Alaska Company v. McHugh/Opinion of the Court

The court below has certified two questions of law concerning which it desires instruction. Judicial Code, § 239 (Comp. St. § 1216). The first question follows. Our answer to it renders a reply to the second one unnecessary.

'(1) Is the owner of a ship, a common carrier engaged in     coastwise commerce trade in the territory of Alaska, liable      to one of its employes, a stevedore, for damages which have      resulted by reason of a defect or insufficiency due to the      owner's negligence in an appliance furnished to the employe      as provided under sections 1 and 2 of the Act of June 11,      1906, c. 3073, 34 Stat. 232, commonly known as the First     Employers' Liability Act?'

The designated statute is entitled An act relating to liability of common carriers in the District of Columbia and territories and common carriers engaged in commerce between the states and between the states and foreign nations, to their employees,' and provides:

'Section 1. That every common carrier engaged in trade or     commerce in the District of Columbia, or in any territory of      the United States, or between the several states, or between      any territory and another, or between any territory or      territories and any state or states, or the District of      Columbia, or with foreign nations, or between the District of      Columbia and any state or states or foreign nations, shall be      liable to any of its employees, or, in the case of his death,      to his personal representative for the benefit of his widow      and children, if any, if none, then for his parents, if none,      then for his next of kin dependent upon him, for all damages      which may result from the negligence of any of its officers,      agents, or employees, or by reason of any defect or      insufficiency due to its negligence in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed,      ways, or works.

'Sec. 2. That in all actions hereafter brought against any     common carriers to recover damages for personal injuries to      an employee, or where such injuries have resulted in his      death, the fact that the employee may have been guilty of      contributory negligence shall not bar a recovery where his      contributory negligence was slight and that of the employer      was gross in comparison, but the damages shall be diminished      by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence      attributable to such employee. All questions of negligence     and contributory negligence shall be for the jury.'

'Sec. 3. No contract of employment, insurance, etc., shall     constitute a defense to an action brought to recover damages      for injuries or death.

'Sec. 4. That no action shall be maintained under this act,     unless commenced within one year from the time the cause of      action accrued.

'Sec. 5. That nothing in this act shall be held to limit the     duty of common carriers by railroads or impair the rights of      their employees under the Safety-Appliance Act of March      second, eighteen hundred and ninetythree, as amended April      first, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, and March second,      nineteen hundred and three.'

The Employers' Liability Cases, 207 U.S. 463, 28 S.C.t. 141, 52 L. Ed. 297, held that, 'conceding the power of Congress to regulate the relations of employer and employee engaged in interstate commerce, the [above-quoted] act was unconstitutional in this: That in its provisions regulating interstate commerce Congress exceeded its constitutional authority in undertaking to make employers responsible, not only to employees when engaged in interstate commerce, but to any of its employees, whether engaged in interstate commerce or in commerce wholly within a state.' El Paso & Northeastern Ry. Co. v. Gutierrez, 215 U.S. 87, 93, 30 S.C.t. 21, 54 L. Ed. 106.

The case last cited declared the act valid and controlling in so far as it relates to the District of Columbia and the territories, although invalid as to accidents within a state. It was there said (page 97, 30 S.C.t. 25):

'When we consider the purpose of Congress to regulate the     liability of employer to employee, and its evident intention      to change certain rules of the common law which theretofore      prevailed as to the responsibility for negligence in the      conduct of the business of transportation, we think that it      is apparent that had Congress not undertaken to deal with      this relation in the states where it had been regulated by      local law, it would have dealt with the subject and enacted      the curative provisions of the law applicable to the District      of Columbia and the territories over which its plenary power      gave it the undoubted right to pass a controlling law, and to      make uniform regulations governing the subject.'

This court has never held the act applicable to marine torts. To give it such construction would give rise to a grave constitutional question as to its validity and cause much confusion and uncertainty concerning the reciprocal rights and obligations of ships and those who work upon them. Knickerbocker Ice Co. v. Stewart, 253 U.S. 149, 40 S.C.t. 438, 64 L. Ed. 834, 11 A. L. R. 1145; Panama R. R. v. Johnson, 264 U.S. 375, 386, 390, 44 S.C.t. 391, 68 L. Ed. 748. The language employed 'negligence in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed, ways or works;' 'actions * *  * to recover damages for personal injuries;' 'all questions of negligence and contributory negligence shall be for the jury'-and the 'evident intention to change certain rules of the common law which theretofore prevailed as to the responsibility for negligence in the conduct of the business of transportation,' oppose the suggestion that the purpose was to regulate purely maritime matters, from time immemorial subject to the law of the sea, which recognizes and enforces rights and remedies radically different from those of the common law.

In the absence of a clear and distinct enunciation of such purpose, we cannot conclude that Congress intended to invade the field of admiralty jurisdiction, and materially after long-recognized rights and established modes of procedure.

The first question must be answered in the negative.