Albina Engine and Machine Works v. O'LEARY

• Citation: 328 F.2d 877
• Decision Date: 28 February 1964
• Docket Number: No. 18545.,18545.
• Parties: ALBINA ENGINE AND MACHINE WORKS, an Oregon corporation, and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, a California corporation, Appellants, v. J. J. O'LEARY, Deputy Commissioner, Bureau of Employees' Compensation, Department of Labor, and Hilda O'Brien, Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

328 F.2d 877 (1964)

ALBINA ENGINE AND MACHINE WORKS, an Oregon corporation, and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, a California corporation, Appellants, v. J. J. O'LEARY, Deputy Commissioner, Bureau of Employees' Compensation, Department of Labor, and Hilda O'Brien, Appellees.

No. 18545.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

February 28, 1964.

Gray, Frederickson & Heath, and Lloyd W. Weisensee, Portland, Or., for appellants.

Pozzi, Levin & Wilson, and Philip A. Levin, Portland, Or., for appellee O'Brien.

Sidney I. Lezak, U. S. Atty., William B. Borgeson, Asst. U. S. Atty., Portland, Or., and Charles Donahue, Solicitor of Labor, Alfred H. Myers and George M. Lilly, Attys. U. S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C., for appellee J. J. O'Leary, Deputy Commissioner.

Before MADDEN, Judge of the Court of Claims, and HAMLIN and BROWNING, Circuit Judges.

BROWNING, Circuit Judge.

The sole question on this appeal is whether the District Court erred in sustaining the determination of the Deputy Commissioner that Hilda O'Brien was the "surviving wife" of John C. O'Brien, within the meaning of Section 909 of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 44 Stat. 1424 (1927), 33 U.S.C.A. §§ 901-950.

The meaning of the statute is, of course, a question of federal law. However, since the statute does not define the term "surviving wife,"¹ and since marital status is ordinarily determined by local law, it has been assumed that Congress intended the term to have the meaning which it is given by local law.² The parties agree that the law of two states may be pertinent: Oregon, in which injury and death occurred, in which Hilda and John were domiciled at the time of these events, and in which the Deputy Commissioner and the District Court sat; and Idaho, in which Hilda contends she and John contracted a nonceremonial marriage. We think Hilda occupied the required status under the law of either state, and since there was concededly "a conjugal nexus between the claimant and the decedent subsisting at the time of the latter's death * * *," recognition of Hilda's claim is in accordance with the purpose of the federal legislation. Thompson v. Lawson, 347 U.S. 334, 336-337, 74 S.Ct. 555, 98 L.Ed. 733 (1954).

I

Under Oregon law Hilda was the "surviving wife" or "widow" of John for the purposes of receiving death benefits under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Act upon either of two independent grounds.

First. The Oregon Workmen's Compensation Act (O.R.S. §§ 656.002-656.590, 656.990 (1953) grants various benefits to the "wife" or "widow" of a workman, and provides in O.R.S. § 656.226 (1953) as follows:

"Wife and children of common-law marriage entitled to compensation. In case an unmarried man and an unmarried woman have cohabited in this state as husband and wife over one year prior to the date of an accidental injury received by such man, and children are living as a result of that relation, the woman and the children are entitled to compensation * * * the same as if the man and woman had been legally married."

The evidence is undisputed that Hilda and John (then unmarried, unless the nonceremonial Idaho union is given effect) lived together in Oregon as husband and wife for many years prior to John's injury, and that a child born in Oregon as a result of that relation was living.

Since Hilda thus would be the "wife" or "widow" of John for the purpose of identifying the recipient of death benefits under the Oregon Workmen's Compensation Act, she should also be a "wife" or "widow" for the same purpose under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Act when these terms are defined by reference to the law of Oregon.

It should make no difference if (as has been suggested) the reference in the title to O.R.S. § 656.226 (1953) to a "common-law marriage" is inaccurate, and the statute "does not relate to marriage at all." Million, Consanguinity and Affinity in Oregon, 23 Ore.L.Rev. 69, 90 (1944). Neither the Oregon Workmen's Compensation Act nor the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Act relate to or affect the marriage relationship as such. And the laws of the state regarding marriage are only tangentially relevant as they may bear upon the existence of the status of "wife" or "widow" for the purpose of identifying recipients of benefits under these remedial statutes.

The application of state domestic relations law, developed in other contexts, to the solution of problems under workmen's compensation statutes, produces results which at best have only a fortuitous relation to the remedial purposes of the compensation acts, and often are in direct conflict with them. When the state law does provide a definition of marital status deliberately shaped to compensation act purposes alone, there is no reason why that definition should not be applied under the federal statute in preference to one drawn from the state's general domestic relations law.

Indeed, this would seem compelled by the rationale of the rule requiring that terms relating to familial relationships be defined by reference to state law. The rule was initially adopted on the ground that to hold otherwise would be to create a set of federal rules in discord with those of the states "on subjects of the most intimate domestic character." Seaboard Air Line Ry. v. Kenney, 240 U.S. 489, 494, 36 S.Ct. 458, 460, 60 L.Ed. 762 (1916). This reasoning requires adoption of the same definitions of marital status the state itself would apply in essentially the same situation.

Second. Even if O.R.S. § 656.226 (1953) did not control, Hilda would qualify as John's "surviving wife" or "widow" under the general domestic relations law of Oregon, since Oregon would recognize the nonceremonial marriage of John and Hilda if validly contracted in Idaho.

The courts of Oregon hold that the statutes of that state requiring the formal solemnization of marriage are mandatory, and hence that the marriage relationship is not created in Oregon unless the statutory formalities are complied with.³ However, it is equally well settled that under Oregon law "a relationship recognized as a marriage in another state where it was consummated will be recognized in Oregon even though such a relationship would not be a marriage if the same facts had been relied upon to create a marriage in Oregon." Boykin v. State Industrial Acc. Comm'n, 224 Or. 76, 81-82, 355 P.2d 724, 727 (1960).⁴ This, of course, is but an application of the general rule that "a marriage is valid everywhere if the requirements of the marriage law of the state where the contract of marriage takes place are complied with." Restatement, Conflict of Laws § 121 (1934).⁵

Appellants nonetheless resist reference to the law of Idaho on the ground that Oregon will not follow the general rule where its residents enter into a nonceremonial marriage during a visit to another state. We think this is not an accurate statement of Oregon law, and are satisfied that in the circumstances of this case the Oregon Supreme Court would recognize the nonceremonial marriage of Hilda and John if valid under the law of Idaho.

It is true that the state of domicile may decline to recognize a marriage strongly offensive to its policy, even though valid under the law of the state where the marriage was contracted.⁶ But in Oregon, as in most other states, this exception to the general rule "is invoked only in a few situations." Restatement (Second), Conflict of Laws, Tentative Draft No. 4, § 132, comment b (1957).⁷

Thus, in Sturgis v. Sturgis, 51 Or. 10, 93 P. 696, 15 L.R.A.,N.S., 1034 (1908), the Supreme Court of Oregon held that the marriage of a domiciliary ward was valid though the ward contracted the marriage in another state to avoid the disability imposed by the laws of Oregon. The court said, "a marriage valid where solemnized is valid everywhere, not only in other states generally, but in the state of the domicile of the parties, even when they have left their own state to marry elsewhere for the purposes of avoiding the laws of the state of their domicile." The court recognized only two exceptions to this rule, "viz., marriages which are deemed contrary to the law of nature as generally recognized in Christian countries, such as involve polygamy and incest, and marriages which the local lawmaking power has declared shall not be allowed any validity, either in express terms or by necessary implication * * *." 51 Or. at 16, 93 P. at 698. The Oregon Supreme Court reaffirmed the rule of Sturgis in Leefield v. Leefield, 85 Or. 287, 166 P. 953 (1917), sustaining a marriage between first cousins prohibited by Oregon statute, when contracted by Oregon domiciliaries in another state.

The only instances called to our attention in which the Oregon Supreme Court has declined to recognize marriages between its domiciliaries validly contracted in other states involved marriages consummated within six months of an Oregon divorce in the face of an Oregon statute providing that "neither party shall be capable of contracting marriage" during that period. (O.R.S. 107.110). The latter statute is read by the Oregon Supreme Court as providing "that persons under the prohibition of the statute are incapable of entering into the contract of marriage, and, therefore, being unable to contract the marriage, wherever performed, it is void ab initio." Wright v. Kroeger, 219 Or. 102, 105, 345 P.2d 809, 811 (1959).⁸ Such marriages thus fall within the second of the two exceptions stated in Sturgis.

Since a nonceremonial marriage does not fall within either of the Sturgis exceptions, it may be anticipated that the Oregon Supreme Court would follow the general rule⁹ that such marriages are valid everywhere, including the domicile of the parties, if valid in the state where contracted.

Appellant relies upon language of the Oregon Supreme Court in Huard v. McTeigh, 113 Or. 279, 295-296, 232 P. 658, 663, 39 A.L.R. 528 (1925), characterizing "common-law" marriages...