State v. Mountain Timber Co.

Citations

• 75 Wash. 581
• 135 P. 645
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 1754

Syllabus

<p>Jury — Right to Jury Trial — Master and Servant — Right of Action — Industrial Insurance. The compulsory industrial insurance law, requiring men engaged in hazardous occupations likely to result in injuries to employees to waive certain rights and privileges, and requiring employees about to engage therein to give up personal rights of contract and to contract with reference to the law, was adopted to avoid the delay and frequent injustice incident to civil trials; and to sustain the law by reference to the police power requires that every incident to the law and the methods necessary to make it effective be likewise exempted from the proscriptions and limitations of the constitution; hence it is not unconstitutional as denying the right to trial by jury, although it abolishes rights of action and defenses, in certain cases, and in certain cases denies the right of trial by jury.</p> <p>Constitutional Law — Police Power — Scope. The police power is as broad as the public welfare and as strong as the arm of the state, and its scope is to be measured by the legislative will of the people in acts passed in affirmance of established usage or of such standards of morality and expediency as have, by gradual process and accepted reason, become so fixed as to fairly indicate the better will of the people in their social, industrial and political development.</p> <p>Jury — Right to Jury Trial — Constitutional Provisions. The right to trial by jury guaranteed by the Federal constitution does not apply to state courts or to prosecutions for the violation of state laws.</p> <p>Constitutional Law — Republccan . Form of Government. The compulsory industrial insurance law does not violate the Federal constitutional guarantee of a republican form of government.</p>