87 N.J.L. 371 | N.J. | 1915
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The prosecutor was employed by defendant in Phillipsburgh, Few Jersey, Fovember 5th, 1911, as a brakeman on a train running between Few Jersey and Pennsylvania; his wages were paid in this state. There is no question that the contract of service was a Few Jersey contract. He , was injured January 7th, 1915, at Odenweiler, Pennsylvania, while on a train that had come from Few Jersey. There is no question that he was engaged in interstate commerce. Two questions are to be decided.
1. Does the Federal Employers’ Liability act prevent the applicability of the Few Jersey Workmen’s Compensation act as the trial judge held ?
2. Does the Few Jersey Workmen’s Compensation act apply where the accident occurs in another state?
1. The Federal Employers’ Liability act is an act, as its name imports, to regulate the liability of employers, and, as its body shows, is applicable only to liability in tort for negligence. Fo new right of action is given; all that is done is to take away certain defences which had come to be thought unjust. The legal liability of the employer under the act does not depend upon the terms of the contract of service, and is neither increased nor diminished thereby. The amount of the pecuniary liability is in no way regulated or limited. The act applies only to certain classes of employers. In all these respects the Workmem’s Compensation act differs. Liability thereunder is contractual, and while the contract liability is implied from silence, either party is at liberty to adopt or reject the statutory contract. A new right of action is given, of a character unknown to our law, at least for several centuries. The liability of the employer depends not on any fault of his own or his servants, but on whether by act or by silence, he has adopted the statutory terms. The amount of his pecuniary liability is fixed by statute and not
We think it clear that the act of congress deals with an entirely separate matter from the act of our own legisla!uro. No confusion would have arisen if the distinction recently pointed out by Justice Trenchard had been observed in the ■early days of this kind of legislation. Gregutis v. Waclark Wire Works, 86 N. J. L. 610.
2. The question whether our act applies in a case where the accident happens in another state is novel. The case is the converse of American Radiator Co. v. Rogge, 86 N. J. L. 436. Our language in the opinion seems to have been misapprehended by counsel. We did not rest the right to recover upon the theory that the question was merely one of evidence to be controlled by the law of the forum. We said that the statute stated the obligation in terms of the law of evidence, and that rules of evidence are rules of procedure, but we added that the view was technical and that wre did not rest on it alone. It would have been better to omit the
There is no proof in the pending case as to the law of Pennsylvania. If it be said that the Pennsjdvania law may provide a different scheme of compensation, and that the effect of our decision may be to allow a double recovery, we can onfy say that questions of that kind had better be dealt with as they arise, and in the light of the exact scheme of compensation that may be involved. It is enough for the present to say that recovery of compensation' in two states is no more illegal, and is not necessarily more unjust than recovery upon two. policies of accident or life insurance.
These views necessitate the reversal of this judgment and the remand of the case to the Common Pleas for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion. No costs are allowed.