the employer against the insurers as respects that liability shall, notwithstanding anything in the enactments relating to bankruptcy and the winding-up of companies, be transferred to and vest in the workman, and upon any such transfer the insurers shall have the same rights and remedies and be subject to the same liabilities as if they were the employer, so, however, that the insurers shall not be under any greater liability to the workman than they would have been under to the employer. (2.) If the liability of the insurers to the workman is less than the liability of the employer to the workman, the workman may prove for the balance in the bankruptcy or liquidation. (3.) There shall be included among the debts which under section 1 of The Preferential Payments in Bankruptcy Act. 1888,"* and section 4 of "The Preferential Payments in Bankruptcy (Ireland) Act, 1889," are in the distribution of the property of a bankrupt and in the distribution of the assets of a company being wound up to be paid in priority to all other debts, the amount, not exceeding in any individual case 1007., due in respect of any compensation the liability wherefor accrued before the date of the receiving order or the date of the commencement of the winding up, and those Acts and "The Preferential Payments in Bankruptcy Amendment Act, 1897," shall have effect accordingly. Where the compensation is a weekly payment, the amount due in respect thereof shall, for the purposes of this provision, be taken to be the amount of the lump sum for which the weekly payment could, if redeemable, be redeemed if the employer made an application for that purpose under the First Schedule to this Act. (4.) In the case of the winding-up of a company within the meaning of "The Stannaries Act, 1887,"$ such an amount as aforesaid, if the compensation is payable to a miner or the dependants of a miner, shall have the like priority as is conferred on wages of miners by section 9 of that Act, and that section shall have effect accordingly. (5.) The provisions of this section with respect to preferences and priorities shall not apply where the bankrupt or the company being wound up has entered into such a contract with insurers as aforesaid. (6.) This section shall not apply where a company is wound up voluntarily merely for the purposes of reconstruction or of amalgamation with another company. Remedies both against Employer and Stranger. 6. Where the injury for which compensation is payable under this Act was caused under circumstances creating a legal liability in some person other than the employer to pay damages in respect thereof— * 51 & 52 Vict., c. 62. + 52 & 53 Vict., c. 60. § 50 & 51 Viet., o. 13. (1.) The workman may take proceedings both against that person to recover damages and against any person liable to pay compensation under this Act for such compensation, but shall not be entitled to recover both damages and compensation; and (2.) If the workman has recovered compensation under this Act, the person by whom the compensation was paid, and any person who has been called on to pay an indemnity under the section of this Act relating to sub-contracting, shall be entitled to be indemnified by the person so liable to pay damages as aforesaid, and all questions as to the right to and amount of any such indemnity shall, in default of agreement, be settled by action, or, by consent of the parties, by arbitration under this Act. Application of Act to Seamen. 7.-(1.) This Act shall apply to masters, seamen, and apprentices to the sea service and apprentices in the sea-fishing service, provided that such persons are workmen within the meaning of this Act, and are members of the crew of any ship registered in the United Kingdom, or of any other British ship or vessel of which the owner, or (if there is more than one owner) the managing owner, or manager resides or has his principal place of business in the United Kingdom, subject to the following modifications:- (a.) The notice of accident and the claim for compensation may, except where the person injured is the master, be served on the master of the ship as if he were the employer, but where the accident happened and the incapacity commenced on board the ship it shall not be necessary to give any notice of the accident: (b.) In the case of the death of the master, seaman, or apprentice, the claim for compensation shall be made within six months after news of the death has been received by the claimant : (c.) Where an injured master, seaman, or apprentice is discharged or left behind in a British possession or in a foreign country, depositions respecting the circumstances and nature of the injury may be taken by any Judge or Magistrate in the British possession, and by any British consular officer in the foreign country, and if so taken shall be transmitted by the person by whom they are taken to the Board of Trade, and such depositions or certified copies thereof shall in any proceedings for enforcing the claim be admissible in evidence as provided by sections 691 and 695 of The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894," and those sections shall apply accordingly: (d.) In the case of the death of a master, seaman, or apprentice, leaving no dependants, no compensation shall be payable, if the owner of the ship is under "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894," liable to pay the expenses of burial: * 57 & 58 Viet., c. 60. Vol. LXXXVI, page 633. The (e.) The weekly payment shall not be payable in respect of the period during which the owner of the ship is, under Merchant Shipping Act, 1894," as amended by any subsequent enactment, or otherwise, liable to defray the expenses of maintenance of the injured master, seaman, or apprentice : (f.) Any sum payable by way of compensation by the owner of a ship under this Act shall be paid in full notwithstanding anything in section 503 of The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894" (which relates to the limitation of a shipowner's liability in certain cases of loss of life, injury, or damage), but the limitation on the owner's liability imposed by that section shall apply to the amount recoverable by way of indemnity, under the section of this Act relating to remedies both against employer and stranger, as if the indemnity were damages for loss of life or personal injury: (g.) Subsections (2) and (3) of section 174 of "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894" (which relates to the recovery of wages of seamen lost with their ship), shall apply as respects proceedings for the recovery of compensation by dependants of masters, seamen, and apprentices lost with their ship as they apply with respect to proceedings for the recovery of wages due to seamen and apprentices; and proceedings for the recovery of compensation shall in such a case be maintainable if the claim is made within eighteen months of the date at which the ship is deemed to have been lost with all hands: (2.) This Act shall not apply to such members of the crew of a fishing vessel as are remunerated by shares in the profits or the gross earnings of the working of such vessel. (3.) This section shall extend to pilots to whom Part X of "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894," applies, as if a pilot when employed on any such ship as aforesaid were a seaman and a member of the crew. Application of Act to Industrial Diseases. 8.-(1.) Where (i.) The certifying surgeon appointed under The Factory and Workshop Act, 1901,"* for the district in which a workman is employed certifies that the workman is suffering from a disease mentioned in the Third Schedule to this Act, and is thereby disabled from earning full wages at the work at which he was employed; of (ii.) A workman is, in pursuance of any special rules or regulations made under "The Factory and Workshop Act, 1901," suspended from his usual employment on account of having contracted any such disease; or (iii.) The death of a workman is caused by any such disease; and the disease is due to the nature of any employment in which the workman was employed at any time within the twelve * 1 Edw. VII, c. 22. months previous to the date of the disablement or suspension, whether under one or more employers, he or his dependants shall be entitled to compensation under this Act as if the disease or such suspension as aforesaid were a personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of that employment, subject to the following modifications :— (a.) The disablement or suspension shall be treated as the happening of the accident: (b.) If it is proved that the workman has at the time of entering the employment wilfully and falsely represented himself in writing as not having previously suffered from the disease, compensation shall not be payable; (c.) The compensation shall be recoverable from the employer who last employed the workman during the said twelve months in the employment to the nature of which the disease was due: Provided that (i.) The workman or his dependants if so required shall furnish that employer with such information as to the names and addresses of all the other employers who employed him in the employment during the said twelve months as he or they may possess, and, if such information is not furnished, or is not sufficient to enable that employer to take proceedings under the next following proviso, that employer upon proving that the disease was not contracted whilst the workman was in his employment shall not be liable to pay compensation; and (ii.) If that employer alleges that the disease was in fact contracted whilst the workman was in the employment of some other employer, and not whilst in his employment, he may join such other employer as a party to the arbitration, and if the allegation is proved that other employer shall be the employer from whom the compensation is to be recoverable; and (iii.) If the disease is of such a nature as to be contracted by a gradual process, any other employers, who during the said twelve months employed the workman in the employment to the nature of which the disease was due, shall be liable to make to the employer from whom compensation is recoverable such contributions as, in default of agreement, may be determined in the arbitration under this Act for settling the amount of the compensation; (7.) The amount of the compensation shall be calculated with reference to the earnings of the workman under the employer from whom the compensation is recoverable ; (e.) The employer to whom notice of the death, disablement, or suspension is to be given shall be the employer who last employed the workman during the said twelve months in the employment to the nature of which the disease was due, and the notice may be given notwithstanding that the workman has voluntarily left his employment; (f) If an employer or a workman is aggrieved by the action of a certifying or other surgeon in giving or refusing to give a certificate of disablement or in suspending or refusing to suspend a workman for the purposes of this section, the matter shall in accordance with regulations made by the Secretary of State be referred to a medical referee, whose decision shall be final. (2.) If the workman at or immediately before the date of the disablement or suspension was employed in any process mentioned in the second column of the Third Schedule to this Act, and the disease contracted is the disease in the first column of that Schedule set opposite the description of the process, the disease, except where the certifying surgeon certifies that in his opinion the disease was not due to the nature of the employment, shall be deemed to have been due to the nature of that employment, unless the employer proves the contrary. (3.) The Secretary of State may make rules regulating the duties and fees of certifying and other surgeons (including dentists) under this section. (4.) For the purposes of this section the date of disablement shall be such date as the certifying surgeon certifies as the date on which the disablement commenced, or, if he is unable to certify such a date, the date on which the certificate is given: Provided that (a.) Where the medical referee allows an appeal against a refusal by a certifying surgeon to give a certificate of disablement, the date of disablement shall be such date as the medical referee may determine : (b.) Where a workman dies without having obtained a certificate of disablement, or is at the time of death not in receipt of a weekly payment on account of disablement, it shall be the date of death. (5.) In such cases, and subject to such conditions as the Secretary of State may direct, a medical practitioner appointed by the Secretary of State for the purpose shall have the powers and duties of a certifying surgeon under this section, and this section shall be construed accordingly. (6.) The Secretary of State may make orders for extending the provisions of this section to other diseases and other processes, and to injuries due to the nature of any employment specified in the order not being injuries by accident, either without modification or subject to such modifications as may be contained in the order. (7.) Where, after inquiry held on the application of any employers or workmen engaged in any industry to which this section applies, it appears that a mutual trade insurance company or society for insuring against the risks under this section has been established for the industry, and that a majority of the employers engaged in that industry are insured against such risks in the company or society and that the company or society consents, the Secretary of State may, by Provisional Order, require all employers in that industry to insure in the company or society upon such terms and under such conditions and subject to such exceptions as may be set forth in the Order. Where such a company or society has been established, but is confined |