169 Ga. 325 | Ga. | 1929
Rebecca Grant filed application to the Industrial Commission of Georgia, for an award of compensation for the death of her husband, Howard Grant. She alleged the husband was an employee of the Glynn Canning Company, of Brunswick, engaged in “ catching, canning, and packing oysters, shrimp, prawn, and other sea foods for retail and wholesale markets;” that it operated boats for that purpose; that the husband was captain and fisherman on defendant’s boat, the "J. B. A. Haas,” on January 14, 1926, the date of his death; that he had been in the employment of said company for more than twenty years; that on said date, while off Cumberland Island, said husband was in the act of pulling in a net, there being on said boat one helper, when from strain some "vital part” of his body broke loose; that he lay down in the boat, complaining, and died near 12 o’clock that night. Commissioner L. J.
Howard Grant’s employment was maritime and pertained to commerce. It was incident to the business of the Glynn Canning Company, whose business was the catching of sea food from navigable waters and selling it wholesale and retail. The constitution of the United States, art. 3, sec. 2, par. 1 (Civil Code of 1910, § 6667), declares that the judicial power of the United States shall extend “to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction.” The language, “shall extend . . to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction,” imports an absolute and exclusive grant of power. Such has been the construction of the Supreme Court.’ Robertson v. Baldwin, 165 U. S. 275, 279 (17 Sup. Ct. 326, 41 L.ed. 715); Martin v. Hunter, 1 Wheat. 304 (4 L. ed. 97); The Moses Taylor, 4 Wall. 411 (18 L. ed. 397). Const, of H. S. Annotated, 1923 (Senate Pub. Doc.), 423. As is well stated in the last-mentioned publication: “Jurisdiction is conferred on the Federal courts in admiralty, because, as the seas are the joint property of the nations, the jurisdiction is essentially national, and because of their nature such cases are closely connected with the grant of the commerce power. The jurisdiction is not restricted to admiralty, but includes all maritime jurisdiction. The constitutional provision for Federal jurisdiction refers to a system of law operating uniformly in the whole country, and regard must be had to our legal history, constitution, legislation, customs, and adjudications. The admiralty jurisdiction was not intended to be as limited as it was in England at the time of the adoption of the constitution, and it was to guard against a narrow construction of the word ‘admiralty’ that ‘maritime’ was added.” See cases there cited. In Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, cited supra, Mr. Justice McReynolds enunciated the “uniformity” principle which has since been generally accepted and applied in determining the validity of legislation affecting the jurisdiction of cases involving admiralty and maritime law. He said: “No such legislation is valid if it contravenes the essential purpose expressed by an act of Congress, or works material prejudice to the characteristic features of the general maritime law, or interferes with the proper harmony and uniformity of that law in its, international and interstate relations.” In that case the employee, Moses LaCasse, was injured
The latest decision of the Supreme Court, so far as we are aware, is London Guarantee &c. Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission, 279 U. S. 109 (49 Sup. Ct. 296). There the court reviewed an award made by the Industrial Accident Commission of California. The award was made for the burial expenses of one Brooke, who was a minor employed on a boat of Morris Pleasure Fishing Inc. He was drowned while nearing a drifting vessel in an attempt to bring her back to anchorage after she had broken from her moorings and gone adrift'. The vessel on which he was employed was a pleasure boat used to take excursionists for deep-sea fishing in ocean fishing-grounds .near Santa Monica Bay. The Supreme Court held that it was a case falling within the admiralty jurisdiction, and that the State courts had no jurisdiction.
In Western Fuel Co. v. Garcia, supra, the injury occurred in
In the Grant Smith-Porter case, supra, the injury occurred on the Williamette, a navigable river within the State of Oregon, and the question arose as to whether maritime jurisdiction extended to such navigable river. It was held that it did, although it was also held that the workmen’s compensation law applied because Rohde’s employment was not maritime. “Admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, as these terms are used in this country, extend not only to all things done upon and relating to the sea, to transactions relating to commerce and navigation, to damages and injuries upon the sea, and all maritime contracts, torts, and injuries (De Lovio v. Boit, 2 Gall. 398, Fed. Cas. No. 3776), but still beyond the high seas to waters navigable therefrom (The Genesee Chief v. Fitzhugh, 12 How. 443, 13 L. ed. 1058; The Hine v. Trevor, 4 Wall. 563, 18 L. ed. 453; The Eagle, 8 Wall. 15, 19 L. ed. 365). It seems superfluous to say that a State may neither broaden nor narrow the limits of maritime law and admiralty jurisdiction. The J. E. Rumbell, 148 U. S. 1 (37 L. ed. 345, 13 Sup. Ct. R. 498); Orleans v. Phoebus, 11 Pet. 175 (9 L. ed. 677); Butler v. Boston S. Co., 130 U. S. 527 (32 L. ed. 1017, 9 Sup. Ct. R. 612). State laws can not exclude a maritime contract from the domain of admiralty jurisdiction; they can not alter the limits of that jurisdiction.” Berry v. Donovan, 120 Me. 457 (115 Atl. 250, 25 A. L. R. 1024). Indeed in no case, so far as we have been able to extend our investigation, which has been painstaking, has any question been made as to whether the injury occurred within the three-mile limit in the open seas. Hpon the contrary the universal statement has been merely whether or not it occurred in navigable waters, whether upon the open seas or navigable lakes or navigable rivers.
For an elaborate and instructive discussion of the whole question of the jurisdiction in such eases reference is made to Grant Smith-Porter Ship Co. v. Rohde, supra; State Industrial Commission of N. Y. v. Nordenholt Corp., 259 U. S. 263 (42 Sup. Ct. 473, 66 L. ed. 933, 25 A. L. R. 1013); Newham v. Chile Exploration Co., supra; Berry v. Donovan, supra; State of Washington v. Dawson, 122 Wash. 572 (211 Pac. 724) ; s. c. 264 U. S. 219 (supra). And see 24 Illinois Law Review, 332; 27 Michigan Law
Under the facts of the case the duties performed by the deceased, Howard Grant, were not of a purely local concern. His duties were incident to the general scheme and purpose of the commercial transactions carried on by Glynn Canning Company, and the injury happened while Grant was strictly engaged in his duty as a fisherman in navigable waters. The case, therefore, is within the general rule laid down by the Supreme Court of the United States as falling under the maritime law exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Federal courts.
The second headnote does not require elaboration.
Judgment reversed.