On analysis it will be seen that the formula requires four con ditions to be satisfied. (i) There must have been an "accident." This may include heat-stroke, murder and rupture of an aneur ism by the strain of work. It does not include disease which, although traceable to the workman's employment, is gradual in its onset. (ii) The personal injury must have resulted from the accident. The incapacity or death must not be the consequence of some new intervening cause. So, if a workman dies from the effects of anaesthetics during an operation made necessary by an accident, the fact that the anaesthetic and not the accident was the immediate cause of death does not render the occurrence any the less a "personal injury by accident." Not so, however, if the fatal result was due to unskilful treatment of the injury. (iii) The accident must have arisen "in the course of" the employ ment. If it occurred before the employment began or after it had ended, compensation will not be payable. The beginning of employment is not the same thing as the beginning of work : the I employment may begin when the workman reaches, say, a private road leading to the place of actual work : it may extend to at tendance at the employers' premises for the purpose of drawing wages when not actually at work. (iv) The accident must have arisen "out of" the employment. The circumstances in which an accident may happen are infinite, and the meaning of the three words "arising out of" has to be gathered from literally hun dreds of decisions in the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords. No universal test, whether an accident arose "out of" the employ ment, seems possible; but Lord Sumner in L. & Y. Rly. v. Highley [1917] A.C. 352 suggested a test which has been frequently ap plied, namely, "was it part of the injured person's employment to hazard, to suffer or to do that which caused his injury? If yea, the accident arose out of his employment. If nay, it did not." Compensation is not necessarily payable because illness over takes a workman while at work. For compensation to be payable for disablement or death due to disease, it must either be shown that the illness resulted from an accident, as where blood poison ing sets in as a consequence of a wound, however slight, received when at work ; or the disease must be one of those to which the Workmen's Compensation Acts are specially applied, viz., anthrax, lead, phosphorus, mercury or arsenic poisoning and the miner's disease known as ankylostomiasis, together with the long list of other industrial diseases brought within the scope of the Acts by order of the home secretary in pursuance of his statutory powers.
Conditions Which Disqualify for Compensation.—In some of the dominions and the United States, it is provided that an injury which is self-inflicted, or was the result of intoxication, shall not be the subject of compensation. In Great Britain it has been left to the courts to rule out such cases, and only two dis qualifications for compensation are the subject of specific enact ment, namely, serious and wilful misconduct (but only in cases not resulting in death or serious and permanent disablement) and the fact that the incapacity did not extend beyond what is known as "the waiting period." It is alleged in justification of this "waiting period" that it excludes a vast number of trivial claims, the cost of investigating and dealing with which would be disproportionate to the amount at stake. The British Act applies the simple plan by which com
pensation is payable after the first three days in all cases and from the date of the accident if the incapacity lasts four weeks or more. It is a condition to the granting of compensation that the accident has been brought to the knowledge of the employer as soon as possible and a claim for compensation made within six months from the occurrence of the accident, or, in fatal cases, within six months from the date of death, unless the absence of notice or failure to make the claim can be excused on one or other of the grounds indicated in the Statute, such as mistake, absence from Great Britain or "other reasonable cause." Scale of Compensation.—In fatal cases compensation takes the form of a lump sum payment to or for the benefit of the de ceased workman's dependants. Where the accident results in in capacity only, compensation is paid to the injured workman, and takes the form of a weekly payment during incapacity. The sum payable in fatal cases varies, in the first place according as the workman leaves total or partial dependants or no dependants at all and, in the second place, according as the dependants do or do not include children under the age of 15. If the deceased workman leaves any person entitled to rank as a dependant with in the definition of the Act wholly dependent upon his earnings, the lump sum payable is £200 or a sum equal to the workman's earnings during the previous three years, whichever is the larger, but not exceeding £300. If the workman leaves only partial de pendants, compensation is the sum which is "reasonable and pro portionate to the injury" suffered by the dependants as a result of the workman's death, subject to the same maximum. If no de pendants are left, only expenses of medical attendance and burial up to f 15 are payable. Until 1923 no distinction was made be tween the case where the only dependant was, say, a young widow, and the case where a middle-aged widow and a family of small children were left to be provided for. The 1923 Act made pro vision for compensation additional to the above, where the work man leaves a widow or other member of his family dependant upon his earnings and in addition leaves one or more dependant children under the age of 15. This additional "children's allow ance" is calculated according to the formula laid down in the Act and depends on the number of children and their respective ages. By way of illustration take the case of a workman earning 3os. a week, who leaves a widow and two children respectively seven and 14 years of age, all totally dependent upon his earn ings. If the widow had been the only dependant the compensation payable would have been £234. But the "children's allowance" payable in addition is .£1o5 6s., so that the total compensation payable amounts to £339 6s. The absolute maximum payable in a fatal case, including children's allowances, is L000. The lump sum payable in fatal cases is not paid direct to the dependants who, being generally persons unused to dealing with large sums, would possibly use it in an improvident manner, but is paid into the county court and by that court paid out to the dependants, ac cording to their needs, in periodical instalments.