255 U.S. 445 (1921), 38, Quong Ham Wah Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission of California

• Docket Nº: No. 38
• Citation: 255 U.S. 445, 41 S.Ct. 373, 65 L.Ed. 723
• Party Name: Quong Ham Wah Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission of California
• Case Date: March 21, 1921
• Court: United States Supreme Court

Page 445

255 U.S. 445 (1921)

41 S.Ct. 373, 65 L.Ed. 723

Quong Ham Wah Co.

v.

Industrial Accident Commission of California

No. 38

United States Supreme Court

March 21, 1921

Argued March 9, 1921

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Syllabus

1. This Court is without authority to review and revise the construction affixed upon a state statute as to a state matter by the court of last resort of the state. P. 448.

2. Where the state court, construing a state statute granting a privilege to citizens of the state, decided that, taken with Art. IV, § 2, of the Constitution, it must be applied a granting the same privilege to citizens of other states as well, held that insistence in this Court that the statute violated that provision of the Constitution by confining the privilege to citizens of the state was frivolous, and would not support a writ of error to review the judgment. P. 449.

Writ of error to review 192 P. 1021 dismissed.

This was a writ of error to review a judgment of the Supreme Court of California affirming an award made by the State Industrial Accident Commission under a Workmen's Compensation Law.

Page 446

WHITE, J., lead opinion

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 elsewhere

Page 447

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, § 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...