delivered the opinion of the court:
Defendant in error, as administratrix of her husband’s estate, brought a suit in the circuit court of McLean county against Walker D. Hines, Director General of Railroads, operating the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis railway, for the death of her husband, claiming it to have been caused by the negligence of the railway company. On the trial before a jury a verdict in favor of defendant in error was given for $9000 and judgment entered thereon in the circuit court. On appeal to the Appellate Court that judgment was affirmed, and the case has been brought to this court on petition for certiorari.
The declaration consisted of four counts, each charging in some form negligence in the operation of the engine and cars of the railway company. It appears that on January 24, 1918, the deceased was a traveling salesman for the Wink Packing Company of Peoria. On the afternoon of that day he arrived at the village of Lilly, in Tazewell county, on an interurban car a few minutes before six o’clock. The Wink Packing Company sold meats and their by-products, and the object of the deceased in going to Lilly was to procure an order from the firm of Rutledge & Garrett, a customer. About forty people lived in Lilly, and the buildings there located consisted of several business places, plaintiff in error’s railroad depot, an interurban depot and about twelve houses. The plaintiff in error’s railroad runs through this place east and west and the interurban electric railway parallels it on the north, about seventy-five feet distant therefrom. A block south of the railroad tracks an unnamed street runs east and west parallel therewith and ends at the east side of Hay street. On the north and south sides of this unnamed street or passageway above mentioned and west of Hay street are located some of the business places mentioned. The store of Rutledge & Garrett is located at the southwest corner of the intersection of the unnamed street and Hay street. Running north from this street for a short distance is a cement walk, beyond which is a path which runs diagonally in a northeasterly direction, crossing the railroad tracks in the center of Hay street and continuing northeasterly across Hay street to the interurban station, which is north of the interurban tracks and on the east side of Hay street. Hay. street is not a regularly traveled highway and has no definite width. Where it crosses plaintiff in error’s tracks it is planked to a width of nineteen feet. The evidence tends to show that after the deceased had obtained an order from Rutledge & Garrett he started north on Hay street toward the interurban station to take an interurban car then shortly to be due; that as he approached the crossing plaintiff in error’s train also approached it from the east, running between fifty and sixty miles per hour; that it was dark and the Headlight on the approaching engine was an oil lamp. There was some conflict in the evidence as to the signals given and as to the speed of the train. There were no eye-witnesses who were able to see the accident at the actual time it happened. Some of the witnesses saw the deceased approaching plaintiff in error’s railway as the train in question was coming from the east and said that he was running or going at what might be called a “dog-trot;” that he disappeared in the- steam that was escaping from the engine and was struck by the engine, but the on-lookers did not see him struck because of the steam or smoke from the engine. He died very shortly after being struck.
Numerous objections have been raised by plaintiff in error on the merits, and it is earnestly insisted that an instruction directing a verdict should have been given by the trial court. Plaintiff in error filed a plea of general issue, also a special plea. In the special plea it is averred that the Wink Packing Company, which employed the deceased at the time of his death, was a corporation organized under the laws of this State and engaged in an extra-hazardous business, in which statutory and municipal ordinances and regulations were imposed for regulating, guarding, use and placing machinery or appliances for the protection and safeguarding of its employees; that deceased was killed while engaged in the duties of his employment; that neither employer nor employee had elected not to be bound by the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation act then in force; that plaintiff in error was engaged in the business of carriage by land of goods and passengers between points in the State of Illinois for hire, and that the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation act applied to plaintiff in error and his employees. A demurrer was filed to this special plea and sustained and the trial was had upon the general issue.
The Workmen’s Compensation act in force at the time of this accident was that of 1917. (Laws of 1917, p. 505.) That act repealed the previous provisions stating what parties came within the Workmen’s Compensation act, and provided in section 3, among other things: “The provisions
of this act hereinafter following, shall apply automatically, and without election, to all emp^ers and their employees engaged in any' of the following enterprises or businesses which are hereby declared to be extra-hazardous, namely.” Then followed an enumeration of various articles of extra-hazardous businesses, among which were included: “3. Carriage by land or water and loading or unloading in connection therewith. 4. The operation of any warehouse or general or terminal store houses. * * * 8. In any enterprise in which statutory or municipal ordinance regulations are now or shall hereafter be imposed for the regulating, guarding, use or the placing of machinery or appliances or for the protection and safeguarding of the employees or the public therein; each of which occupations, enterprises or business are hereby declared to be extra-hazardous.”
It is obvious in reading the, opinion of the Appellate Court that that court held that the Workmen’s1 Compensation act did not apply because the deceased was not at the time of his death engaged in an extra-hazardous occupation. In reaching this conclusion that court relied entirely upon the decisions of this court which construed the Workmen’s Compensation act as it existed in this State prior to the passage of said act of 1917. The opinion of the Appellate Court relies especially on the decisions of this court in Sanitary District v. Industrial Board,
The first rule for the interpretation of a statute is to let the law-giver—the legislature—speak, and that there shall be no application of rules of construction if the language used is plain in its ordinary meaning, for the very potent reason that there is nothing for a court to do but read and apply the law. Where the language of a statute is clear and unambiguous there is no room for construction, and the words used must be taken in their ordinary, natural and commonly received sense. (Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. City of Chicago,
Counsel for defendant in error argue, as we understand them, that under sections 4 and 5 of the act of 1917 it was not intended to include employees as within the act unless they were actually engaged in extra-hazardous employment at the time of the injury. Section 4 enumerates who shall be considered employers under section 3 of the act, and the last paragraph of section 5 provides that the term “employee” shall be construed to mean “every person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, * * * who are legally permitted to work under the laws of the State, who, for the purpose of this act, shall be considered the same and have the same power to contract,” and then adds, “but not including any person who is not engaged in the usual course of the trade, business, profession or occupation of his employer.” (Hurd’s Stat. 1917, p. 1451.) It would seem clear from this exception, however, that the legislature intended to include all others within the act who are not excluded by this exception. (2 Lewis’ Sutherland on Stat. Const.—2d ed.— 916.) The plea alleged that the deceased was an employee of the Wink Packing Company, then engaged in the business of buying and slaughtering meat animals, buying and dressing, storing, warehousing, selling and loading meat products and other wares and merchandise, and that at the time he was killed he was engaged in the business of selling such products. The usual course of business shown in this plea is in accord with the same. To sell through salesmen ife as much a part of the business made extra-hazardous as a whole by statute as to buy through purchasers, pack through packers, grind, store, load and deliver. It took all these different parts of the work to make the sum total of the business in which the employer and his employees were all engaged, each doing his separate part in the usual course of the whole business. Therefore it would seem to follow necessarily that the deceased at the time he lost his life was engaged in the usual course of business of his employer. Illinois Publishing and Printing Co. v. Industrial Com.
All three parties being under the Workmen’s Compensation act, according to the allegations of the special plea, section 29 of said act prohibits the prosecution of this cause by the personal representative of the deceased employee. Goldsmith v. Payne, (ante, p. 119.)
The trial court erred in sustaining the demurrer to the special plea. The judgments of the Appellate and trial courts will therefore be reversed and the cause remanded to the circuit court, with directions to overrule the demurrer and to proceed further in harmony with the views herein expressed.
Reversed and remanded', with directions.