Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. McIntire

1911 OK 369, 119 P. 1008, 29 Okla. 797, 1911 Okla. LEXIS 390
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 14, 1911
Docket906
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 1911 OK 369 (Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. McIntire) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. McIntire, 1911 OK 369, 119 P. 1008, 29 Okla. 797, 1911 Okla. LEXIS 390 (Okla. 1911).

Opinion

*798 WILLIAMS, J.

This proceeding in error is to review the judgment of the lower court in an action wherein the defendant in error, as plaintiff, sued the plaintiff in error, as defendant, for damages alleged to have been sustained on account of the death of her husband, Edwin C. Mclntire, at Wichita, Kansas, on the 5th day of September, 1907.

The following questions are raised: (1) The lower, court was without jurisdiction; (2) a cause of action not stated; and (3) error in giving certain instructions.

1.’ Counsel for plaintiff in error in their brief say:

“The statutes of Oklahoma and Kansas, .providing for recoveries of damages for injuries resulting from thé wrongful act or omission of another are the same. The Oklahoma statute having been adopted from Kansas, and if this action was for damages resulting from a common-law tort, there can be no' question but that this court might properly in a spirit of comity, entertain jurisdiction. But the plaintiff is not seeking to enforce such a right. The recovery is predicated upon another Kansas statute, also in derogation of the common law, which was in force in Oklahoma at the time the alleged rights were created in Kansas.”

In Herrick v. Minneapolis & St. Louis Ry. Co., 31 Minn. 11, 16 N. W. 413, it is said:

“The general rule is that actions for personal torts are transitory in their nature, and may be brought wherever the wrongdoer may be found, and jurisdiction of his person can bé obtained. As to torts which give a right of action at common law, this rule has never been questioned, and we do not see why the transitory character of the action, q>r the jurisdiction of the courts of another state to entertain it, can in any manner be affected by the question whether .the right of action is statutory or common-law In actions ex contractu there is no such distinction, and there is no good reason why any different rule should be applied, in actions ex delicto. Whenever, by either common law or statute, a right of action has become fixed and a legal liability incurred, that liability, if the action be transitory, may be enforced, and the right of action pursued, in the courts of any state which can obtain jurisdiction of-the .defendant, provided it is not against the public policy of the laws of the state, where it is sought to be enforced.’ Of course,’'statutes that are *799 criminal or penal in their nature will only be • enforced in the state-which enacted them; but the statute .under which this action is brought is neither, being purely one for the reparation of a civil injury. The statute of another state has, of course, no extraterritorial force, but rights acquired under it will always, in comity, be enforced, if not against the public policy of the laws of the former. In such cases the law of the place where the right was acquired, or the liability was incurred, will govern as to the .right of action; while all that pertains merely to the remedy will be controlled by the law of the state where the action is brought. And we think the principle is the same, whether the right of action be ex contractu or ex delicto.”

See, also, Dennick, Adm., v. Railroad Co. of N. J., 103 U. S. 11, 26 L. Ed. 439; Leonard, Adm., v. Steam Nav. Co., 84 N. Y. 48; Chicago, etc., R. Co. v. Doyle, 60 Miss. 977, 23 Am. L. Reg. 26, 8 Am. & Eng. R. Cases, 171; Nashville & C. R. R. Co. v. Sprayberry, 8 Baxt. (Tenn.) 341; Selma, etc., R. R. Co. v. Lacy, 43 Ga. 461, 49 Ga. 106.

In Knight v. West Jersey Railroad Co., 108 Pa. St. 250, it is said:

“At common law purely personal wrongs, as respects' civil remedy, died with the person who received them; but whether just or unjust, that rule has been abrogated to a great extent by the statutes, both in this country and in England. In the earlier period of such legislation there was a tendency to adopt the principle that ‘where a new right of action'.is given by the statute for that for which no action would lie at common law, such action can only be brought in the state or county whose statute gives the right, and for the wrongs then suffered.’- The general rule is, as to personal torts which give a right of'action at common law, that the action may be brought wherever the wrongdoer may be found, and jurisdiction of his person may be obtained. In actions ex contractu, their transitory character, and the jurisdiction of the courts to entertain them, are the same whether the right be given by statute' or the common law. Like rule has recently been applied in Minnesota in an action ex de-licto, the court remarking that where, either by common law or statute, a right of action has become fixed and legal liability incurred, if transitory it may be enforced in the courts of any state which can obtain jurisdiction of the defendant, provided it is not against the public policy of the laws' of the state where it *800 is sought to be enforced. The statute of another state has no extra-territorial force, but rights under it will always, in comity, be enforced, if not against the policy of the laws of the forum. In such cases the law of the place where the right was acquired or the liability was incurred, will govern as to the right of action, while all that pertains merely to the remedy will be controlled by the law of the state where the action is brought.”

Herrick v. Ry. Co., supra, has been approved by the Supreme Court of the United States. N. Pac. R. R. Co. v. Babcock, 154 U. S. 190, 14 Sup. Ct. 978.

Jurisdiction of this cause seems to have been properly entertained by the courts of this state.

2. The petition alleges:

“(a) On or about said fifth day of September, 1907, said Edwin C. Mclntire, deceased, while in the employ and pay of said defendant, as car inspector and repairer, in the city of Wichita, aforesaid, and while in the proper performance and discharge of his duties, as such car inspector and repairer, and without fault on his part, received, through the carelessness and negligence of said defendant, its officers, agents, servants and employees, other than said Edwin C. Mclntire, deceased, certain bodily injuries which, on the same day, resulted in his death.
“That said carelessness and negligence on the part of said defendant causing injury to, and the death of, said deceased, as hereinbefore complained of, consisted in this, to wit:
“(b) In the careless and negligent switching, handling and moving, by-a switch crew of said defendant, in charge of a foreman thereof, in the yard of the defendant in said city of Wichita, of a car upon and along a track in such manner as to strike against other cars then and there standing upon such track, and upon and between which, the said Edwin G.

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Bluebook (online)
1911 OK 369, 119 P. 1008, 29 Okla. 797, 1911 Okla. LEXIS 390, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-r-i-p-ry-co-v-mcintire-okla-1911.