1398

LAWS OF MARYLAND

Ch. 418

weighed coal. This record shall be open for inspection at
any reasonable hour by any miner employed at the mine. The
operator shall keep at the mine weighhouse the standard
United States test weights the bureau prescribes for the use
in testing the scale. But this subsection does not apply to
any operator who does not employ more than three workers at
any one time. The word "miner" as used in this subsection
does not include a person who mines coal mechanically and is
paid a day rate for his service, in accordance with the
terms and provisions of any collective bargaining agreement
between the operator and the employee.

(b)  Before weighing the coal, the operator of any mine
may not pass it over any screen or other device which takes
any part from its value, or otherwise remove any of the
coal. He shall credit the just and merchantable weight to
the worker sending it to the surface.

(c)  Before the weighmaster begins his duties, he shall
satisfy the district mine inspector that he understands the
operation and adjustment of a mine scale. Also, the
weighmaster shall take and subscribe an affidavit before a
person authorized to administer oaths that while employed in
this capacity he does not, and will not have any financial
interest, direct or indirect, in the mine, and that he
accurately will weigh and carefully keep a record of any
coal weighed. The affidavit shall be filed in the office of
the clerk of the circuit court for the county where the mine
is located with a copy kept conspicuously at the place of
weighing. If the weighmaster becomes incapacitated, the
operator may appoint temporarily another one, who
understands the operation and adjustment of the mine scale.
The other weighmaster may act in the place of the
incapacitated one until the emergency appointee or another
weighmaster is qualified. Immediate action shall be taken to
qualify the temporary appointee and an immediate report of
the emergency action shall be transmitted to the district
mine inspector.

(d)  Each miner employed in any coal mine may hire, at
his own expense, a check-weighmaster, who may be present and
observe the weighing of coal by the weighmaster, examine and
test the scale, and inspect the weighmaster's record. The
check-weighmaster shall have the same qualifications, oath,
and is subject to the same penalties as the weighmaster.

(e)  The weighmaster shall balance, test, and examine
the scale each morning before starting to weigh coal. He
shall weigh accurately and record the just net weight of the
coal, crediting the employee who has sent it to the surface
in tons and hundred-weights as a whole hundred-weight,
computing therefore [therefor] any majority fraction of a
hundred-weight and omitting credit of any fraction of a
hundred-weight less than one half a hundred-weight.

(f)  Seventy-six pounds avoirdupois constitutes 1
bushel of coal; 2,000 pounds avoirdupois constitutes 1 ton
of coal.