Missouri Pac. Ry. Co. v. Larussi

161 F. 66, 88 C.C.A. 230, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4312
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 7, 1908
DocketNo. 1,420
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 161 F. 66 (Missouri Pac. Ry. Co. v. Larussi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Missouri Pac. Ry. Co. v. Larussi, 161 F. 66, 88 C.C.A. 230, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4312 (7th Cir. 1908).

Opinion

SEAMAN, Circuit Judge.

The record in this case is comparatively brief, except in the assignment of errors, 51 in number. In the oral argument, however, all contentions for reversal were fairly embraced under four propositions, and reference to the various assignments in detail is not needful. We have considered all the questions raised, but confine the discussion to those advanced in the argument— with the third and fourth propositions grouped together — namely: (1) That the “action should have been dismissed because contrary to the public policy” of Illinois; (2) that it was error to instruct the jury to find in favor of the plaintiff upon the question (raised by [68]*68plea) of the intestate’s residence;. (3) that “no negligence of the defendant was established,” either under the general rule applicable to such case of master and servant, or “within the terms of the Kansas fellow servant act.”

1. The plaintiff recovered judgment for damages arising out of the injury and death of the intestate, in Kansas, caused by alleged negligence of the defendant in its operation of trains; and it is conceded, not only that the Kansas statute provided (in conformity with the Lord Campbell act) for recovery thereupon, but that like provision then existed in Illinois, as the law of the forum. Thus the alleged cause of action rests on the Kansas statute, and its creation thereunder is unquestionable,' if the proof establishes actionable negligence. Objection is raised to its enforcement in the federal court,’ sitting in Illinois, upon the ground that the analogous statutory provision in Illinois above referred to (section 1, c. 70, 1 Starr & C. Ann. St. 1896; section 1, c. 70, Hurd’s Rev. St. 1905) was qualified by an amendment of the succeeding section (section 2) in 1903— after the date of the injury and death in question — wherebj'- the amount of damages recoverable was increased, and a proviso inserted “that no action shall be brought or prosecuted in this state to recover damages for a death occurring outside the state.” Hurd’s Rev. St. 1905, c. 70, § 2. The contention is, in substance, that this proviso amounts to departure from the original statutory policy of the state, so that the provisions for the cause of action, in Kansas and Illinois, respectively, are inconsistent or nonconcurrent, and that such cause of action arising in the one state is not enforceable in the other, even in the federal court — citing Texas & Pacific Railway Co. v. Cox, 145 U. S. 593, 604, 605, 12 Sup. Ct. 905, 36 L. Ed. 829; Northern Pacific R. R. v. Babcock, 154 U. S. 190, 198, 14 Sup. Ct. 978, 38 L. Ed. 958; Stewart v. Baltimore & Ohio R. R. Co., 168 U. S. 445, 448, 18 Sup. Ct. 105, 42 L. Ed. 537.

The amendment referred to is without force in the case at bar, as we believe, irrespective of the question whether its terms authorize the interpretation sought, to bar suit upon a pre-existing cause of action. The general doctrine is established, as applicable as well to this statutory cause of action, that a liability is enforceable in the federal forum, having jurisdiction of subject-matter and parties, whenever “a right of action has become fixed and a legal liability incurred,” either-under the common law or under a state statute not penal in its nature. Dennick v. Railroad Co., 103 U. S. 11, 18, 26 L. Ed. 439; 10 Notes U. S. Rep. 8; Huntington v. Attrill, 146 U. S. 657, 674, 13 Sup. Ct. 224, 36 L. Ed. 1123. As stated both in the Cox and the Babcock Cases, supra, cited by the plaintiff in error, this rule is one of general law and regarded as settled by the Dennick Case. Upon the death of the intestate, if caused as averred, the right of action accrued under the Kansas statute, and its enforcement in the trial court, in a suit there instituted, appears to be authorized under the above-mentioned doctrine, subject only to the jurisdictional requirements.

Whether such enforcement may be subjected to the further test mentioned in Texas & Pacific Railway Co. v. Cox, 145 U. S. 593, [69]*69605, 12 Sup. Ct. 905, 908, 36 L. Ed. 829 — namely, that “the statute oí the state in which the cause of action arose is not in substance inconsistent with the statutes or public policy of the state in which the right of action is sought to be enforced” — is a question not involved, here for solution, as the terms of the statute in Illinois creating the cause of action are substantially identical with those of the Kansas statute. Both provide alike to remove the common-law bar and establish a cause of action for a tort (committed in the state) which causes death. The right of recovery in the case at bar rests alone on the statute of Kansas — is “governed by the lex loci, and not by the lex fori.” Northern Pacific Railroad v. Babcock, 154 U. S. 190, 199, 14 Sup. Ct. 978, 981, 38 L. Ed. 958. As the law of Illinois concurs in this policy in creating the cause of action, the test referred to is met, if applicable; and whether the remedial provisions in Kansas and Illinois are alike or unlike is immaterial under either view. Stewart v. Baltimore & Ohio R. R. Co., 168 U. S. 445, 418, 18 Sup. Ct. 105, 42 L. Ed. 537. Assuming, therefore, that jurisdiction of the parties was acquired, cognizance in the trial court of the subject-matter was governed by the federal law, with rights to be administered in conformity with the rule of general jurisprudence as above stated, unaffected by any special rule or statute of Illinois, either authorizing or inhibiting suit in the local courts upon such causes of action arising outside the state, except such statute of limitation as may be applicable thereto. So the proviso incorporated in section 2 of the Illinois statute, in reference to a foreign cause of action, which leaves unmodified the rule and policy of the Rord Campbell act adopted in section 1, is inapplicable to the case at bar, as we believe, whether this concurrence with the Kansas statute in creating like cause of action is needful or immaterial. Nor is it necessary to ascertain whether a like rule prevails in Kansas and Illinois as to enforcement of foreign rights of action.

2. The plaintiff below was both a citizen of Illinois and administrator of the estate of the deceased under adjudication and appointment in the probate court of Cook county, 111.; and his authority to sue is challenged by pleas averring that the deceased was not “a resident of or domiciled in the state of Illinois” and had no property or effects therein, and that he was a resident of Kansas at the time of his death, and an administrator of his estate had been appointed and qualified in Kansas on May 25, 1903. Support for this plea rests alone on the stipulated facts that Arquilli (deceased) was employed in trackwork, “was working, boarding, and lodging in Wilson county,” where “some of his wearing apparel” and earnings were kept, and such belongings came into the possession of an administrator appointed in Kansas.

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Bluebook (online)
161 F. 66, 88 C.C.A. 230, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4312, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-pac-ry-co-v-larussi-ca7-1908.