Quong Ham Wah Co v. Industrial Accident Commission of California, 638

• Decision Date: 21 March 1921
• Docket Number: No. 638,638
• Citation: 65 L.Ed. 723,255 U.S. 445,41 S.Ct. 373
• Parties: QUONG HAM WAH CO. v. INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT COMMISSION OF CALIFORNIA et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

255 U.S. 445

41 S.Ct. 373

65 L.Ed. 723

QUONG HAM WAH CO.

v INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT COMMISSION OF CALIFORNIA et al.

No. 638.

Argued March 9, 1921.

Decided March 21, 1921.

Mr. Warren Gregory, of San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiff in error.

Mr. Warren H. Pillsbury, of San Francisco, Cal., for defendants in error.

Mr. Chief Justice WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Quong Ham Wah Company is engaged in the business of supplying to canneries in California and else where the labor required by them to carry on their canning operations. The company in 1918 hired in the city of San Francisco one Owe Ming, a resident of California, under an agreement that he was to work as its employee at the cannery of the Alaska Packers' Association at Cook's Inlet, Alaska, during the canning season, and that upon his return to San Francisco he would be paid off by the Quong Ham Wah Company and his employment terminated.

While working at the cannery Owe Ming sustained an injury resulting in a permanent disability, for which on returning to San Francisco he petitioned the Industrial Accident Commission of California for the allowance of compensation under Workmen's Compensation Act (St. 1917, p. 870) § 58 of which provides:

'The Commission shall have jurisdiction over all controversies arising out of injuries suffered without the territorial limits of this state in those cases where the injured employee is a resident of this state at the time of the injury and the contract of hire was made in this state, and any such employee or his dependents shall be entitled to the compensation or death benefits provided by this act.'

The Alaska Packers' Association was joined with the Quong Ham Wah Company as defendant in the proceedings before the Commission, which culminated in a joint and several award against the said defendants. Thereafter the Quong Ham Wah Company filed with the Commission a petition for rehearing, asserting among other things, that the Commission was without jurisdiction to award compensation for injuries occurring outside the territorial limits of the state of California, except as provided in section 58 of the Compensation Act, and that that section was void as repugnant to article 4, § 2, of the Constitution of the United States, because it granted to citizens of California the privilege of recovering for injuries sustained outside the state in the course of employments contracted for within the state, while at the same time denying that privilege to citizens of other states. The rehearing was refused by the Commission.

The company thereupon applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, which was allowed, and that court, concluding that section 58 discriminated against nonresidents as alleged and was consequently repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and void, decided that the Commission was without jurisdiction and annulled its award. Upon a rehearing, however, this view was retracted, and the court concluded that the effect of the constitutional provision relied upon was, not to render void the provisions of section 58 for discrimination against nonresidents, but to lead to or cause a construction of that section which would include citizens of other states, and therefore avoid all question as to the discrimination relied upon. The court consequently held that 'the statute itself is valid and may be made to apply uniformly to citizens of California and the citizens...