Chap. 503.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 1294-k, Pollard’s Code,
Supplement 1916, approved March 14, 1912, Acts Virginia Assembly 1912,
page 583, entitled an act imposing upon railroad corporations liability for
injury to their employees in certain cases omitted in the Code revision of
1919 and thereby repealed. [H B 191]

Approved March 25, 1926.

1. Beit enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
twelve hundred and ninety-four-k, Pollard’s Code, supplement nine-
teen hundred and sixteen, approved March fourteenth, nineteen
hundred and twelve, acts Virginia assembly, nineteen hundred and
twelve, page five hundred and eighty-three, omitted from the Code
revision of nineteen hundred and nineteen and thereby repealed, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 1294-k. That every corporation operating a railroad in
this State, whether such corporation be created under the laws of this
State or otherwise, shall be liable in damages for any and all injury
sustained by any employee of such corporation as follows:

When such injury results from the wrongful act, neglect or default
of an agent or officer of such corporation superior to the employee
injured, or of a person employed by such corporation having the right
to control or direct the services of such employee injured, or the ser-
vices of the employee by whom he is injured; and also when such in-
jury results from the wrongful act, neglect or default of a co-employee
engaged in another department of labor from that of the employee
injured or of a co-employee (notwithstanding the fact that the party
injured had the right to direct the services of the co-employee) in the
performance of any duty on or about the same or another train of cars,
or on or about an engine, or of a co-employee who has charge of any
switch, signal point or locomotive engine, or who is charged with dis-
patching trains or transmitting telegraphic or telephonic orders. And
when it shall appear in the evidence at the trial of any action for
damages that the accident occurred while the employee was working
on an engine or on a car standing upon a track it shall be no defense
to such action for the defendant railroad to show that such engine or
car was guarded by a derailer or a blue flag or in any other manner.
Knowledge by any employee injured of the defective or unsafe char-
acter or condition of any machinery, ways, appliances or structures
of such corporation shall not of itself be a bar to recovery for any in-
jury or death caused thereby. When death, whether instantaneous
or otherwise, results from any injury to any employee of such corpora-
tion received as aforesaid, the personal representatives of such em-
ployee shall have a right of action therefor against such corporation
and may recover damages in respect thereof. Any contract or agree-
ment, express or implied, made by any such employee to waive the
benefit of this section or any part thereof shall be null and void, and
this section shall not be construed to deprive any such employee or
his personal representative of any right or remedy to which he is now
entitled under the laws of this State.

The provisions of this act shall always be so restricted in their
application as not to conflict with any of the provisions of the Con-
stitution or laws of the United States and as if the necessary limitation
upon their interpretation had been herein expressed in each case.