Hess v. Jewell Ridge Coal Corp.

Hess asserted before the Industrial Commission a claim for compensation for silicosis, an occupational disease covered by the 1944 amendment to the Workmen’s Compensation Law (Acts 1944, ch. 77, p. 97; sections 1887(2) et seq., 1946 Cum. Supp. to Code, 1942, Michie).

The Commission dismissed the claim on the ground *538that the claimant had silicosis on July 1, 1944, the effective date of the amendment, which, under the terms of that amendment, bars compensation.

Hess went to work for the defendant in 1930, and worked for it as motorman or brakeman in its mines from that time to February, 1946, at…