Trustees of the State Hospital of the Middle Coal Field v. Lehigh Valley Coal Co.

Citations

• 267 Pa. 474
• 110 A. 255
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 893

Syllabus

<p>Workmen's compensation — Hospital service — Employer s liability for hospital treatment of employee — Implied, contract — Assumpsit — Acts of June II, 1887, P. L. 399, and June 2,1915, P. L. 736— Construction of statutes — Avoiding unconstitutionality.</p> <p>1. Under section 306, par. (2) o£ the Workmen’s Compensation Act of June 2, 1915, P. L. 736, 743, .a state hospital incorporated under Act of June 14,1887, P. L. 399, may recover for hospital services and treatment rendered to ,a coal company’^ employees injured in the course of their employment, and removed to the hospital for treatment with the company’s consent; and this is the case although the injured persons were of a class for which no charge for service was allowable under the Act of 1887; and although no formal application had been made by such employees to the coal company for medical service.</p> <p>2. In such case, the coal company, in lieu of furnishing to its employees the medical service required by the Act of 1915, having acquiesced in the removal of the injured employees to the hospital for care and treatment, adopted this method of performing its statutory duty, and at once there arose an implied obligation on its part to pay the hospital for such service.</p> <p>3. At the time the Act of 1887 was passed no obligation on the part of the employer existed to furnish aid of any sort to those injured while in his service. The Act of 1915 changed the status of the employer by creating a duty not previously existing and also a condition not in contemplation of the legislature at the time of the passage of the Act of 1887. The Workmen’s Compensation Act is a general law applicable throughout the State and makes no ;attempt to exempt from liability a class of employers within a particular district and impose upon the State the burden they would thus escape. A construction permitting the hospital under the Act of 1887 to recover for service thus rendered at the implied request of the employer permit