(Nos. 2591, 2592, 2593, 2594, 2595, consolidated-Claimants awarded $200.00.) ALBERT PARSONS, No. 2591, JAMES KANE, No. 2592, HARVEY CREGER, No. 2593, JOHN HOWALCZYK, No. 2594, ROBERT SCOTT, No. 2595, Claimants, v. STATE OF ILLINOIS, Respondent.
Case summary
Five members of the Mine Rescue Team sought payment for rescue work at the Moweaqua Mine Disaster. The court found the claims just and awarded each $40.00, totaling $200.00, because the mine owner was insolvent and the Department had appropriated funds for such services.
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Headnotes
- SERVICES - mine rescue team - when award may be made for. Where claimants, members of mine rescue team, at request of State department, rendered valuable services in an attempt to save human life at time of mine disaster, an award may be made for the reasonable value of such services, where owner of mine where disaster occurs is insolvent.
The above claims were all filed as individual claims, pro se. As they arise out of the same transaction all will be disposed of in this one opinion.
Plaintiffs seek payment for services as members of the Mine Rescue Team at LaSalle, Illinois for rescue work per[*538]formed at the Moweaqua, Illinois, Mine Disaster on December 24, 1932. It appears the claimants, as members of said Mine Rescue Team, went to Moweaqua at the request of John Millhouse, then Director of the Department of Mines and Minerals, to assist in the work made necessary by the explosion. Claimants engaged in the rescue work for five days and were each entitled to the sum of Eighty-five Dollars ($85.00), including expenses; that they agreed to accept Eighty Dollars, ($80.00) and were paid Forty Dollars ($40.00) each; that there still remains due each the sum of Forty Dollars ($40.00). The claims were filed February 6, 1935 and in a report dated February 18, 1935 from James McSherry, Director of the Department of Mines and Minerals, it is stated, "The claims are just and I would recommend their payment."
It further appears that an appropriation for the ordinary and contingent expenses of the Department of Mines and Minerals for the biennium (Session Laws 1931, Pages 79-80) include the following items:
For extra helmet men as emergency substitutes and necessary assistants at mine disasters....$6,000.00 per annum For contingencies .................................... 5,000.00 per annum It further appears that where the owner of a mine, when a disaster occurs, is solvent, he is required to pay for the services of the Mine Rescue Team called out at the disaster. Because of the financial condition of the Moweaqua Coal Company, no collection of the amount claimed by the several parties can be made therefrom. The Moweaqua Mine Disaster was one of the worst in the annals of Illinois mines and the record discloses that the claimants rendered valuable service in accordance with the request of the Department of Mines and Minerals, and that there is proper justification for an allowance of the amounts due them: An award is therefore made as follows:
To: Albert Parsons .................................................. $40.00 James Kane ...................................................... 40.00 Harvey Cregler .................................................. 40.00 John Howatezyk ................................................. 40.00 Robert Scott ...................................................