delivered the opinion of the court:
George W. Brewer, deceased, appellee’s intestate, during his lifetime and at the time of his death, was a resident of Vermilion county, in this State. The appellant, a corporation organized under the laws of this State, was engaged in operating its trains over its own lines and leased lines of railway in the States of Illinois and Indiana. Said intestate was employed as a fireman on one of appellant’s locomotive engines, and while engaged in the discharge of his duty in that capacity on аn engine drawing a passenger train along the line of appellant’s road in the State of Indiana was killed by a collision between the said engine and train upon which he was employed and another engine drawing a freight train, controlled and oрerated by other servants of the appellant company upon its said line of road in the State of Indiana. This was an action on the case, commenced in the circuit court of Vermilion county, Illinois, by the appellee administrator of the said Brewer, to recover damages for the benefit of those entitled to receive distribution of the personal effects of the said deceased.
The declaration, in some of the counts, charg'ed the collision was occasioned by the negligence of the conductor of the freight train, and in other counts that the trains collided because of the negligence of the engineer of the freight train, and counted and predicated the right of recovery upon an allеg'ed liability created by the statute of the State of Indiana in such cases, and set forth the statute of such State, and such statute was produced in evidence. Section 7083 of the Indiana statute provides that where the death of an employeе of any railroad company or other corporation is caused by the negligence of any person in the employ or service of such corporation who has charge of any locomotive engine or train of cars upon any railroad, or by the negligence of any fellow-servant engaged in the same common service in any of the several departments of such corporation, while the employee so killed is obeying or conforming to the orders of some superior having authority to direct at the time of such death, the railway company or other corporation operating" such locomotive engine or train shall be liable to respond to the personal representatives of such deceased in damages in a sum not exceeding $10,000, to be distributed to the widow and children, if any, or next of kin of the deceased, in the same manner as personal property of the deceased.
A plea of not guilty was filed and the cause submittеd to and heard by a jury, who returned a verdict in favor of the appellee administrator in the sum of $5000. The judgment, was affirmed by the judgment of the Appellate Court for the Third District on appeal, and the appellant company has prosecuted а further appeal to this court.
The effect of the statute of Indiana is to abrogate the doctrine which it seems to be conceded would otherwise be applicable to the facts of this case, that the appellant comрany, as employer, is not to'be held liable for an injury, fatal or otherwise, to an employee which was occasioned by the negligence of a fellow-servant of such employee. The principal question arising is whether this statute will be applied and the doctrine thereof enforced in an action instituted and maintained in the courts of this State, or whether the law as it exists in this State will govern and control. Actions not penal, but for pecuniary damages for torts or civil injuries to the persоn, are transitory, and if actionable where committed, in general may be maintained in any jurisdiction in which the defendant can be legally served with process. We think it well settled that, without regard to the rule which may obtain as to a cause of action which accrued under the laws of a separate and distinct nation, a right of action which has accrued under the statute of a sis"ter State of the Union will be enforced by the courts of another State of the Union, unless against good morals, natural justice or the general interest of the citizens of the State in which the action is brought. Dicey on Conflict of Laws, par. 1, pp. 667-669; Herrick v. Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway Co.
It is argued by counsel for appellant an action cannot be maintained in this cause in our courts, for the reason, as alleged, the laws of the two States are materially variant, it being', as сounsel insist, against natural justice and the established public policy of this State to hold an employer liable for injuries inflicted upon an employee by a fellow-servant. The principle thus invoked finds support in the opinion rendered by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in Anderson v. Milwaukee-St. Paul Railroad Co.
The same question engaged the attention of the Supreme Court of the State of Massachusetts in Walch v. New York & New England Railroad Co.
In Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Babcock,
In Railway Co. v. Lewis, supra, the suit was brought in Tennessee to recover damages for injuries received by an employee in the State of Georgia; The trial court charged the jury that the plaintiff could recover though guilty of contributory negligence. Such was the law of Tennessee, the place of the forum. The rule in the State of Georgia, the place where the injury was received, precluded recovery if the neglect of the person injured contributed to his injury. The court held the law of the State of Georgia controlled, and that the rule in the State of Tennessee, where the case wаs being tried, was not applicable to the case.
The Supreme Court of the State of Indiana has declared the statute in question to be constitutional and valid. (Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Co. v. Montgomery, 49 N. E. Rep. 582.) The right of action aсcrued and became complete in that State. In this State the doctrine of respondeat superior does not apply to a case where an employee is injured or killed by the neglect of a fellow-servant, but the doctrine of respondeat superior is, in general, recognized in the jurisprudence of this State, and we perceive no ground warranting us to declare the enforcement of the doctrine as enlarged or extended by the Indiana statute must be regarded as so repugnant to good morals or natural justice, or so prejudicial to the best interests of our people, that we should shut the doors of our courts against a suitor who seeks to enforce a right of action which, arose under the statute of thе sister State.
What has been said disposes of all objections to the action of the court in giving, refusing and modifying instructions to the jury, except the complaint as to one instruction given for the appellee, relative to the liability of the company in the event they should find the trains collided because of the negligence of the conductor of the freight train. The criticism made upon this instruction is, there was no evidence to support it. We think the objection is not well grounded. The testimony of the еngineer of the freight train, which was proceeding northward, tended to show he was induced to refrain from putting the train upon the side-track at the stations of Atherton and Lyford by a remark, in the nature of directions, made to him by the conductor at Otter Creek Junction. It further appeared the conductor was riding in the cab of the engine of the freight train when that train • ran past the side-tracks at Atherton and Lyford.0 The trains collided five hundred feet north of Lyford. The freight train should have been placed on the side-track at Atherton or at Lyford, and this the conductor knew or would have known had he kept his orders in mind and noted the fact his train was moving on the time of the passenger train, which was coming south.
■No other errors are assigned, and the judgment of the Appellate Court is affirmed. Judgment affirmed.