Stewart v. Baltimore Co, 97
Decision Date | 06 December 1897 |
Docket Number | No. 97,97 |
Citation | 18 S.Ct. 105,168 U.S. 445,42 L.Ed. 537 |
Parties | STEWART v. BALTIMORE & O. R. CO |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
On October 22, 1894, plaintiff in error, as plaintiff, filed in the supreme court of the District of Columbia an amended declaration, containing two counts. The first alleged that John Andrew Casey, plaintiff's intestate, was killed through the negligence of the defendant company, in the state of Maryland; that said intestate left surviving no parent or child, but only his wife, Alice Triplett Casey, for whose benefit this action was brought. The second count set forth, in addition to the matters disclosed in the first, a statute of the state of Maryland in respect to recovery in such cases. A demurrer to this declaration was sustained, and judgment entered for defendant. This was affirmed by the court of appeals of the District of Columbia (6 App. D. C. 56), and from such judgment of affirmance plaintiff has brought the case here on error.
The statute in force in the District of Columbia (23 Stat. 307) provides for recovery in case the act causing death is done within the limits of the District of Columbia; that 'the person who or corporation which would have been liable if death had not ensued shall be liable to an action for damages for such death, notwithstanding the death of the person injured'; that the recovery shall not exceed $10,000; that the action shall be brought in the name of the personal representative of the deceased, and within one year after his death; and that the damages recovered shall not be appropriated to the payment of the debts of the deceased, but inure to the benefit of his or her family, and be distributed according to the provisions of the statute of distributions. The Maryland statute which is copied in the declaration (Rev. Code Md. 1878, p. 724) provides, in the first section, that whenever the death of a person shall be caused by the wrongful act, negligence, etc., of another, 'the person who would have been liable if death had not ensued, shall be liable to an action for damages.' Section 2 and 3 are as follows:
Edwin Sutherland, for plaintiff in error.
George E. Hamilton, for defendant in error.
Mr. Justice BREWER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.
The court of appeals was of opinion that the action could not be maintained under the statute of the District of Columbia, because that authorizes recovery only in case the injury causing death is done within the limits of the District, nor under the Maryland statute, because of the peculiar form of remedy prescribed therein; citing, in support of the latter contention, Pollard v. Bailey, 20 Wall. 520. A statute of Alabama made stockholders of a bank individually liable for its debts, and, according to the construction given to it by the supreme court of the state, the remedy provided was a suit in equity, whereas in that case a single creditor had sued one of the stockholders in an action at law; and, in denying the right to maintain such action, this court observed (page 526):
To like effect was cited Bank v. Francklyn, 120 U. S. 747, 7 Sup. Ct. 757. The court of appeals was of opinion that the statute in Maryland not only created a statutory liability, but prescribed a particular remedy, and that no action could be maintained, either in Maryland or elsewhere, unless that special remedy was pursued.
Notwithstanding the ability with which the arguments in support of this conclusion are presented in the opinion of the court of appeals, we are unable to concur...
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