GEORGIA. CODE OF 1910. POLITICAL CODE. Liability of employers for road tax of employees. SECTION 670. * Employers In all cases where executions may be issued against road-hands in the employment of others, notice to the chargeable. employers of the existence of such execution shall have the force and effect of a garnishment, and shall operate as a lien on what is due or to become due from such employer to such employee, and may be collected as in cases of garnishment. Emigrant agents. Occupation SECTION 939. Upon each emigrant agent, or employee or employees of such agents, doing business in this State, the sum of tax. five hundred dollars [shall be levied as occupation tax] for each county in which such agent or employee may conduct or offer to do business. CIVIL CODE. Payment of wages in scrip. SECTION 2235. Any corporation or person doing business of any Checks, etc., kind in this State, who shall issue checks or written evidences of to be redeemindebtedness for the wages of laborers, shall redeem at full value, ed in cash. in cash, such written evidences of indebtedness, on demand and presentation to the proper person on the regular monthly pay day, and if there be no regular monthly pay day, then upon demand and presentation on any regular business day after thirty days from the issuance thereof; and for every failure to redeem such evidences of indebtedness, said corporation or person shall be liable to the owner thereof in the sum of ten dollars, to be recovered by suit, unless said corporation or person shall, upon the trial, prove insolvency or actual inability to redeem at the time of demand and presentation. Railroads-Telegraph operators-Hours of labor-Headlights. Age limit. SECTION 2690. No railroad company shall employ in this State any telegraph operator to receive and transmit dispatches governing the movement of trains, who is less than eighteen years of age, and who has not had at least one year's experience as a telegraph operator, and who has not stood a thorough examination before the railroad superintendent or train master, and re- required. ceived a certificate of his competency from such officer. A written record of said certificate shall be kept in the office of the officer issuing it, and be subject to inspection at any time. Examination SEC. 2691. Any railroad company violating the requirements of Penalty. the preceding section shall forfeit for each offense not less than fifty dollars, and not more than five hundred dollars. * * * SEC. 2693. No railroad doing business in this State shall re- Limit of thirquire or permit its employees, who are engaged in the business teen hours. of operating its trains over its roads, to make runs of over thir rest. teen hours, or make runs aggregating more than thirteen hours in any twenty-four hours, except when such train is detained by reason of casualty, or other cause, from reaching its destination on schedule time, and no trainmen, after having been on a run or runs for as much as thirteen hours out of the twenty-four hours, Ten hours' shall be required to again go on duty until after ten hours['] rest, except in the case above stated. No employee of any railroad company shall be deprived of his right to recover damages Law not a for personal injury by reason of the fact that he, at the time of such injury, was making a run of more than thirteen hours, or making a run aggregating more than thirteen hours in twentyfour hours, or had gone on duty after a thirteen hours['] run, or runs aggregating thirteen hours before ten hours['] rest. defense. Penalty. Engineers to SEC. 2694. Any railroad violating any of the provisions of the preceding section shall be subject to a forfeiture of not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars; ** ** SEC. 2696. No railway company operating trains in this State be experienced. shall have employed or allow in charge of one of its locomotives in this State, as a locomotive engineer (except such engines used in yard service), any person who shall not have had as much as three years' actual bona fide experience as a fireman or engineer on a railway locomotive, or who shall not have served an apprenticeship of four years in a regular railroad machine shop, and have had in addition thereto one year bona fide experience as a locomotive fireman. Headlights required. Exemption. Liability of carriers. Measure of liability. SEC. 2697. All railroad companies are required to equip and maintain each and every locomotive used by such company to run on its main line after dark with a good and sufficient headlight which shall consume not less than three hundred watts at the arc, and with a reflector not less than twenty-three inches in diameter, and to keep the same in good condition. The words main line as used herein, mean all portions of the railway lines not used solely as yards, spurs, and sidetracks. SEC. 2698. The preceding section shall not apply to tramroads, mill roads, and roads engaged principally in lumber or logging transportation in connection with mills. Railroads-Strikes. SECTION 2737. Where a carrier receives freight for shipment, it is bound to forward within a reasonable time, although its employees strike or cease to work; but if the strike is accompanied with violence and intimidation so as to render it unsafe to forward the freight, the carrier is relieved as to liability for delay in delivering the freight, if the violence and armed resistance is of such character as could not be overcome by the carrier or controlled by the civil authorities when called upon by it. Liability of railroad companies for injuries to employees. SECTION 2751. Railroad companies are common carriers, and liable as such. As such companies necessarily have many employees who can not possibly control those who should exercise care and diligence in the running of trains, such companies shall be liable to such employees as to passengers for injuries arising from the want of such care and diligence. Though this statute imposes on railroad companies a different rule of liability from that applied to other classes of employers, it is not unconstitutional. 54 Ga. 509. A company is responsible even though others may be using its franchise. 49 Ga. 355. Employment and injury need not be immediately connected with the running of trains. 95 Ga. 301. of SEC. 2782. Every common carrier by railroad shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such carrier, or, in case of death of such employee, to his or her personal representative, for the benefit of the surviving widow or husband, or child, or children of such employee, and if none, then Negligence of Defects. Proviso. of such employee's parents; and if none, then of the next of kin dependent upon such employee, for such injury or death resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or empolyees of such carrier, or by reason of any defects or employees : insufficiency, due to its negligence, in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed, works, boats, wharves, or other equipment: Provided, nevertheless, No recovery shall be had hereunder if the person killed or injured brought about his death or injury by his own carelessness amounting to a failure to exercise ordinary care; or if he, by the exercise of ordinary care, could have avoided the consequences of the defendant's negligence. The measure of damage in case the injury results in death of the employee shall be that prescribed in sections 4424 and 4425: Provided, That the party or parties for whose benefit recovery may be had under this and the five succeeding sections may sue and recover in their own name or names in the manner prescribed by section 4424, in case no administrator or executor has been appointed at the time suit is filed. In case death results from injury to the employee, the employer shall be liable unless it make it proof. appear that it, its agents, and employees have exercised all ordinary and reasonable care and diligence, the presumption being in all cases against the employer. If death does not result from the injury, the presumptions of negligence shall be and remain as now provided by law in case of injury received by an employee in the service of a railroad company. Burden of SEC. 2783. In all actions hereafter brought against any such Contributory common carrier by railroad, under or by virtue of any of the negligence not a bar, when.. provisions of this, the preceding, or the four succeeding sections; to recover damages for personal injuries to an employee, or where such injuries have resulted in death, the fact that the employee may have been guilty of contributory negligence, not amounting to a failure to exercise ordinary care, shall not bar a recovery, but the damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to such employee: Provided, That no such employee who may be injured, or killed, shall be held to have been guilty of contributory negligence in any case where the violation by such common carrier of any statute enacted for the safety of employees contributed to the injury or death of such employee. SEC. 2784. In any action brought against any common carrier under and by virtue of any of the provisions of the two preceding sections, to recover damages for injuries to or the death of any of its employees, such employee shall not be held to have assumed the risks of his employment in any case where the violation by such common carrier of any statute enacted for the safety of the employees contributed to the injury or death of such employee. SEC. 2785. Any contract, rule, regulation, or device whatsoever, the purpose or intent of which shall be to enable any common carrier to exempt itself from any liability created by the three preceding sections, shall, to that extent, be void: Provided, That in any action brought against any such common carrier, under or by virtue of any of said sections, such common carrier may set off therein any sum it has contributed or paid to any insurance, relief, benefit, or indemnity that may have been paid to the injured employee, or, in the event of death, to the person or person entitled thereto on account of the injury or death for which said action is brought. SEC. 2786. No action shall be maintained under the four preceding sections, unless commenced within two years from the day the cause of action accrued. SEC. 2787. The term "common carrier," as used in the preceding section[s], shall include the receiver or receivers or other person or corporation charged with the duty of the management and operation of the business of a common carrier. SEC. 2788. The liability of receivers, trustees, assignees, and other like officers operating railroads in this State, or partially in this State, for injuries and damages to persons in their employ, 39387°-Bull. 148-14- -31 Risk not assumed, when. Contracts of exemption. Limitation. Definition. Measure of liability of receivers. Receiver ships. Wages to be paid first. Expenses incfu wages. Negrigence caused by the negligence of coemployees, or for injuries or damages to personal property, shall be the same as the liability now fixed by the law governing the operation of railroad corporations in this State for like injuries and damages; and a lien is hereby created on the gross income of any such railroad while in the hands of any such receiver, trustee, or assignee, or other person, in favor of such injured employees, or plaintiff, superior to all other liens against defendant under the laws of this State. Wages as preferred claims-In receiverships. SECTION 2794. Whenever any railroad has been seized by any order or process from any court appointing a receiver for said railroad company, it shall be the duty of the judge presiding in said court to order payment on account of liabilities specified in the preceding section to be made out of any funds of said company available for said purpose, so soon as the amount of said liabilities is liquidated, and if the same are disputed, then so soon as they can be judicially ascertained, and without awaiting the final judgment in said cause. And whenever any railroad has been seized by any trustee or other person by authority of any provision in any trust deed or other conveyance to secure debt, it shall be the duty of said person so seizing said railroad to pay said liabilities out of the first moneys coming into his hands, so soon as the amount of the same can be ascertained, or determined judicially or otherwise. And in all cases where a railroad has been seized as last aforesaid, the persons having such claims of liabilities shall have the same right to proceed against said property to collect and secure the amount due on account of said liabilities, as if said railroad had not been seized by any trustee or other person under said trust deed or other conveyance for the security of debt. SEC. 2797. In all cases where the business of any corporation operating a railroad, either wholly or partially in this State, shall, by an order or decree of any court, be placed in the hands of a receiver for the benefit of the creditors or stockholders of said corporation, it shall be the duty of said receiver to apply the income of said railroad to the payment of the incidental expenses necessary to the carrying on said business, which shall include the wages of employees, * ** Liability of employers for injuries to employees. SECTION 3129. Except in case of railroad companies, the master of fellow serv- is not liable to one servant for injuries arising from the negligence or misconduct of other servants about the same business. ants. Duty of employer. Assumption of risk. SEC. 3130. The master is bound to exercise ordinary care in the selection of servants, and not to retain them after knowledge of incompetency; he must use like care in furnishing machinery equal in kind to that in general use, and reasonably safe for all persons who operate it with ordinary care and diligence. If there are latent defects in machinery, or dangers incident to an employment, unknown to the servant, of which the master knows or ought to know, he must give the servant warning in respect thereto. SEC. 3131. A servant assumes the ordinary risks of his employment, and is bound to exercise his own skill and diligence to protect himself. In suits for injuries arising from the negligence of the master in failing to comply with the duties imposed by the preceding section, it must appear that the master knew or ought to have known of the incompetency of the other servant, or of the defects or danger in the machinery supplied; and it must also appear that the servant injured did not know and had not equal means of knowing such fact, and by the exercise of ordinary care could not have known thereof. Negligence is not imputed where an employee, from pressure of duties, forgets obstructions of which he had knowledge, and is injured thereby. 58 S. E. 252. SEC. 3132. All contracts between master and servant, made in Contracts consideration of employment, whereby the master is exempted waiving liability. from liability to the servant arising from the negligence of the master or his servants, as such liability is now fixed by law, shall be null and void, as against public policy. A servant's widow suing for his homicide occasioned by the negligence of a fellow servant must show that it was criminal, unless the principal be a railroad or a druggist. 70 Ga. 434. Contracts of employment-Term. SECTION 3133. That wages are payable at a stipulated period Term of employment. raises the presumption that the hiring is for such period; but if anything in the contract shows that the hiring was for a longer term, the mere reservation of wages for a lesser time will not control. An indefinite hiring may be terminated at will by either party. Payment of wages due deceased employees. SECTION 3134. It shall be lawful upon the death of any person employed by any railroad company or other corporation doing business in this State, who may have wages due him by said railroad company or other corporation, and who shall leave surviving him a widow or minor child or children, to pay all of said wages, when they do not exceed one hundred dollars, and in case such wages exceed one hundred dollars, to pay the sum of one hundred dollars thereof to the surviving widow of such employee, and in case he has no surviving widow, but leaves surviving a minor child or children, then said sum shall be paid to said minor child or children without any administration upon the estate of said employee; and said fund to the amount of one hundred dollars, after the death of said employee, is hereby exempt from any and all process of garnishment. What sum paid may be widow, etc. Payment re SEC. 3135. It shall be the duty of such railroad company, or other corporation, to pay over said fund on the demand of the quired. widow, and in case there be no surviving widow, then on the demand of the minor child or children, or the guardian thereof. Payment is SEC. 3136. The paying over of the fund under the preceding sections shall operate as a release from all claims against said release. fund or railroad company or corporation by the estate of said employee or creditors thereof, or the claims of the widow or minor child or children, or the guardian thereof. Hours of labor in factories, etc.-Employment of children. SECTION 3137 (as amended by act, page 65, Acts of 1911). The Ten-hour day. hours of labor required of all persons employed in cotton or woolen manufacturing establishments in this State, except engineers, firemen, watchmen, mechanics, teamsters, yard employees, clerical force, and all help that may be needed to clean up and make necessary repairs or changes in or of machinery, shall not exceed ten hours per day, or the same may be regulated by employers so that the number of hours shall not in aggregate exceed sixty hours per week: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent any of the aforesaid employees from working such time as may be necessary to make up lost time not to exceed ten days caused by accidents or other unavoidable circumstances. Lost time. Contracts for SEC. 3138. All contracts made or entered into, whereby a longer time for labor than is provided in the foregoing section shall be longer day. required of said employees, shall be absolutely null and void, so far as the same relates to the enforcement of said contracts with said employees, any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding. SEC. 3139. Any cotton or woolen manufacturing establishment that shall make or enforce any contract in violation of the fore Penalty. |