820                                 Laws of Maryland                        [Ch. 404

[eighty-five dollars per week] sixty-six and two-thirds per centum
of the average weekly wage of the State of Maryland as determined
by the Department of Employment Security, as provided in Section
36(2) of this Article and not less than a minimum of twenty-five
dollars per week, unless the employee's established weekly wages are
less than twenty-five dollars per week at the time of injury, in which
event he shall receive compensation in an amount equal to his
average weekly wages but not to exceed a total of $45,000.00. Loss
or loss of use of both hands, or both arms, or both feet or both legs, or
both eyes, or of any two thereof, shall, in the absence of conclusive
proof to the contrary, constitute permanent total disability. In all
other cases permanent total disability shall be determined in accord-
ance with the facts.

(b)    Whenever any person who has suffered the loss, or loss of
use of a hand, arm, foot, leg or eye, shall enter into a contract of
employment, it shall be permissible for the employee to waive in
writing, either in the contract of employment, or by a separate
written instrument, any right to compensation to which he would be
entitled because of the preexisting permanent partial disability, in
the event of subsequent accidental injury, and in such cases the
employee so suffering an additional accidental injury, shall be en-
titled to the compensation for the disability resulting solely from
such additional accidental injury. No such waiver shall be effective
unless the preexisting permanent partial disability shall be plainly
described therein, nor unless the same be executed by the employee
with knowledge of its contents prior to the time of the accident upon
which the claim is based.

In the absence of any waiver of preexisting permanent partial
disability, the Commission in determining any case involving a
subsequent accidental injury shall apportion and make award only
for the permanent disability caused by the subsequent accidental
injury.

(c)    The compensation for the foregoing specific injury shall be
paid in addition to, and consecutively with, the compensation herein-
after provided in subsection (2) of this section. If any employee
dies from any cause or causes not compensable under this article,
the right to any compensation payable under this subsection, unpaid
at the date of his death, shall survive to his surviving dependents as
the Commission may determine, if there be such surviving depen-
dents, and if there be none such, then to his wife and children under
twenty-one years of age if there was, at the time of his death, a legal
obligation on the part of said employee to support his wife, and if
there was no such obligation, then to his children under twenty-one,
if any, alone.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall not apply to
accidental injuries or occupational diseases occurring prior to July 1,
1971.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take effect
July 1, 1971.

Approved May 6, 1971.