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• Full Finding Aid
• Overview
• Arrangement
• Administrative History
• Scope and Contents
• Other Finding Aids
• Access Restrictions
• Custodial History
• Access Terms

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New York State Moreland Act Commission to Study Workmen's Compensation Administration and Costs Investigation Administration Files

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Overview of the Records

Arrangement

Organized into two subseries: 1 - Commissioners Archie O. Dawson and Charles S. Hamilton's Investigation Administration Files, 1938-1955, 10 cubic feet; 2 - Commissioner Joseph M. Callahan's Investigation Administration Files, 1953-1959, 11 cubic feet.

Arranged by broad subject category, then by specific topic.

Administrative History

Governor Thomas E. Dewey's Executive Order of September 17, 1953 appointed Archie O. Dawson head of a commission to study the cost of workers' compensation and the related operations and procedures of state agencies under the Workmen's Compensation Law.

The Commission's investigation included studies of: insurance costs; medical costs; costs of administering workers' compensation; how New York costs compared with those of other states; reasons for New York State's higher costs; and ways to reduce costs.

The Commission held public and private hearings at which presentations were made by insurance companies and associations, employer and industry associations, attorneys and legal associations, labor unions and associations, and physicians and medical associations. The Commission also solicited written comments and data from physicians, the New York State Insurance Department, the New York State Insurance Fund, and the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board.

Dawson resigned from the Commission on June 14, 1954, and on July 9 Governor Dewey appointed Charles S. Hamilton to head the Commission. Upon assuming office in 1955, newly-elected Governor Averell Harriman appointed Joseph M. Callahan to head the Commission on June 30, 1955, and a new staff was hired to continue the investigation, which was completed in 1958. A number of the Commission's legislative and procedural recommendations were adopted during and after the investigation, including reducing the number of compensation hearings held by the Workmen's Compensation Board.

Scope and Content Note

This series is the complete file documenting the Commission's operations and the conduct of its investigation.

There are two subseries: Subseries 1, Commissioners Archie O. Dawson and Charles S. Hamilton's Investigation Administration Files, 1938-1955, documents the initial investigation during Governor Thomas E. Dewey's administration; Subseries 2, Commissioner Joseph M. Callahan's Investigation Administration Files, 1953-1959, documents the continuation and completion of the investigation during Governor Averell Harriman's administration.

Each subseries contains operational, background, and research materials including: transcripts or summaries of public and private hearings, conferences, and interviews with representatives of employer groups, union organizations, bar associations, and medical associations; background materials concerning the Workmen's Compensation Board, including information on medical examinations, hearing procedures, insurance carrier inefficiency, specific categories of claims (e.g. for facial disfigurement, hearing loss, or back injury), and general administration; background materials on and data from the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board, an association of workers' compensation insurance carriers established in 1914 to establish, maintain, and administer rules, regulations, and premium rates (for approval by the State Insurance Department) for carriers and to gather, analyze, and interpret workers' compensation statistics; correspondence, memoranda, and data from the State Insurance Department, the State Insurance Fund (a non-profit insurance carrier for employers with workers' compensation and disability benefits, the expenses of which are met by premium payments), employer groups such as Associated Industries of New York State and the Commerce and Industry Association of New York, self-insurers, and labor groups such as the New York State CIO Council, the American Federation of Labor, and the New York Federation of Labor;

correspondence with physicians and medical associations concerning medical aspects of workers' compensation costs, including billing regulations, hospital charges and medical fees, and violations of the Workmen's Compensation Law (e.g. hospitals forcing staff physicians to "pool" their workers' compensation fees and then retaining a portion of the money before distributing the rest back to the physicians); completed questionnaires from physicians regarding compensable industrial heart accidents; completed questionnaires from the Workmen's Compensation Board's impartial specialists regarding their handling of workers' compensation cases; "complaint" files of correspondence from persons complaining of not receiving workers' compensation benefits to which they felt entitled, often explaining their accidents and injuries and sometimes charging the Workmen's Compensation Board physicians and their attorneys with collusion to prevent payment of benefits; legislative bills and supporting memoranda regarding the Workmen's Compensation Law; laws, rules, and procedures relating to workers' compensation in other states; drafts and proofs of reports to the Governor; press releases regarding progress of the Commission's work; and articles and clippings regarding the Commission and related workers' compensation issues.

Other Finding Aids

Available at Repository

Folder list.

Custodial History

10983-83A (Callahan's files) was originally accessioned as 10982-83, Subject Files.

Access Restrictions

All investigative materials in Moreland Act commission records are indefinitely restricted pursuant to Executive Law sect. 6 and 63.8 and Civil Rights Law sect. 73.8. Requests for access to such materials are referred to the Governor's Office.

Access Terms