El Paso Northeastern Railway Company v. Enedina Gutierrez

• Decision Date: 15 November 1909
• Docket Number: No. 505,505
• Parties: EL PASO & NORTHEASTERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. ENEDINA GUTIERREZ, Administratrix of the Estate of Antonio Gutierrez, Deceased
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

215 U.S. 87

30 S.Ct. 21

54 L.Ed. 106

EL PASO & NORTHEASTERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v ENEDINA GUTIERREZ, Administratrix of the Estate of Antonio Gutierrez, Deceased.

No. 505.

Submitted October 11, 1909.

Decided November 15, 1909.

Messrs. W. C. Keeigh, W. A. Hawkins, and John Franklin for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 88 intentionally omitted] Mr. F. G. Morris for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 89 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:

In this case an action was commenced by Enedina Gutierrez, as administratrix of the estate of Antonio Gutierrez, in the district court of El Paso county, Texas, against the El Paso & Northeastern Railway Company, to recover damages because of the death of the plaintiff's intestate by wrongful act while engaged in the service of the railway company, a common carrier, in the territory of New Mexico, on June 22, 1906. By way of special plea and answer the railway company set up a statute of the territory of New Mexico, wherein it is provided that no actions for injuries inflicting death, caused by any person or corporation in the territory, shall be maintained unless the person claiming damages shall, within ninety days after the infliction of the injury complained of, and thirty days before commencing suit, serve upon the defendant an affidavit covering certain particulars as to the injuries complained of, and containing the names and addresses of all witnesses of the happening of the alleged acts of negligence. Suit must be brought within one year, and in the district court of the territory in and for the county in which the injuries were received, or where in injured person resides; or, in a claim against a corporation, in the county of the territory where the corporation has its principal place of business. This act is set out in full in the marginal note to the case of Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co. v. Sowers, 213 U. S. 55, 53 L. ed. 695, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 397.

The special answer sets forth that the accident happened in the territory of New Mexico, while the statute was in full force, and that its terms and provisions were not complied with.

To the special answer the plaintiff below interposed a demurrer, and further, by way of supplemental petition, set forth that the injuries complained of happened after the passage of the so-called employers' liability act, June 11, 1906, 34 Stat. at L. 232, chap. 3073, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1907, p. 891. This act, the plaintiff alleged, controlled the liability of the defendant in the case. The district court sustained the demurrer of the plaintiff to that part of the defendant's answer which set up the territorial act of New Mexico, to which ruling the railway company duly excepted. The case then went to trial to a jury upon issues made concerning the liability of the railway company under the Federal employers' liability act of June 11, 1906. 34 Stat. at L. 232, chap. 3073, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1907, p. 891. The result was a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff against the railway company. The case was then taken to the court of civil appeals of Texas, and that court held that it would not be governed by the territorial statutes, and that the employers' liability act of June 11, 1906, was unconstitutional, upon the authority of Employers' Liability Cases (Howard v. Illinois C. R. Co.) 207 U. S. 463, 52 L. ed. 297, 28 Sup. Ct. Rep. 141, and certain cases in the Texas court of appeals. Upon rehearing, a majority of the court held that the provisions of the New Mexico act as to the presentation of notice of claim for damages was a condition precedent to a cause of action, and that the trial court therefore erred in sustaining plaintiff's exception to that part of the defendant's answer which pleaded the territorial act and plaintiff's failure to present her claim in accordance with it. 111 S. W. 159. Thereupon the plaintiff took the case to the supreme court of Texas by writ of error, and that court held that the case was controlled by the act of Congress known as the employers' liability act (34 Stat. at L. 232, chap. 3073, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1907, p. 891), and that the same was constitutional, and therefore held that the judgment of the court of civil appeals should be reversed, and the original judgment of the district court affirmed. 117 S. W. 426. From the judgment of the supreme court of the state a writ of error was prosecuted to this court.

Among other errors assigned is the failure of the supreme court of Texas to give effect to the defense setting up the statute of New Mexico as a full defense to the action. While the supreme court of Texas in its opinion conceded that, if the territorial act of New Mexico alone controlled the action, the plaintiff must fail for noncompliance with its requirements, it reversed the judgment of the court of civil appeals, and affirmed the judgment of the district court, because, in its opinion, the liability was controlled by the employers' liability act. The effect of this judgment of the supreme court of Texas was to deny the defense set up under the territorial act as a complete bar to the action. The district court sustained the demurrer to the plea setting up this act, and thereby denied the rights specially set up under that statute, the supreme court of Texas overruled the court of civil appeals and affirmed the judgment of the district court. It thereby necessarily adjudicated the defense claimed under the territorial act against the railway company. If this defense sets up a Federal right within the meaning of § 709 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 575), then we have jurisdiction of the case. Wabash R. Co. v. Adelbert College, 208 U. S. 38, 44, 52 L. ed. 379, 381, 28 Sup. Ct. Rep. 182.

That the claim of immunity under the territorial act, because of the failure of the plaintiff to comply with its provisions as to the affidavit within ninety days, etc., presentd a Federal question within the meaning of § 709 of the Revised Statutes, was decided in Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co. v. Sowers, supra, in which case it was held that, where suit was brought in a state court, a claim of defense under the provisions of the New Mexico statute was a claim of Federal right, which, when adversely adjudicated, gave jurisdiction to this court to review the judgment.

Coming to consider the merits: This court, in Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co. v. Sowers, supra, held that, in order to give due faith and credit to the territorial statute, under § 906 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 677), the plaintiff suing in a state must show compliance with the preliminaries of notice and demand as required by the territorial law. As the answer in the present case set up noncompliance with these requisites, and the state court sustained a demurrer thereto, the judgment must be reversed, unless the state court was right in denying the benefit of the territorial act thus set up, because the Federal employers' liability act superseded the New Mexico law, and is constitutional so far as the territories are concerned.

In view of the plenary power of Congress under the Constitution over the territories of the United States, subject only to certain limitations and prohibitions not necessary to notice now, there can be no doubt that an act of Congress undertaking to regulate commerce in the District of Columbia and the territories of the United States would necessarily supersede the territorial law regulating the same subject.

Is the Federal employers' liability act of June 11, 1906, unconstitutional so far of it relates to common carriers engaged in trade or commerce in the territories of the United States? It has been suggested that this question is foreclosed by a decision of this court in the Employers' Liability Cases, supra. In that case this court held that, conceding the power of Congress to regulate the relations of employer and employee engaged in interstate commerce, the act of June 11, 1906 (34 Stat. at L. 232, chap. 3073, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1907, p. 891), was unconstitutional in this: that, in its...