Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/93

 HOLMES V. 0. & C. EY. CO. 81 �exceed $5,000, and the amount recovered, if any, shall be administered as other personal property of the deceased person." �But the point is made by courisel for the defendant that the Oregon statute provides that the damages for the death shall be recovered by an action at law, and therefore they cannot otherwise be obtained, as by a suit in admiralty. Bat the right conferred by the statute, in whatever form of words, is essentially separate and distinct from the remedy ; and it may be enforced in the proper national court accord- ing to the procedure of that forum. �In The Highland Light, supra, 15e, it was held that the widow and son could maintain a suit in admiralty to enforce a right to damages given by a similar statute of Maryland for the death of the husband and father, caused by a tort committed upon the navigable waters of that state. In speaking of the statute the chief justice says: "The right is quite separate from the remedy. The right, like that of a statute lien upon a vessel for repairs in home ports, may be enforced in admiralty by its own processes. It is not neces- sary to pursue the statutory remedy in order to enforce the statutory right. It is clear, therefore, that, for an in jury such as that proved in this case, the wife and son of the man kiUed may have redress in admiralty." �In Steamboat Co. v. Chase, supra, 531, Mr. Justice Clifford, in discussing the question, said: "Doubts, however, may arise whether the action survives in the admiralty, and, if not, whether a state statute can be regarded as applicable in such a case to authorize the representatives of the deceased to maintain such an action for the benefit of the widow and children of the deceased. Undoubtedly the general rule is that state laws cannot extend or restrict the jurisdiction of the admiralty courts, but it is suggested that the action may be maintained in this case without any departure from prin- ciple, as the only practical effect allowed to the state statute is to take the case out of the operation of the common-law maxim that personal actions die with the përson." �v.5,no,l — 6 ����