Mellon v. Goodyear

• Decision Date: 28 May 1928
• Docket Number: No. 131,131
• Citation: 72 L.Ed. 906,277 U.S. 335,48 S.Ct. 541
• Parties: MELLON, Director General of Railroads, etc., v. GOODYEAR
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

277 U.S. 335

48 S.Ct. 541

72 L.Ed. 906

MELLON, Director General of Railroads, etc.,

v GOODYEAR.

No. 131.

Argued and Submitted Dec. 8, 1927.

Decided May 28, 1928.

Messrs. Luther Burns, of Topeka, Kan., M. L. Bell and W. F. Dickinson, both of Chicago, Ill., T. P. Littlepage, of Washington, D. C., J. E. Du Mars, of Topeka, Kan., and W. D. Vance, of Belleville, Kan., for petitioner.

Messrs. Edwin C. Brandenburg, of Washington, D. C., and John F. McClure, of Belleville, Kan., for respondent.

Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS delivered the opinion of the Court.

While employed in interstate commerce by the Director General of Railroads at Belleville, Kan., July 31, 1919, Lewis Goodyear sustained serious personal injuries for which he claimed the right to recover damages under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (35 Stat. 65, c. 149 (45 USCA §§ 51-59; Comp. St. §§ 8657-8665); 36 Stat. 291 (45 USCA §§ 56, 59; Comp. St. §§ 8662, 8665)). On March 16, 1920, he settled with the employer, accepted the agreed sum, and executed a general release, which, among other things, recites:

'I do hereby compromise said claim, and do respectively release and forever discharge said Director General of Railroads, operating Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and his successor or successors as such, the United States of America, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, the owner of said railroad, and all railway companies whose lines are leased to said railway company or have been operated by it, but are now oper- ated by said Director General, and their respective agents and employees, from any and all liability for all claims and demands for all damages resulting from the injuries received by me at the time and place above stated, including such injuries as may hereafter develop, as well as those now apparent, and also do release and discharge them, and each of them, of all suits, actions, causes of action, and claims for damages on account of injuries to my person, as well as damages to my property, if any, which I have or might have arising from, growing out of, or in any wise connected with the accident above referred to, and do hereby acknowledge full satisfaction of all such liability and causes of action. * * *

'It is further expressly understood and agreed that this release shall be deemed to be and shall be a complete bar to any action which might otherwise be brought, either by law, or under any state or federal Workmen's Compensation Act, Employers' Liability Act, Labor Law, or any other statute, for the recovery of compensation or damages on account of said injuries (or of resulting death, if this be executed by an administrator or administratrix of the estate of said person), for the benefit of any person whomsoever or estate whatsoever.'

May 4, 1920, Goodyear died. April 19, 1921, relying upon the Federal Employers' Liability Act, his widow, as administratrix and in behalf of herself and her children, brought this action for damages against the Director General in the district court, Republic county, Kan. She alleged that her husband's death resulted from the injuries suffered July 31, 1919. As a bar to the action, the answer set up the settlement and release above referred to; and the administratrix replied that the beneficiaries had a separate cause of action for their pecuniary damage which the decedent could not release.

The cause was twice tried and twice considered by the Supreme Court of Kansas. At the first trial, the jury was told:

'You are instructed that the law favors a compromise and settlement of disputes, and, when parties in good faith enter into an agreement based on good consideration, neither is afterwards permitted to deny it.'

Judgment for the Director General was reversed by the Supreme Court. It held the quoted instruction erroneous. The opinion shows care and research, and forcefully sets out the argument against the power of an injured employee to destroy the right of dependents to recover in event of his death. Goodyear v. Davis, 114 Kan. 557, 220 P. 282, 39 A. L. R. 563; Id., 115 Kan. 20, 220 P. 1049, 39 A. L. R. 563.

At the second trial, the court instructed the jury:

'The Federal Employers' Liability Act, under which plaintiff's action was brought, creates two separate and distinct rights of action resulting from an injury such as complained of by the plaintiff in this case; one right of action to the injured employee for his suffering and loss resulting from the injury, and one to his personal representative for the benefit of his surviving widow and children, in the event death results from the injury. And you are instructed that the latter cause of action could not be released by the deceased, Lewis Goodyear, by any action taken by him. It accrues solely to his personal representative for the benefit of the persons named, and Lewis Goodyear in his lifetime would have no control over same. In other words, it did not accrue until his death, and hence he could not release it by any act on his part.'

Answering special questions, the jury found that no fraud attended the settlement; Goodyear was mentally capable of transacting business at the time; there was no mutual mistake as to his physical condition; the release was not given under the mistaken belief that the material results of his injuries had disappeared; and nothing was allowed for funeral expenses.

Upon a verdict in her favor for $5,000, judgment went for the administratrix, which the Supreme Court af- firmed, definitely approving the instruction last quoted. Goodyear v. Davis, 121 Kan. 392, 247 P. 446. She died July 10, 1926, and Edward Goodyear was duly substituted by order of Supreme Court of Kansas.

The question for our decision is whether the settlement between Goodyear and the employer, made advisedly and in good faith, barred an action by dependents for their pecuniary damages through his death.

The Liability Act, approved April 22, 1908, 35 Stat. 65, c. 149, provided:

'Section 1. That every common carrier by railroad while engaging in commerce between any of the several states or territories, or between any of the states and territories, or between the District of Columbia and any of the states or territories, or between the District of Columbia or any of the states or territories and any foreign nation or nations, shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such carrier in such commerce, or, in case of the death of such employee, to his or her personal representative, for the benefit of the surviving widow or husband and children of such employee; and, if none, then of such employee's parents; and, if none, then of the next of kin dependent upon such employee, for such injury or death resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier, or by reason of any defect or insufficiency, due to its negligence, in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed, works, boats, wharves, or other equipment.' 45 USCA § 51; Comp. St. § 8567.

The amending Act of April 5, 1910, 36 Stat. 291, c. 143, added the following:

'Sec. 9. That any right of action given by this act to a person suffering injury shall survive to his or her personal representative, for the benefit of the surviving widow or husband and children of such employee, and, if none, then of such employee's parents; and, if none, then of the next of kin dependent upon such employee, but in such cases there shall be only one recovery for the same injury.' 45 USCA § 59; Comp. St. § 8665.

In Michigan Central Railroad Co. v. Vreeland, 227 U. S. 59, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 33 S. Ct. 192, 57 L. Ed. 417, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 176, an action by the administrator to recover for loss cuffered by the wife by reason of her husband's wrongful death, this court considered the original statute (1908) and held that the employee's right of action to recover such damages as would compensate for expenses, loss of time, suffering, and diminished earning power did not survive his death, also that the mere existence of such a right in the employee's lifetime did not destroy the dependent's right under the statute to recover for pecuniary damages consequent upon the death. By Mr. Justice Lurton, the court said:

'We think the act declares two distinct and independent liabilities, resting, of course, upon the common foundation of a wrongful injury, but based upon altogether different principles. * * * The act of 1908 does not provide for any survival of the right of action created in behalf of an injured employee. That right of action was therefore extinguished. * * * The obvious purpose of Congress was to save a right of action to certain relatives dependent upon an employee wrongfully injured, for the loss and damage resulting to them financially by reason of the wrongful death. * * * This cause of action is independent of any cause of action which the decedent had, and includes no damages which he might have recovered for his injury if he had survived. It is one beyond that which the decedent had-one proceeding upon altogether different principles. It is a liability for the loss and damage * * * resulting to them and for that only.

'The statute in giving an action for the benefit of certain members of the family of the decedent is essentially identical with the first act which ever provided for a cause of action arising out of the death of a human being, that of 9 and 10 Victoria, known as Lord Campbell's Act. * * * But as the foundation of the right of action is the original wrongful injury to the decedent, it has been generally held that the new action is a right dependent upon the existence of a right in the decedent immediately before his death to have maintained an action for his wrongful injury. Tiffany, Death by Wrongful Act, § 124; Louisville E. & St. L. R. R. Co. v. Clark, 152 U. S. 230 (14 S. Ct. 579, 38 L. Ed. 422); Read v. G. E. Ry., L. R. 3 Q. B. 555; Hecht...