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Show Death of Road Commission Worker Is "Act of God," Therefore "Compensable" SALT LAKE, May 19. The supreme court of the state of Utah yesterday handed down the decision that Joseph Clarence Johnson, employe of the state' road commission, who met death by ac-1 cident; thnt such accident occurred dur-( ng ihc course of his employment; that, inasmuch as the statute does not make the act of God an exception, therefore,; the death of Johnson was an accident , k within the meaning of the statute forj which compensation is allowed. i This opinion came as a result of an appeal made by the state road commission commis-sion against the state industrial com-misaion com-misaion award for compensation to Johnson's dependents. Johnoon was .paid $3 a day for the! intermittent work of going out on the j roads after a rain storm to work with a span of horses. Bv the decision handed down, and signed by Justice S. It. Thurman, three much debated points are settled. Injury by a legal "act of God," such aa lightning, is compensable within the meaning of the Utah act. The method so far adopted by the Industrial commission for determining j the "average weekly wage" of an employe em-ploye is wrong. On these three points the supreme court is unanimous. In the proper method to pursue in a specific ills' ill-s' tance there is not the same unanim- j n of sentiment on the part of the live supreme court justices, though the voto finally stands four to one. The net result is that the award of $3238.56, payable in weekly installments install-ments to the widow and minor children chil-dren of J. C. Johnson, formerly an employe of the state road commission in Emery county, is cut by the le-clsioa le-clsioa to the minimum allowed by law in such cases of ?2000 payable in weekly installments of $7 per week. |