Born:
Died: 1918
Married: Elizabeth Skeels
Children: Myron J. Skeels
Myron Skeels was a woodsman.
Adirondack Record, November 22, 1918
—The community was saddened the the death of Myron Skeels, who was killed in the lumber woods near Paul Smith's last week Thursday.
Ausable Forks Record Post, April 28, 1922
Some of the ladies of Saranac Lake and vicinity held a very successful party in the Knights of Columbus hall Thursday evening for the benefit of the little orphans of Myron Skeels, who was killed while working on Paul Smith's lumber job and whose claim has not yet been settled in court, as they have never allowed a trial by jury. The proceeds amounted to $250.
Adirondack Record-Elizabethtown Post, June 2, 1922
JUSTICE BORST UPHELD IN SKEELS CASE
The Skeels case which came before the appellate division at Albany recently is of much interest to many readers who have followed closely the several unsuccessful attempts to collect damages. The novel argument of "'constructive legal fraud," advanced by James J. Barry, Schenectady lawyer, failed to impress the justice of the appellate division, third department, which Wednesday of last week unanimously affirmed, without opinion, the decision of Justice Borst at the Franklin trial term in dismissing the complaint of his client, Elizabeth Skeels in an action for damages for the death of her husband against Paul Smiths Hotel Company. Myron Skeels, the husband, was employed in lumbering operations on the hotel company's tract in the Adirondacks and was killed by a falling tree. The widow made a claim to the industrial commission under the workmen's compensation law, and an award was made on the theory that Skeels was employed by the company, but the appellate division, third department, reversed it because the testimony showed he was employed by Paul Amell, foreman as an independent contractor. Mr. Barry brought the action against the company and Amell for damages alleging a "constructive legal fraud" in the method of doing the lumbering work to evade liability under the workmen's compensation law. The defense was that evidence of actual fraud would be necessary to hold them legally liable when the workmen's compensation law gave them no remedy.
