Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Co. v. Hackett

Citations

• 228 U.S. 559
• 33 S. Ct. 581
• 57 L. Ed. 966
• 1913 U.S. LEXIS 2397

Syllabus

<p>This court has heretofore sustained the constitutionality of-the statute of Indiana of 1893 abolishing as to railroad corporations the defense to actions for personal injuries sustained by employés of negligence of a fellow-servant. Tullís v. Lake Erie Railroad, 175 U. S. 348;, Louis..& Nash. R. R. v. Melton, 218 U. S. 38.</p> <p>If a state statute has been construed by the highest state court it is the duty of this court to determine its constitutionality under the Federal Constitution as so construed.</p> <p>The Supreme Court of Indiana having held that the statute of 1893 of that State abolishing the fellow-servant defense only applied to railroad employés whose occupation exposed them to hazards incident'to operation of trains, this court holds, following its previous decisions, that the statute is not unconstitutional as denying equal protection of the laws.</p> <p>Quaere whether a state statute applicable to all employés of a railroad company whether exposed to hazard of operations of trains or not ‘ contravenes the equal protection clause of .the Fourteenth Amendment.</p> <p>The court below was justified in holding on the facts in this case that a yard foreman was in charge or control of the train on which the employé sustained his injuries.</p> <p>One who did not in the court below plead or prove the settled judicial construction of a statute of another State cannot claim that full faith and credit was denied to the judicial construction of such statute by the. courts of the enacting State.</p> <p>The putting in evidence of opinions of the highest court of a State construing' a statute of that State, does not amount to proving a settled construction of that statute.</p> <p>In order that this court may review the judgment of a state court on the ground that it denied full faith and credit to the judicial construction of a statute of a State by the courts of that State, the right or claim under the -full faith and credit clause of the Constitution must have