Rock Island Coal Mining Co. v. Allen

1924 OK 508, 233 P. 1060, 106 Okla. 188, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 580
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 29, 1924
Docket13492
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1924 OK 508 (Rock Island Coal Mining Co. v. Allen) 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
Rock Island Coal Mining Co. v. Allen, 1924 OK 508, 233 P. 1060, 106 Okla. 188, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 580 (Okla. 1924).

Opinion

Opinion by

THREADGILL, C.

In considering the questions involved in this controversy the plaintiff in error will be designated as defendant, and the defendant in error as plaintiff, as they appeared in the trial court.

The action was brought by the-plaintiff, Martha J. Allen, on March 3, 1919, in the district court of Pittsburg county, on behalf of herself and children, against the defendant for damages accruing to them under section 824, Comp. Stat. 1921, by reason of the death of her husband October 25, 1919, while an employe of the defendant and by reason of its negligence as stated in the petition.

A suit based upon the said cause of action was begun, by the plaintiff against the defendant, in Latimer county, on February 18, 1916. which was dismissed for lack of prosecution March 5, 1918. The action in Latimer county was brought .in -the statutory limitation of two years, and this action was brought within one year after the first action had been dismissed.

A demurrer was interposed to the amended petition on the ground it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and that same was barred by the statute of limitation, and being overruled by the court, defendant saved its exception, and this action of the court was made one of the assignments of error in this appeal. There are two other assignments, one, for refusing to give defendant’s requested instruction number 1, asking for directed verdict, and the other, for giving instruction No. 5, but the principal question involved is whether or not the action was barred by the statute of limitation, that is, does section 190 of our statute, which provides that where an action is dismissed otherwise than upon the merits a new action may be brought within the one year after such dismissal, apply to this case?

*189 1. The section of the statute upon which the action is based reads as follows:

“Action for Death by Wrongful Act. When the death of one is caused by the wrongful act or omission of another, the personal representatives of the former may maintain an aetion therefor against the latter, if the' former might have maintained an action had he lived, against the latter for an injury for the same act or omission. The aetion must be commenced within two years. The damages must inure to the exclusive benefit of the widow and children, if any, or next of tin, to be distributed in the same manner as personal property of the deceased.”

Defendant contends that this section is complete within itself, and the limitation imposed is a limitation upon the right given, and not upon the remedy provided, for the reason the action is one created by statute, and did not originate in the common law, and is not affected by section 190, Comp. Stat. 1921, and not subject to its provisions. This section reads as follows:

“Limitation of New Action. If any action be commenced within" due time, and a judgment thereon for the plaintiff be reversed, or if the plaintiff fail in such action otherwise than upon the merits, and the time limited for the same shall have expired, the plaintiff, or, if he die, and the cause of action survive, his representatives, may commence a new action within one year after the reversal or failure.”

Defendant contends that the section creating the action for damages for wrongful death is taken from the Kansas statute, and the above general limitation statute was taken from same source, and these two sections were construed by the Supreme Court of Kansas in the case of Rodman v. Mo. Pac. Ry. Co., 70 Pac. 462, and the court held as follows:

“Section 422 of the Civil Code creates a right of action for damages for death by wrongful act which did not exist at common law, and which does not obtain in the absence of such act. The limitation of two years prescribed in the act in which such action must be commenced is a condition imposed upon the exercise of the right of action granted, and this time is not extended by the pendency and dismissal of a former action, as provided in section 23 of the Civil Code.”

Defendant cites, also, the following cases in support of its contention: Kerley v. Hoehman 74 Okla. 299, 183 Pac. 980; Gregory et al. v. Southern Pac. Co., 157 Fed. 113, Partee v. S. L. & F. Ry. Co., 204 Fed. 970. Upon these authorities the defendant claims that its demurrer should have been sustained on the ground of the bar of the statute of limitation.

We have examined these authorities and they seem to support only partially the defendant’s contention. The Rodman Case was decided in November, 1902. The construction of similar statutes to ours was under consideration. The suit was brought by the widow in the district court for damages against the Union Pac. Ry. Company on account of wrongful death which occurred by engine of railroad on April 14, 1896, and thereafter removed to the United States Circuit Court where it was dismissed December 1, 1898, and another action was brought by the ad-ministratrix in the district court on December 28, 1898, being over two years from the date of the death and within one year from the dismissal in the United States court. The question of the bar of limitation was raised by the answer of defendant, and the demurrer to the testimony was sustained, and on appeal this ruling was upheld on the ground that the action was one created by the statute and the limitation of two years was a restriction on the right and inhered in the action and was a condition precedent to bringing the suit and not a restriction on the remedy. That the right did not exist under the common law and the statute creating the right and providing a limitation in the act of creation must be construed strictly.

It is true this case is strong against the contention of the plaintiff in this section and is a construction of the statute from which our statute was copied. But it must be remembered that the Rodman Case was decided in 1902, and in view of the fact that other courts have passed on similar statutes since that time and some of the decisions are in conflict with the reasoning of this case, we do not think that it is sufficient, without the reasoning is sufficient, to be controlling or persuasive upon this court. It was the first ease decided upon this identical question by fhe Kansas court and Justice Pollock, who wrote the opinion, states as follows:

“The question here presented is one of first instance in this court. Our decision is therefore untrammeled by any former controlling opinion, and is based upon and in-clin'd by an examination of many decisions arising upon kindred statutes and the reasoning therein employed. The precise question has seldom arisen. Questions analogous in their nature are of frequent occurrence.”

The court in the Rodman Case seems to have based its decisions upon the following cases: Foster v. Ry. Co., 72 Miss. 886, 18 South, 380; Murphy v. Ry. Co., 80 Iowa, 26, *190 45 N. W. 392; Railroad v. Sanders, 86 Ky. 259, 5 S. W. 563; Gerren v. R. R. Co., 60 Mo. 405.

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Bluebook (online)
1924 OK 508, 233 P. 1060, 106 Okla. 188, 1924 Okla. LEXIS 580, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rock-island-coal-mining-co-v-allen-okla-1924.