Mariposa Gazette, 13 December 1913
NEW ACTS SOON TO BE IN FORCE
Workers’ Compensation, Auto and
Fishing Laws Take Effect January 1
State Will Go Into Insurance Field —
Automobilists and Nimrods to Pay License
Sacramento — Three important laws passed by the last general assembly become effective January 1, 1914.
The measures are the workmen’s compensation, insurance and safety act; regulation of licensed fishing and the regulating of measures for automobiles on the state highways.
Species of game fish that may be taken in season and under license are classified by the addition to the game laws.
Licenses for persons operating automobiles on the state highways are provided in the new regulating act.
The workmen’s compensation measure, with its intricate plan for benefiting all of the workingmen of the state, is considered by many the most important piece of legislation of the Johnson administration. The state is preparing to become an insurance agent, and several indemnity companies are making plans to enter the field provided for by the legislation.
The scope of the act is wide. It is applicable to all save those engaged in farm, dairy, agricultural, horticultural or viticultural labor, in stock or poultry raising or in domestic service.
Except in cases where gross personal negligence on the part of the employer is proved, the right to compensation is the only recourse’an injured person may have. During the first 90 days following the accident the employer must pay for all medical care. Nothing is to be paid by the employer during the first two weeks of the disability of an employe; he shall receive only medical attention, but after two weeks the injured shall receive 65 per cent of his wages for any period of disability not longer than 240 weeks.
In other words, a laborer might be disabled for almost five years and still be on the payroll of his employer at 65 per cent of the amount he was receiving when hurt.
When an employe is killed those dependent on him are to receive an amount equal to three times the annual earnings of the employe. Employes are entitled to insure either with the state or with private companies. An employer may elect to be his own insurer.
There is nothing in the law to compel a company to take out insurance, either with the state or with any of the companies. When an employer is his own insurer he is responsible for indemnity under the act and settles his own bills.
The new automobile regulation provides a yearly license of $2 for chauffeurs, and a license of $1 for drivers of automobiles, which designation includes salesmen, garage men and others handling automobiles. The license fee does not apply to the individual who owns and drives his own car.
The amendment to the game laws provides a license fee of $1 a year for citizen nimrods, while foreigners must pay $3 a year.