Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 731

by a hearing examiner or a doctor in the commission, would never have been closed. They had a continuing disability either partial temporary, or sometimes a permanent partial disability, which was never recorded and so they didn't get their due. O'Connor opened up at random a great many of these closed cases and uncovered really a very scandalous situation.

Either the insurance companies, or the employers, or all of them together, had been conniving at a quick settlement. A great many workmen, not represented by unions and not represented by anybody, just would be told, “This is all you get. We're going to pay you $200 and that closes your case.” The workmen would agree and would have to sign the paper. Yet sometimes they had a continuing permanent partial disability, which they didn't know they were entitled to collect for. Sometimes they would have a physical situation which had been lit up and aggravated by this accident which would haunt them forever. They didn't know they were entitled to claim for that.

I remember one old carpenter who was called in. He was the nicest kind of a man - a very intelligent man who had a fine New England type of face. He was a good old man who'd been a carpenter for years. He was hurt working for this company that was a fully insured company. He got hurt





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help