49 Ga. App. 241 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1934
1. Under section 59 of the workmen’s compensation act (Ga. L. 1920, p. 198; Michie’s Code, § 3154(59)), a writ of error to review a judgment of a superior court upon an appeal from the Industrial Commission, now the Department of Industrial Relations, must be brought to this court “within the time and in the manner provided by law for appeals by fast bills of exceptions” from other orders of the superior court made reviewable by such bills. While section 6153 of the Civil Code (1910), regulating fast bills of exceptions, requires that these bills “shall be tendered and signed within 20 days from the rendition of the decision,” section 6187, embodying a later enacted statute (Ga. D. 1896, p. 45), which in terms repealed all conflicting laws, provides that “No bill of exceptions shall be dismissed upon the ground that the same was not certified by the judge in the time required by law
2. Upon the sole question raised on review, as to whether, at the time the employee claimant was injured, the employers had insurance coverage with the defendant insurance company so as to render it liable for the accident, there was ample competent evidence to support the findings of fact and judgment of the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations that the employers did not have such compensation insurance, and that the alleged insurance carrier was not liable. Although there was evidence tending to show that one of the employers on May 11, 1932, before he knew of the accident, which had already happened, gave to certain insurance brokers a check for $20, and obtained from them a receipted bill reading, “Account rendered — 5/9/32—Metropolitan Casualty Co. — 20.00—-workmen’s compensation job (old Nash Bldg.) — Peach-tree & North Ave. — Paid R. G-. Turner,” which the employers contend was a “binder” constituting a valid contract of insurance dating back to May 9th so as to cover the time of the accident, there' was other testimony which authorized inferences and findings that the alleged insurance agents had neither express nor implied authority to issue a “binder” as to employer’s liability insurance, even if the quoted instrument could in itself or with other evidence be taken as constituting a valid contract of insurance; that the insurance policy, while issued as of the date of May 9 and turned over to the insurance brokers, was never in fact delivered to the employers, but was held by the brokers pending an investigation of the employers and of the insurance risk which they desired, and was canceled and the money- returned to the employers when it was discovered that the accident had happened before the insurance