. Hartman, of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.
A. W. Kerr and W. J. MacDonald, both of Springfield, for defendant in error.
On September 27, 1917, the Industrial Commission, on a hearing, found the average annual gross earnings of the deceased at the time of his death to have been $933.21, the average weekly gross earnings $17.96, the average annual net earnings $752.20, and the average weekly net earnings, $14.46. The commission also found that there was deducted by plaintiff in error from the decedent's gross earnings, for powder, carbide, blacksmithing, and other items used by the deceased in his work of mining, and for union dues, fines, and assessments, the sum of $181.01. It further found that such amounts so deducted from his wages were not furnished to the deceased by plaintiff in error to cover any special expenses entailed on him by the nature of his employment, and that for the purpose of computing compensation under the act the gross earnings apply. The commission then entered its order that petitioner is entitled to have and receive from plaintiff in error the sum of $8.98 per week for a period of 387 weeks and $4.74 for 1 week, as provided in paragraph (a) of section 7 of the Compensation Act (Laws 1913, p. 340), as amended (Laws 1915, p. 401). The circuit court of Sangamon county reviewed the proceedings and order of the commission on writ of certiorari, and on May 27, 1919, quashed the writ, confirmed the award, and certified that the case is one proper to be reviewed by this court.
The facts are not in dispute and were stipulated. William Wiley, the deceased, was employed by plaintiff in error under a contract between the miners' organization and the employers' organization. The coal was mined by use of drilling machines and various tools and implements belonging to the miners. The coal was blasted by powder purchased by the miners from plaintiff in error at $1.75 per keg, but it was not paid for in advance by them but was deducted from their wages on pay days. The carbide, blacksmithing, and some other supplies furnished to the miners by plaintiff in error were also paid for by the miners by deductions from their wages on pay days. The union dues, fines, and assessments were likewise deducted from their wages on pay days for the benefit of and paid to the miners' organization. The deceased was paid the stipulated price per ton for mining coal, $.617. The earnings of the decedent for each pay were figured by multiplying the number of tons mined and loaded by him by the price per ton, and the price paid to him each pay was such amount, less deductions made by plaintiff in error for the things above enumerated. The findings of the commission as to the gross and net annual earnings are in accord with the stipulated facts. Mary Wiley is the surviving widow of the deceased and also the administratrix of his estate.
The only question presented for consideration in this case is whether the gross earnings or the net earnings of the deceased should be used in computing the amount of compensation to be awarded.
The measure of the responsibility which the employer assumes is the compensation provided by the various sections of the Compensation Act, as declared by section 11 of the act. The question in this case is to be determined by the provisions of paragraphs (a) and (g) of section 10 of the act and the first two lines of that section, providing as follows:
‘(a) The compensation shall be computed on the basis of the annual earnings which the injured person received as salary, wages or earnings if in the employment of the same employer continuously during the year next preceding the injury. * * *
Paragraphs (c), (d), (e), and (f) of the same section make provisions for employés working under various other conditions and circumstances, and their compensation is also computed on the basis of their annual earnings arbitrarily fixed by those paragraphs. In paragraph (c) the annual earnings of the employés are the same as those of persons of the same class in the same employment and same location, etc. In paragraph (d) the annual earnings, if not otherwise determinable, are 300 times the average daily earnings. For employés mentioned in paragraph (e) the annual earnings are the average daily earnings multiplied by the actual number of days employed, such actual days to be not less than 200. For the employés mentioned in paragraph (f) ‘the yearly wage shall be reckoned according to the average annual earnings of adults of the same class in the same’ employment, etc.
It will be noted that in paragraph (f) ‘yearly wage’ is used as the equivalent of the words ‘annual earnings.’ The words ‘salary,’ ‘wages,’ and ‘earnings' are all used in referring to the money or other compensation to be paid the employé for his services rendered. The three terms were evidently used by the Legislature to cover any and all terms that various employers and employés might use to designate their wages or earnings. The word ‘wage’ is defined in the Standard Dictionary as payment for service rendered by artisans or laborers receiving a fixed sum per day, week, or month or for a certain amount of work (piecework). The word ‘salary’ is defined in the same work as a periodical allowance made as compensation to a person for his official or professional services or for his regular work. This apt and significant language is then used:
‘Laboris remunerated by wages and by salaries; wages being the remuneration of subordinates and salaries of officials.’
The word ‘earnings' is defined in the same work as money or other compensation to which one has a claim for services rendered; wages; desert; reward. The terms ‘wage’ and ‘earning’ are both commonly used in the plural. ‘Earnings,’ as commonly used, is the broadest term of the three, as it is a term that aptly applies to the pay received by both the laborer and the official or ‘boss'; but as used in the statute it...
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