250 Mass. 261 | Mass. | 1924
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. Ill, §§ 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
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. Ill, § 78. The responsibility for acquiring
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 municipalities in said county excepting the cities of New Bedford and Fall River. The towns and cities subject to assessment, and whose resi
The case of Bauer v. Mitchell, 247 Mass. 522, was a suit in equity brought by four of the seven trustees of the Independent Agricultural School of the county of Essex against the three county commissioners of the county of Essex, who are the three remaining trustees of the school and who also constitute the board of trustees of the tuberculosis hospital of the county of Essex, erected and maintained under the provisions of St. 1916, c. 286. This suit was brought to prevent the defendants from constructing filter beds for the hospital on land appropriated for the purposes of the school. The land taken for the hospital is adjacent to that appropriated for the school, and the title to all the land used for the school as well as that used for the hospital is in the county of Essex. It was held on demurrer that the county of Essex was a necessary party. The ground of this decision was not that the tuberculosis hospital was a county institution, nor that the county commissioners as trustees were not proper parties, but that the county was the owner of all property directly or indirectly concerned in the subject matters of the suit and for that reason should be made a party. It was therein stated that “ it would have been appropriate for the county to be represented by counsel, different from those representing the trustees of the hospital.”
The fact that funds which paid the claimant came ultimately from certain towns in the county and not from the whole county is a circumstance to be considered on the question whether the relation of master and servant existed between the county and her, but it is not decisive. Chisholm’s Case, 238 Mass. 412, 419.
This question whether counties employ the laborers at the tuberculosis hospitals established under St. 1916, c. 286, or
By St. 1920, c. 532, the Legislature provided that certain indebtedness contracted in connection with a proposed tuberculosis hospital in Middlesex County authorized by St.
Chapter 443 of St. 1922, is entitled “ An Act relative to the membership of the employees of the Norfolk County Tuberculosis Hospital ... in the Norfolk County Retirement Association.” It provides that the employees of the Norfolk county tuberculosis hospital shall be deemed to have become members of the Norfolk county retirement association, established under G. L. c. 32. The chapter of the General Laws last referred to provides that any county may establish a retirement system for its employees, and all employees of the county on the date when the retirement system is established and all employees who enter the service of the county after the date when the system is declared established may become members of the association. It seems to have been assumed that an act of the Legislature was necessary to give employees at the tuberculosis hospital the same rights in the Norfolk county retirement association which employees of the county had.
By St. 1924, c. 443, passed since the entry of the decree in this case, the Legislature in providing for an enlargement of the present tuberculosis hospital district within the county of Essex so as to include in it the inhabitants of all cities and towns in the county of Essex who are suffering from tuberculosis, used these words: “ all of said cities and towns shall constitute the Essex county tuberculosis hospital district.” The act then provided for the payment of money in a certain event “ to the cities and towns which constituted the district prior to the passage of this act.” The legislative intention, as gathered from this statute of 1924, indicates that when some of the cities and towns in a county
If the conclusion were reached that the claimant was an employee of Bristol County, the whole county, including Fall River and New Bedford, which have hospitals of their own and are exempt from the benefits and burdens of St. 1916, c. 286, would be obliged to contribute to the compensation awarded under the workmen’s compensation act. 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. The claimant was employed by the county commissioners acting as trustees for a tuberculosis hospital district, which consisted of all the municipalities in Bristol County excepting New Bedford and Fall River, and was not an employee of the county of Bristol.
Decree reversed.
Decree to be entered in favor of Bristol County.