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SENATE BILL 14 (ROSEBERRY – 1911)

CHAPTER 399, STATUTES OF 1911, SB 14

Some bill research does not include the Governor's file because at the time we researched the bill, the sitting Governor had not released his chaptered bill file. If the Governor's file is not included with this particular research, please contact our office (1-530-666-1917 or quote@legintent.com) and we will be happy to provide this file at no charge if it is available. Please Note: Governor files did not exist prior to 1943.

Senate Bill 14 enacted the first California workers’ compensation law in 1911.  (See Exhibit #1d)  That measure, authored by Senator Louis Roseberry, was known as:

An act relating to the liability of employers for injuries or death
 sustained by their employees, providing for compensation for the accidental injury of employees, establishing an industrial accident board, making an appropriation therefor, defining its powers and providing for a review of its awards.
(See Exhibit #1d, page 1)

After passing through the Senate Committee on Corporations, Senate Bill 14 was also heard before the Senate Committee on Finance.  (See Exhibit #2)  In the Assembly, the measure went through the Committee on Judiciary and the fiscal Committee on Ways and Means.  (See Exhibit #2)  This bill was amended twice, once each by the Senate and the Assembly.  (See Exhibits #1b and #1c) The measure was approved by the Governor and became law as Chapter 399 of the Statutes of 1911.  (See Exhibits #1d and #2)
 

We found no surviving documentation on the consideration of Senate Bill 14 from either of the committees hearing this bill, nor from its author or the Governor.  Under these circumstances, we then researched related treatises, publications, studies, and reports.  We found and include the First Report of the Industrial Accident Board, various newspaper articles discussing the 1911 Act, and excerpts from the Journal of the Senate, just to name a few.  (See, for example, Exhibits #3, #6 and #8a through #8h)