Mosely v. Empire Gas & Fuel Co.Mosely v. Empire Gas & Fuel Co.
III. Appellant assigns as error the giving of plaintiff’s instructions numbered two and three. The first is a mere abstract statement of the law as to the degree of knowledge or skill which one who holds himself out as a specialist must bring to the discharge of his duty in treating patients. It contains no direction of any kind which would enable the jury to make an intelligent application of the rule stated to the issues in the case. The second instruction simply defines negligence as a failure to exercise ordinary care. As applied to the degree of care that defendant was bound to exercise in treating plaintiff the two instructions, in the form in which they were given, were apparently contradictory and consequently were calculated to confuse the jury.
Appellant makes numerous other complaints as to instructions given and refused and as to the admission of evidence. But his contentions as to these are so plainly devoid of merit that an opinion should not be encumbered with their consideration.
Because of the error in giving plaintiff’s Instruction 1 the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded. All concur.
1. WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION ACT: Acceptance. The Supreme Court of Kansas has decided that both employer and employee accept the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act of that State if they do not file a declaration not to accept its provisions; a failure to file a declaration of non-acceptance is acceptance, and makes the statute a part of the contract of employment.
2. ——: ——: Exclusive Remedy. The Supreme Court of Kansas has decided that the remedy for injuriеs to an employee afforded by the Workmen’s Compensation Act of that State is exclusive. The employer’s liability in no sense depends upon tort, but arises out
3. ——: ——: Right to Sue in Another State: Transitory and Domestic Cause of Action. A transitory cause of action can be maintained in another state, even though the statute creating the cause of action provides that the action must be brought in the local domestic courts; the venue is no part of the right to recover damages for personal injuries inflicted by common-law negligence, and a state сannot, under the full-faith-and-credit clause of the U. S. Constitution, create a transitory cause of action and at the same time destroy the right to sue on that transitory cause of action in any court having jurisdiction. But those rules are not controlling where the right to recover compensation arises out of contract, and the remedy afforded by the statute creating the cause of action is exclusive, and both employer and employee have accepted the statute as a part of their contract, and the statute prescribes a procedure for adjusting the compensation and tribunals for enforcing the right, entirely different from the proceedings of courts proceeding according to the course of the common law, and the statute itself says that no action or proceeding under it can be brought outside of the stаte.
4. ——: ——: ——: United Right and Remedy. Where the statute creating the right provides an exclusive remedy, to be enforced in a particular way, or before a special tribunal, the aggrieved party will be left to the remedy given by the statute which creates the right. The Workmen’s Compensation Act of Kansas is not cumulative, or supplemental of the common law, but is substitutional, and, when accepted, gives a special right and prescribes an exclusive remedy, and, as a result of its terms, the pursuit of the exclusive remedy is so interwoven with the right, and with provisions as to the tribunal designated to enforce the right, and with the special powers granted to that tribunal, as to make a disunion of the right and the exclusive remedy impractical. The injured employee cannot under the provisions of the act maintain an action in the common-law courts of Kansas for a common-law tort, аnd recover a final judgment for a lump sum to which he alleges he is entitled under said statute; and as he cannot maintain such suit in Kansas, the courts of this State are not compelled by statute (
5. ——: Injuries in Kansas: Suit in Missouri. Plaintiff instituted suit in a Missouri court and asked judgment for damages under
6. ——: ——: ——: Different Tribunals and Procedure. The Workmen’s Compensation Act of Kansas contains a multitude of details. It provides for compensation to the injured employee of a percentage of the wages he was earning at the time of his injury, the per cent being dependent upon the extent of his resultant incapacity, to be paid in a lump sum, or by the week, and for a named number of years if the disabilities are partial, and for a longer time if they are permanent, and prescribes that the amount may be determined by agreement by a representative committee, or by arbitration, and in default of an agreement or upon the employer’s refusal to arbitrate, the injured workman’s right to compensation may be determined and enforced in any court of compensation, provided he has consented to arbitration or applied to the court for an arbitrator, but in such action trial by jury shall be deemed waived, and the case tried by the court without a jury, unless either party within ten days demand a jury, and the judgment shall be for a lump sum or periodical payments during incapacity, in the discretion of the trial judge, but in no case for a lump sum for an injury not ascertainable by objective examination, and may be reviewed after the expiration of six months upon the application of either party and the amount allowed by the court reduced or raised; and it further prescribes that “such court shall make all rules necessary and appropriate to carry out the provisions of this
Actions, 1 C. J., Section 100, p. 988, n. 67, 68; Section 101, p. 989, n. 77; Section 153, p. 133, n. 18. Courts, 15 C. J., Section 37, p. 737, n. 23; Section 74, p. 779, n. 60; Section 316, p. 927, n. 58.
Appeal from Jackson Circuit Court.—Hon. Allen C. Southern, Judge.
AFFIRMED.
C. W. Prince, E. A. Harris and James N. Berry for appellant.
(1) Plaintiff’s action for compensation for injuries arising under the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Kansas, can be maintained in the courts of Missouri, notwithstanding the provision of the Workmen’s Compensation Act limiting the bringing of actions under it to the courts of Kansas; for the reason that “venue is no part of the right, and a state cannot create a transitory cause of action and at the same time destroy the right to sue on that transitory cause of action in any court having jurisdiction.” Tenn. Coal Co. v. George, 11 Ga. App. 221, 233 U. S. 354; A. T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Sowers, 213 U. S. 55; Kenney v. Supreme Lodge, 252 U. S. 411. (2) The Compensation Law of Kansas can have no extra-territorial effect; the provision therein, which goes to the place of filing suit applies merely to the manner in which the right shall be exercised, and is binding upon the courts of that state, yet because it affects the remedy only, it has no force beyond the boundaries of the State of Kansas, matters pertaining to the remedy being controlled by the lex fori. Ry. v. Sowers, 233 U. S. 70; Tenn. Coal Co. v. George, 233 U. S. 354; Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U. S. 714. (3) The State has
Guy M. Cowgill and Arthur C. Popham for respondent.
(1) The court did not err in overruling plaintiff’s demurrer to defendant’s plea in abatement. Harbis v. Cudahy Packing Co., 241 S. W. 960. (2) The court did not err in sustaining defendant’s plea in abatement. Harbis v. Cudahy Packing Co., 241 S. W. 960; Shade v. Lime & Cement Co., 93 Kan. 260; Daley v. Peoples Building Assn., 178 Mass. 13; Mittenthal v. Mascagni, 183 Mass. 19, 97 Am. St. 404; Greve v. Aetna Live Stock Ins. Co., 81 Hun, 28, 30 N. Y. Supp. 668; Lessenden v. Railroad Co., 238 Mo. 247; Lehmann v. Ramo Film, Inc., 155 N. Y. Supp. 1032; McCarthy v. McAllister, 158 N. Y. Supp. 563, L. R. A. 1917D, 84. (3) The act is unenforcible in Missouri because: (a) Said act is inconsistent with local policy and Missouri practice.
OPINION
LINDSAY, C.—This is a suit in which plaintiff asks for judgment for damages under the Workmen’s Compensation Law of the State of Kansas, for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by him, in Kansas, while in the course of his employment by defendant company, in the State of Kansas, in the business of drilling for oil and gas. Thе defendant is alleged to be a corporation engaged in the business of drilling for oil and gas in Kansas and other states, but the state of its incorporation is not alleged, nor the place of plaintiff’s residence.
The petition alleges that plaintiff was assisting in the removal of an iron casing from a well; that in said work a long cable was used, which was caused to wrap around a revolving drum; that defendant provided a
Plaintiff pleaded and set forth certain provisions of the law then in force, found in Chapter 61, Article VI, of the General Statutes of Kansas, 1915, and as amended, Laws of Kansas 1917, Chap. 226.
The defendant filed a plea in abatement, alleging that plaintiff ought not to have or maintain his action in the Missouri court, and set forth the provisions of Sections 20, 23, and 24 of Chapter 226, Laws of Kansas 1917.
The sections pleaded by plaintiff were those concerning the liability of the employer for injuries sustained by his employees, operating under the terms of the law, and the rights of such employees thereunder. The sections pleaded by defendant were those which provided that no action or proceeding under the law could be brought outside of the State of Kansas, and defining the conditions under which the employer and the employee would be deemed to have acсepted the provisions of the law. The trial court overruled plaintiff’s demurrer to the plea in abatement, and plaintiff filed a reply. The reply pleaded that the Kansas law, insofar as it was an attempt to confine to the State of Kansas the trial of causes arising under the compensation law of that state, was in contravention of
The casе here, as presented by the pleadings and in the briefs, proceeds upon the theory that no declaration not to accept was filed by either, and that thereby both plaintiff and defendant did accept the provisions of the law. As to the right to bring the action, the provision, a part of Section 20 of said act, is as follows: “No action or proceedings provided for in this act shall be brought or maintained outside of the State of Kansas, and notice thereof may be given by publication against non-residents of the state in the manner provided,” under certain general statutes. The sections concerning the relation created by the employer and employee in respect of the act, through failure to file a declaration not to accept its provisions, have been construed by the Supreme Court of Kansas, in the following cases, among others: Shade v. Lime & Cement Co., 93 Kan. 257; Railway Co. v. Fuller, 105 Kan. 608; Wegele v. The Ismert-Hincke Milling Co., 105 Kan. 615. The statute is optional in character: Smith v. Packing Co., 115 Kan. 874. The substance of the holdings in these cases is, that both employer and employee by operation of the statutes mentioned, accept the provisions of the law if they do not file the declaration not to accept thereunder; and that thereby the provisions of the statute become a part of the contract of employment.
The Supreme Court of Kansas, further construing the provisions of the law, has held that the remedy afforded by the Workmen’s Compensation Act in cases where the employer and employee have elected to come within those provisions, is exclusive. [Shade v. Cement Co., 92 Kan. 146; McRoberts v. Zinc Co., 93 Kan. 364.] Following Moeser v. Shunk, 116 Kan. 247, it was said in Johnson v. Milling Co., 116 Kan. l. c. 734: “The Workmen’s Compensation Law fixed the liability of an employer to his employee where both parties are under the law, and this liability is founded upon the contract of employment and the statute. The liability in no sense depends upon tort. It is a liability growing out of contract, the terms of the statute being embodied in the contract. As between the employer and employee, the remedy provided by the Workmen’s Compensation Law is exclusive. The injured employee or his dependents must recover upon the contract of employment, which includes the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act.”
The construction given to this statute by the Supreme Court of Kansas becomes part and parcel of the statute, so far as Missouri courts are concerned in determining the nature of the right. [Hiatt v. St. Louis S. F. Ry. Co., 271 S. W. 806.] The question presented here up to this time has not been decided by this court. The question at issue, minus consideration of the provisions of the Federal Constitution here invoked, or consideration of
Thе plaintiff relies upon certain decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, and particularly those in Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad v. Sowers, 213 U. S. 55, and Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railway Co. v. George, 233 U. S. 354. In the Sowers case the original plaintiff was injured while riding upon the pilot of an engine near Gallup, New Mexico, and, as it was alleged, through the negligence of the defendant. He brought suit in Texas, and a judgment in his favor was affirmed by the supreme court of that state. The statute of the Territory of New Mexico provided that such an action could be brought only in the courts of New Mexico. The right of the plaintiff to maintain his action at all, under the New Mexico statute, was conditioned upon compliance with certain prescribed requirements. He was required, within ninety days after injury, to make a verified statement thereof, and demand his damages, and also required to sue within one year after the occurrence of the injury.
The Kansas Act requires demand to be made within three months, and does not permit the employee to sue if the employer is willing to arbitrate. The petition alleges that plaintiff made the demand and defendant refused to arbitrate.
In Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. v. George, the plaintiff, George, was injured in Alabama, and sued and had judgment in Georgia. His cause of action was based upon a provision of the Alabama code, which gave a right of action for injury “caused by reason of any defect in the condition of the ways, works, machinery or plant connected with or used in the business of the master or employer.” There was another provisiоn of the Alabama code limiting the right to sue, to the courts of Alabama. The issue was thus stated in 233 U. S. l. c. 358-359: “The record raises the single question as to whether the full-faith-and-credit clause of the Constitution prohibited the courts of Georgia from enforcing a cause of action given by the Alabama code, to the servant against the master, for injuries occasioned by defective machinery, when an-
The ruling in the Sowers case was also considered and it was said, l. c. 361: “The decision in the Sowers case, however, was not put upon the fact that the suit was based on a common-law liability. The court there announced the general rule that a transitory cause of action can be maintained in another state even though the statute creating the cause of action provides that the action must be brought in local domestic courts.” The court thereby seems to place a common-law action and one created by statute upon the same footing in the particular under consideration.
This court in State ex rel. Harbis v. Trimble, 292 Mo. l. c. 341, heretofore mentioned, referred to the holding in the George case, and after saying the question had not been considered here upon a record which presented it, and that outside this jurisdiction there was some conflict of authority, said, referring to the George case: “It is held (Tenn. Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. v. George, 233 U. S. 354) that the enforcement of such a cause of action by the courts of a sister state does not infringe the full-faith-and-credit clause of the Federal Constitution, but that holding does not preclude state courts from refusing to enforce it.” Reference was also made to the general policy announced in this State in
Another case cited by counsel for plaintiff is Kenney v. Supreme Lodge, 252 U. S. 411. In that case a suit had
In the George and Sowers cases, the respective rights of the parties were not created by the provisions of a statute accepted by them in the exercise of an option, nor did the statutes giving the right of action attempt to unite with the right a special or exclusive remedy, beyond the limitation that the right to sue existed only in the courts of the state giving the right of action.
In the case at bar, the statute creating thе right of action sued on, and that not one under the common law,
The Kansas act is elaborate, and contains a multitude of details. By paragraph 1 of Section 3 of the Act, Laws of Kansas, 1917, Chapter 226, it is provided that the employer, on demand, shall pay the cost, not exceeding $150, for a physician and all surgical and hospital treatment, medicines and the like, but in the event of his refusal, he shall not be liable in excess of the amount stated. Paragraph 2 provides what the compensation shall be where death results from the injury. Paragraph 3 makes provision where total permanent disability results from injury, and where temporary total disability results from injury, and also where disability, partial in character, but permanent in quality, results from the injury. In the last-named instance the provision is that “the injured workman shall be entitled to the compensation provided in paragraph 1 of this section, but shall not be entitled to any other or further compensation for, or during the first week following the injury; but that thereafter, compensation in a lump sum shall be paid as provided in the schedule following, upon a percentage of his average weekly wages, to be computed as provided in Section 4 of this Act, and the compensation is to be in no case less than $6 per week, nor more than $12 per week.” There follows then a schedule providing fоr the compensation to be paid for the loss of a member, as, “For the loss of a hand, fifty per cent of the average weekly wages during one hundred fifty weeks.” The number of weeks during which compensation shall be paid varies, according to the nature of the injury. Payments for total permanent disability cannot extend beyond a period of eight years. There is a provision that permanent loss of the use of a hand, arm, etc., as a direct result of an injury, shall be considered as the equivalent of the loss of such hand, arm or member. The closing provision of the section, among other things, is as follows: “The compensation for the foregoing specific injuries, shall be in lieu of all other compensation, except the benefits provided in paragraph 1 of this section.”
Section 20 of the act, in authorizing suit, provides: “A workman’s right to compensation under this act may, in default of agreement or if the employer shall have refused to consent to an arbitration of the workmen’s claim for compensation, be determined and enforced by action in any court of competent jurisdiction, but no such action shall be maintained until and unless the workman shall have consented to an arbitration or applied to the court as hereinbefore provided for an arbitrator. In every such action the right to trial by jury shall be deemed waived and the case tried by the court without a jury, unless either party shall within ten days after issues are joined demand a jury trial. The judgment in the action, if in favor of the plaintiff, shall be for a lump sum equal to the amount of the payments then due under this act, with interest on the payments overdue, or, in the discretion of the trial judge, for, periodical payments, as in an award; provided, in no case shall a lump-sum judgment be rendered for any injury not ascertainable by objective examination, but in such cases the court may order periodical payments during incapacity of such sums as may be due under the provisions of Section 4 of this Act and such judgment may be reviewed at any time after the expiration of six months upon application of either party
The claim of this plaintiff, under the allegations of his petition, is, that by reason of the provisions of the act, of his injury, and of the refusal of the defendant to arbitrate and adjust his claim, he has been damaged in the sum of $6240, and he asks judgment for that sum. The theory of the law according to its own terms, and its purpose as stated by the Supreme Court of Kansas, is, not to рrovide for the payment of damages, but to require compensation to be made for wages which the workman is prevented from earning by reason of the disability resulting from his injury. The definition given in Duart v. Simmons, 121 N. E. (Mass.) 10, l. c. 13, is appropriate: “The word ‘compensation’ in the connection in which it is used in the act, means money relief afforded according to the scale established and for the persons designated by the act, and not the compensatory damages recoverable in an action at law for a wrong done or a contract broken.”
It is not irrelevant to observe at this point that the plaintiff, in asking a recovery of damages, alleges as an element of his case that he “has suffered great physical and mental anguish and will so continue to suffer during the remainder of his natural life—that plaintiff has lost, and will in the future, lose, much of his natural rest and sleep—that plaintiff has еxpended and obligated himself to expend and will in the future spend and obligate himself to expend large sums for medicine, medical attention and nurse hire in seeking remedies for relief.” These allegations are wholly inconsistent with the measure of recovery prescribed in the compensation statute. [McRoberts v. Zinc Co., 93 Kan. 364-369.] If plaintiff cannot maintain an action in Kansas for general damages resulting from his injury, as distinguished from compensation measured solely by his loss of wages during a limited
The question at issue here is materially different from the question in the Sowers case or in the George case. In those cases there was no question, or consideration of an option, or choice on the part of the employer and employee, whereby they might voluntarily bring themselves within the provisions of the act, or reject it. Here the statute involved is not cumulative or supplemental to the common law, but is substitutional, and, when accepted, it gives a special right and prescribes an exclusive remedy, and, as result of its terms, the pursuit of the exclusive remedy is so interwoven with the right, and with provisions as to the tribunal designated to enforce the right, and the special powers granted to that tribunal as to make a disunion of the right and the exclusive remedy impractical.
Passing by what might be termed the first tribunal, the committee, if one such as is authorized exists to act for the employer and employee involved, and passing by the next or alternative tribunal, an arbitrator agreed upon, or, if not agreed upon appointed by the court, and coming to the last resort, a direct action in сourt, we find the following among the provisions in force at the time involved in this action, as set forth in
Recurring to the provision heretofore quoted from Section 20, Chapter 226, of the Act of 1917: It is there provided that the judgment may be for a lump sum “or, in the discretion of the trial judge for periodical payments as in an award.” And it is further provided that a “judgment in a lump sum cannot be rendered for any injury not ascertainable by objective examination, but in such cases the court may order periodical payments during incapacity of such sums as may be due under Section 4 of the act, and such judgment may be reviewed at any time after the expiration of six months upon application of either party and the amount allowed by the court reduced or raised in accordance with the evidence introduced at the time of such review.”
Courts in Missouri can render only such judgments or so modify them after they are rendered as they may be authorized to do by the laws of Missouri. The jurisdiction of the court is determined by the law of its creation. A statute of Kansas cannot confer upon a Missouri court in a suit for money, a jurisdiction and a power wholly unknown to the Missouri code of procedure. Such a statute cannot do this directly, nor, can it do so indirectly through an attempted authorization of the Missouri court to make rules necessary and appropriate to carry out the purpose of the Kansas statute. By that
We are of the opinion that neither under
PER CURIAM:—The foregoing opinion by Lindsay, C., is hereby adopted as the opinion of the court. All of the judges concur.