Southern Railway Co. v. Decker

62 S.E. 678, 5 Ga. App. 21, 1908 Ga. App. LEXIS 6
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedOctober 26, 1908
Docket1098
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 62 S.E. 678 (Southern Railway Co. v. Decker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Railway Co. v. Decker, 62 S.E. 678, 5 Ga. App. 21, 1908 Ga. App. LEXIS 6 (Ga. Ct. App. 1908).

Opinion

Powell, J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.)

1. Initially in the case arises a question of private international law, raised by the contention of the plaintiff in error that the courts of this State Avill not give juridic recognition and enforcement to the Alabama statute on which this suit is based, — section 27 of the Code of Alabama, which is a mere codification of the substantial provisions of a statute enacted by the General Assembly of that State and approved February 5, 1872. As to the identity of this statute and the code section, see R. & D. R. Co. v. Freeman, 97 Ala. 289 (11 So. 802). This statute, as codified, pro[24]*24vides: “A personal representative may maintain an action, and recover such damages as the jury may assess, for the'wrongful act, omission, or negligence of any person or persons, or corporation, his or their servants or agents, whereby the death of his testator or intestate was caused, if the testator or intestate could have maintained an action for such wrongful act, omission, or negligence, if it had not caused death; such action shall not abate by the death of the defendant, but may be revived against his personal representative; and may be maintained though there has not been prosecution or conviction or acquittal of the defendant for such wrongful act or omission or negligence; and the damages recovered are not subject to the payment of debts or liabilities of the testator or intestate, but must be distributed according to the statute of distributions. Such action must be brought within two years from .and after the death of the testator or intestate.” The contention .is that the courts of this State should not enforce this statute, as ■construed by the Alabama courts, because it is penal in its nature, .and is dissimilar in character, principle, -and design to any and .all the laws of this State, especially in that it authorizes the assessment of punitive damages for mere negligence, without the proof of any actual damages; also because foreign statutes are enforced only through comitj', and the laws of Alabama will not permit a non-resident corporation to be sued in its courts for a tort committed in another State, — that “reciprocity is comity.”

The courts of this State will give to a statute of a sister State the same meaning as is given it by the courts of that State. Georgia, Fla. & Ala. Ry. Co. v. Sasser, 4 Ga. App. 276 (61 S. E. 506 (7b)). Nevertheless, the courts of this State will decide for themselves whether the statute as construed-by the courts of the State of its enactment is in fact penal, in the sense that this term is used as to questions of private international law and the comities arising thereunder, or is contrary to our public policy; and to this end may disregard language employed by the local tribunals in describing the statute, or in designating the nature of the damages that are awarded thereunder. Huntington v. Attrill, 146 U. S. 657, 683 (36 L. ed. 1123, 13 Sup. Ct. 224); Evey v. Mexican Central R. Co., 81 Eed. 294 (38 L. R. A. 387, 393, 26 C. C. A. 407); Whitlow v. N. C. & St. L. R. Co., 114 Tenn. 344 (84 S. W. 618, 68 L. R. A. 506). The courts of nearly every civilized State or [25]*25country give force and effect to foreign laws and administer rights arising under them, not because they are compelled or bound to do so by any superior authority or by any agreement among States or nations, nor yet so much because of comity, as that word is generally used, but because justice and enlightened policy demand that they should do so. Warrender v. Warrender, 2 Cl. & Fin. 530; Minor on Conflict of Laws, §4; Wharton on Conflict of Laws. (2d ed.), §§la, 2, 3. The same primary principles which demand, as the general rule, the enforcement of foreign laws, where applicable, also raise certain exceptions. The rules and the exceptions come to the courts of this State as an inheritance from the common law, and we enforce them as such. See Wharton, supra, §1 a. See also Civil Code, §9. As exceptions to the general rule, a foreign law will not be enforced if it is penal only and relates to the punishing of public wrongs as contradistinguished from the redressing of private injuries, or if it contravenes our established public policy, or the recognized standards of civilization and good morals; and this exception on account of the contravention of public policy of the State is sometimes invoked where the foreign statute is designed to redress an injury, but prescribes a form of redress which is radically dissimilar to anything existing in our own system of jurisprudence. Wharton, supra, §4; Minor, supra, §§5, 200; Higgins v. Central Railroad, 155 Mass. 176 (29 N. E. 534, 31 Am. St. R. 544).

We shall therefore first inquire, is the statute penal? On its iace it is not so; it purports to award damages, and not a penalty. It is hardly supposable that a civilized State would, for the violation of one of its penal statutes, pursue vindication even, beyond the death of the lawbreaker and entail punishment upon the innocent distributees of his estate; and yet such would be the case if this statute were held to be penal-; for, by its terms, “such action shall not abate by the death of the defendant, but may be revived against his personal representative.” The suggestion that it ,is penal is prompted mainly by certain expressions that .are to be found in the decisions of the Supreme Court of Alabama construing it. For example, in the case of Savannah R. Co. v. Shearer, 58 Ala. 672, which arose soon after the passage of the act in question, the court said: “Prevention of homicide is the purpose of the statute, and this it proposes to accomplish by such pe[26]*26cuniary mulct as the jury may deem just. The damages are punitive, and they are none the less so in consequence of the direction the statute gives to the damages when recovered. They are assessed against the railroads to ‘prevent homicides.’” This, language is repeated and amplified in the case of L. & N. R. Co. v. Sullivan, decided at the same term of the court (59 Ala. 278); and in substance the same statement has been made in a number of subsequent decisions. However, we find it unnecessary to make a review of these decisions or to multiply words in attempting to display their true meaning; for the Supreme Court of Tennessee has handled this very problem with so masterful a touch that we can not do better than to quote the very language of that court at length. In the case of Whitlow v. N., C. & St. L. R. Co., supra, it was asserted by the original defendant that the courts of Tennessee should not enforce this Alabama statute, for substantially the same reasons here asserted; and Judge Neil, in behalf of the-court, answers the contention that the statute is penal, thus: “It is true that in construing this statute, or a prior one of similar import, the Supreme Court of Alabama has held that it is not; necessary to aver that the intestate left a widow, children, or next of kin (Alabama & F. R. Co. v. Waller, 48 Ala. 459); and that evidence of loss of services or mere pecuniary loss is immaterial and irrelevant (Richmond & D. R. Co. v. Freeman, 97 Ala. 289 (11 So. 800); Savannah, M. & R. Co. v. Shearer, 58 Ala. 672;. Buckalew v. Tenn. Coal & Iron Co., 112 Ala. 146 (20 So. 606);. Ala. G. S. R. Co. v. Burgess, 116 Ala. 509 (22 So.

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Bluebook (online)
62 S.E. 678, 5 Ga. App. 21, 1908 Ga. App. LEXIS 6, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-railway-co-v-decker-gactapp-1908.