Bettencourt v. Industrial Accident Commission

HENSHAW, J.

The Industrial Accident Commission made its award in favor of one Bettencourt, the award being based on injuries which admittedly he sustained while in the employ of Reclamation District No. 900. The district has petitioned for a review of the proceedings, presenting several material propositions for consideration. Only one of these, however, calls for determination, as that determination will be decisive of the controversy. It is conceded that Bettencourt’s wages were paid by the district and that he was employed by the district, but these concessions in no wise determine the liability of the district. That determination rests upon the language of the Workmen’s Compensation Act as applied to an employer of the character of this district.

Section 13 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act as it read at the time Bettencourt sustained his injury defined employers as follows: “The term ‘employer’ as used in sections 12 to 35, inclusive, of this act shall be construed to mean: ■ The state, and each county, city and county, city, school district and all public corporations therein, and every person, firm, voluntary association, and private corporation (including any public service corporation) who has any per-

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son in' service,” etc. It is manifest that this definition was advisedly and carefully framed, as much to include those who were meant to be included as to exclude those who were meant to be excluded. The state itself and all its political subdivisions existing at the time the act was adopted are all named. Districts, as such, were necessarily in the minds of the framers of this definition, since a district of a particular kind, namely, a school district, is expressly designated. And to the end that if there should be created by law any new forms, classes, or kinds' of “public corporations,” there might be no doubt but that they were included, as well as all public corporations which were specifically enumerated, it was in terms added and decreed that all such after-created public corporations came within the definition of “employer.” But a “public corporation” is a descriptive term not only of well-recognized meaning, but of absolute legal definition. Section 284 of the Civil Code defines public corporations as follows: “Public corporations are formed or organized for the government of a portion of the state.” Public corporations, therefore, under the controlling definition of the law are those corporations formed for political and governmental purposes and vested with political and governmental powers. There is another class, for convenience of description, called quasi-public corporations, and such of those as are engaged in public service are included in this definition to remove the possibility of misunderstanding and contention. But reclamation districts organized as was this petitioner possess no political nor governmental powers, are not organized for political or governmental purposes, and are therefore not public corporations at all. Indeed, they are not in strictness corporations, public or private, but governmental mandatories or agents vested with limited powers to accomplish limited and specific work. Such has been the frequent and unvarying decision of the courts of this state.