State v. Rainier Nat. Park Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 16 December 1937
• Docket Number: 26474.
• Parties: STATE v. RAINIER NAT. PARK CO., Inc.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

74 P.2d 464

192 Wash. 592

STATE v. RAINIER NAT. PARK CO., Inc.

No. 26474.

Supreme Court of Washington, En Banc.

December 16, 1937

Appeal from Superior Court, Pierce County; F. G. Remann, Judge.

Action by the State against Rainier National Park Company, Inc. From an adverse judgment, the State appeals.

Affirmed.

G. W Hamilton and Browder Brown, both of Olympia, for the state.

Hayden Metzger & Blair, of Tacoma, for respondent.

GERAGHTY, Justice.

This action was instituted by the State of Washington for recovery of industrial insurance premiums and medical aid assessments claimed to be due from the respondent, Rainier National Park Company, Inc., under the Workmen's Compensation Act Rem.Comp.Stat. § 7673 et seq., for the period between January 1, 1934, and December 1, 1935, on account of extrahazardous occupations conducted by the respondent wholly within the boundaries of Mount Rainier National Park.

The trial court sustained a demurrer to the second amended complaint, and, the State having declined to plead further, judgment was entered dismissing its action.

The sole question involved is whether the Workmen's Compensation Act is effective within the confines of the Mount Rainier National Park.

Mount Rainier National Park was established by an act of Congress, passed March 2, 1899, U.S.C.A. title 16, § 91. Thereafter, the Legislature of the State of Washington, by chapter 92, Laws of 1901, p. 192, ceded exclusive jurisdiction to the United States over all the territory embraced in the Rainier National Park, saving to the State, however, the right to serve civil or criminal process within its limits in certain cases; and, also, the right to tax persons and corporations, their franchises and property on the lands included in the park. The act further provided: 'This jurisdiction shall not vest until the United States through the proper officer, notifies the Governor of this state that they assume police or military jurisdiction over said park.'

In 1916, an act of Congress was passed assuming sole and exclusive jurisdiction by the United States over the territory embraced within the park, saving, however, to the State of Washington the rights reserved in its act of cession. U.S.C.A. title 16, § 95.

Thereafter, in July, 1916, the Secretary of the Interior notified the Governor of the State of Washington of the acceptance of jurisdiction over the park area by the United States, thus completing the process required to vest exclusive federal jurisdiction.

'It is a general rule of public law, recognized and acted upon by the United States, that whenever political jurisdiction and legislative power over any territory are transferred from one nation or sovereign to another, the municipal laws of the country--that is, laws which are intended for the protection of private rights--continue in force until abrogated or changed by the new government or sovereign. * * *

'It is true there is a wide difference between a cession of political jurisdiction from one nation to another, and a cession to the United States by a state of legislative power over a particular tract, for a special purpose of the general government, but the principle which controls as to laws in existence at the time is the same in both.' Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company v. McGlinn, 114 U.S. 542, 5 S.Ct. 1005, 1006, 29 L.Ed. 270.

It is also an accepted rule of law that, where a cession of jurisdiction is made by a state to the federal government, it is necessarily one of political power and leaves no authority in the state government thereafter to legislate over the ceded territory. Arlington Hotel Company v. Fant, 176 Ark. 613, 4 S.W.2d 7, affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States, 278 U.S. 439, 49 S.Ct. 227, 73 L.Ed. 447.

The original Workmen's Compensation Act was passed at the 1911 session of the Legislature. Laws 1911, p. 345. Under the rules above announced, this act, with amendments made at the 1913 and 1915 sessions of the Legislature, Laws 1913, p. 467, and Laws 1915, p. 674, being in effect in the area embraced within the park at the time federal jurisdiction became effective, continued in force therein until repealed or superseded; on the other hand, numerous and material amendments, made by the Legislature subsequent to the 1915 session, did not become operative within the park. These later amendments affected the rate of premium to be paid by the industries covered by the act, as well as the amount of compensation payable to its beneficiaries. The provisions for medical aid to injured workmen and for the creation of the medical aid fund and assessments therefor were first adopted at the 1917 session. Laws 1917, pp. 76, 84.

In 1928, Congress passed an act entitled: 'An Act Concerning actions on account of death or personal injury within places under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States.' 45 Stat. 54.

This act provides: 'In the case of the death of any person by the neglect or wrongful act of another within a national park or other place subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, within the exterior boundaries of any State, such right of action shall exist as though the place were under the jurisdiction of the State within whose exterior boundaries such place may be; and in any action brought to recover on account of injuries sustained in any such place the rights of the parties shall be governed by the laws of the State within the exterior boundaries of which it may be.' U.S.C.A. title 16, § 457.

It is the respondent's contention, sustained by the trial court, that this act, in giving a right of action governed by the state laws, necessarily superseded the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act effective in Rainier National Park at the time civil jurisdiction over the area vested in the federal government. While there was no formal repeal of the prior state enactment, it is hard to reconcile the provisions of the congressional act with the idea of a co-existent remedy under the State Compensation Act.

Section 1 of the Compensation Act, Rem.Rev.Stat. § 7673, after characterizing the common-law system governing the remedies of workmen engaged in hazardous employment as inconsistent with modern industrial condition and, in practice, economically unwise, unfair, slow, and inadequate, declares: 'The state of Washington, therefore, exercising herein its police and sovereign power, declares that all phases of the premises are withdrawn from private controversy, and sure and certain relief for workmen, injured in extrahazardous work, and their families and dependents is hereby provided regardless of questions of fault and to the exclusion of every other remedy, proceeding or compensation, except as otherwise provided in this act; and to that and all civil actions and civil causes of action for such personal injuries and all jurisdiction of the courts of the state over such causes are hereby abolished, except as in this act provided.' (Italics ours.)

It will thus be seen that, while the State Compensation Act abolishes all civil actions and civil causes of actions and all jurisdiction of the courts over such causes, the congressional act grants a right of action for death or personal injury within the park area.

Commenting on the conflict of the two systems of relief, this court, in Murray v. Joe Gerrick & Co., 172 Wash. 365, 20 P.2d 591, 593, said: 'As already pointed out, the Industrial Insurance Act has taken away all right of action except that therein provided for, and the federal act refers to rights of action. It is true that the industrial insurance act contains a provision that, if the employer does not pay into the industrial insurance fund and an injury occurs to a workman while the employer is so in default, the action may be brought by the injured employee against the employer, and the common- law defenses shall not be available. If it should be held that under this provision of the act, an action could be maintained for an injury occurring in the navy yard, which is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, then we would have a situation where a part of the industrial insurance act would extend to the navy yard and a part would not.' This case was affirmed on appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, 291 U.S. 315, 54 S.Ct. 432, 433, 78 L.Ed. 821, 92 A.L.R. 1259. That court, in disposing of the question, said: 'Congress may, however, adopt such later state legislation as respects territory under its jurisdiction, and the petitioner claims it did so adopt the compensation act by the Act of February 1, 1928 [16 U.S.C.A. § 457]. This argument overlooks the fact that the federal statute referred only to actions at law, where as the state act abolished all actions at law for negligence and substituted a system by which employers contribute to a fund to which injured workmen must look for compensation. The right of action given upon default of the employer in respect of his obligation to contribute to the fund is conferred as a part of the scheme of state insurance and not otherwise. The Act of Congress vested in Murray no right to sue the respondents, had he survived his injury. Nor did it authorize the state of Washington to dollect assessments for its state fund from an employer conducting work in the navy yard. If it were held that beneficiaries may sue, pursuant to the compensation law, we should have the incongruous situation that this law is in part effective and in part ineffective within the area...