Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad v. Parker

147 S.E. 461, 152 Va. 484, 1929 Va. LEXIS 185
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedMarch 21, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 147 S.E. 461 (Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad v. Parker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad v. Parker, 147 S.E. 461, 152 Va. 484, 1929 Va. LEXIS 185 (Va. 1929).

Opinion

Holt, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action by motion for the recovery of damages occasioned by personal injury, charged to have been negligently inflicted.

J. R. Parker, the plaintiff, was caretaker on the Mt. Vernon, a ship out of commission belonging to the United States Shipping Board and moored alongside of Pier No. 1 of the Norfolk army base. On the afternoon of June 6, 1927, in company with one Fisher, employed in like capacity on another vessel, he went to C. H. Morecock’s store, but a short distance away, where purchases were made, including a five-gallon can of oil. These supplies, except the oil can, Morecock put in the back of his automobile, a Chevrolet closed car, known to the trade as a coach. Fisher sat on the back seat with the groceries. Parker was on the right side in the front seat with his right arm out of the open window, that he might hold the oil can in place, put on the running board at Morecock’s suggestion. The ear was driven by a negro boy, about seventeen [490]*490years old named Lomax, who was, of course, on the left hand front seat, at the wheel. All of this was done at the instance of Moreeock, who said to Lomax,“James, take Parker there, and Fisher and their supplies back to the boat. * * * Put that oil can on the running board and Parker can take care of it.” It was for this purpose that the car was sent on its way. As it started, a boy named Wescott asked for a ride, was given permission, and jumped upon the running board on the left and opposite side from where the oil can was.

Thus loaded, the automobile, with its passengers, went into the army base and was .driven along a concrete roadway, which runs north and south across the front of its piers, Pier No. 1 included. That pier is an enclosed shed about 1,000 feet long on which are three railroad tracks. There are two driveways across these - tracks at the entrance to the pier shed, with a space of cinders between. Measured by the direction in which the automobile was going, the pier was on the right. A freight car, whose end was flush with its entrance, stood on the first track, and on the second was a switch engine, owned and operated by the defendant railroad. When the front wheels of the automobile had reached the far rail of the first track, the approaching yard engine was, for the first time, seen. Parker called to the driver, “Look out!” He turned slightly to the left but continued on his way, and the collision occurred as he was crossing the second track. The tender of the yard engine, which was backing out, struck the automobile on the right side where the plaintiff sat, and pinned his right arm to the ear. One of its bones was fractured and the tendons between the elbow and wrist severed. There were also some super[491]*491ficial wounds of the face caused by broken glass. The injury to the arm was below the elbow, and the forearm is now apparently permanently useless. At the time he was hurt, plaintiff’s salary was $82.50 a month.

The railroad and Morecock were sued as joint tort feasors. In due course the issues were submitted to a jury, which found a verdict against the railroad in the sum of $15,000.00, and found, also, that Morecock was not guilty. This verdict was confirmed by the trial court, and its judgment is now before us on a writ of error.

Both of the defendants filed pleas in abatement. The substance of the claim there made is that the cause of action arose in the United States army base, which, though physically within the corporate limits of the city of Norfolk, is not a part thereof, nor of the State, but with the consent of the State of Virginia was purchased by, and is now owned by, the United States of America, the effect of which was to vest in the Federal government, under the provisions of Article 1, section 8, clause 17, of the Federal Constitution, exclusive jurisdiction.

This property was bought on February 20, 1918, and jurisdiction was ceded to the United States by an act of the General Assembly of Virginia, Acts 1918, page 568, which provided that it should remain in the United States so long as its ownership or any interest therein continued.

The claim seems to be that the cause of action arose on a Federal reservation, and that in no event can any rights thereunder be enforced in an action in a State court.

In Crook Horner & Co. v. Old Point Comfort Hotel Co. (C. C.), 54 Fed. 604, it was held that the laws of [492]*492Virginia applied on the army post at Portress Monroe, unless they, in some measure, interferred with the purposes for which it was held, since it was ceded rather than purchased, and it is argued from this that they would have been without force if there had been a purchase, as that term is ordinarily used. In other words, it is said that but for the cession of the land, there was no civil law in force there inherited from the State.- Judge Hughes did not think so, for in the course of his opinion he observed: ‘‘While Congress has enacted a complete criminal code in relation to crimes committed within places within which it has exclusive jurisdiction and on the high seas, it has provided no laws for the government in civil matters of the inhabitants; of forts,- arsenals, magazines and dock yards. These places, when acquired in the manner defined by the clause of the national Constitution just quoted, are without laws in civil matters except such general laws as may have been in force respectively in the States from which the United States derived them at the time of acquisition.”

There is no body of Federal common law apart from the common law in the several States in the sense that there is a body of Federal statutes distinct from those of the States. “But it is an entirely different thing to hold that there is no common law in force generally throughout the United States.” Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U. S. 46, 27 S. Ct. 655, 51 L. Ed. 956, and it does not follow that the exclusive Federal jurisdiction takes the territory from out of its operation. That system of jurisprudence is followed unless set aside by the Federal Constitution or by some act of Congress, and Federal courts administer it every day. This rule is generally observed throughout the United [493]*493States unless the territory in question, when acquired, was governed by some other system of laws, the civil law for example. Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U. S. 9, 14 S. Ct. 548, 38 L. Ed. 331; Western Union Tel. Co. v. Call Pub. Co., 181 U. S. 92, 21 S. Ct. 561, 45 L. Ed. 765; Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U. S. 46, 27 S. Ct. 655, 51 L. Ed. 956; Ex Parte De Vere, 18 N. W. 246, 13.6 Pac. 47. Federal jurisdiction is exclusive on the army base. No attempt has been made to encroach upon it. This is all that has been done. A State court has sought to enforce in a transitory action a common law right which originated there, and this it may do.

Foley v. Shriver, 81 Va. 568, is relied upon as establishing a different rule.

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Bluebook (online)
147 S.E. 461, 152 Va. 484, 1929 Va. LEXIS 185, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/norfolk-portsmouth-belt-line-railroad-v-parker-va-1929.