Editorial from the
Baston Evening Transcript
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1927
Justice 'Longshore
November has seen the first Boston sit- a man injured while his dredge is work-
ting of the newly organized United States ing in ten feet of water.
No doubt the new Federal Commission
Employees'
Compensation Commission.
count on receiving in this district,
can
This board adjusts disputed cases under
the Federal Longshoremen's and Harbor from the Boston Legal Aid Society, the
same notably competent and disinterested
workers' Compensation Act which went service which the society has rendered in
As such, the practice before the Massachusetts Indus-
into effect on July 1, 1927.
new board administers the Federal stat-
trial Accident Department.
Under the
ute in much the same way that the state act, a very large number of indus-
Massachusetts Department of Industrial trial accident cases now are settled with-
Accidents supervises the operation of the out litigation and with eminent satisfac-
this tion to the injured employee and his em-
ployer. During the year 1926, for exam
workmen's compensation law
in
State.
Before passage of the Federal act, ple, 35,000 cases were thus adjusted. But
large uncertainty existed as to the rights in some 4000 cases, the insurer denied lia-
of longshoremen injured while at work. bility. In nearly all of these instances the
A barge employee hurt while helping in protests of the insurance companies were
the operation of a dredge, the Massachu brought in good faith, because some hon
setts Supreme Court recently held, in a est room for doubt existed as to their
helpfully liberal decision, is entitled to legal liability.
compensation under the State act, the plainly the injured workmen have need
navigation of the dredge being purely of competent legal advice and assistance.
local in character. But if this same man And as plainly, by the very difficulty in
had been injured while working in the which they stand-being injured and tem
hold of a sea-going ship in Boston har- porarily unable to work-they are as a
bor, then certainly neither he nor his rule without money to pay for a iawyer's
dependent family could have received any service.
When such doubt arises,
aid under the State act from the com-
Here, as in other types of litigation, the
pany which had insured his employer. Boston Legal Aid Society fills a crying
The new United States Employees Com-need. It gives, in worthy industrial acci-
pensation Act, on the other hand, does dent cases, a legal service which, through
make provision for this type of case, long specialized experience in this par-
which otherwise would have gone with
out indemnity.
fall, even yet, within the range of the at the end of the case, by the Industrial
new legislation. But a valuable step has Accident Department, as one means of
been taken toward even-handed justice. helping to maintain the society's continu-
The family of a wage-earner who has ing work of philanthrophy for needy
been injured in the course of his duty clients. This helpful effort by the Boston
whiie working over navigable waters 100 Legal Aid Society comes as near to estab-
feet deep obviously may have quite as lishing the ideal of equal justice for all
much need of assistance as the famiiy of as
ticular field, is of the most expert char-
Not all maritime torts acter, taking only the small fee allowed,
civiized community can ever attain.
