Flanders v. Georgia Southern & Florida Railway Co.

Citations

• 68 Fla. 479
• 67 So. 68

Syllabus

<p>1. At common law, no right of action existed in anyone to recover damages for the death of a person. Any statutory right of action given to recover damages for the wrongful death of a person, must he instituted and maintained hy the persons and for the damages as stated in the statute conferring the right of action; and the action must be brought within the time fixed by the statute.</p> <p>2. Whenever a valid Federal regulation covers a subject within the sphere of the Federal law, it is paramount; and any and all conflicting State regulations ■ of such subject are ipso facto wholly excluded thoiefrom. Otherwise the Federal enactments would not be the Supreme law of the land, and the Federal authority would not be paramount within its sphere of operation.</p> <p>3. If the facts on which a cause of action must rest bring the cause within the operation of the iiaramount Federal Statute, it is quite immaterial how or when the real facts developed in the progress of the cause.</p> <p>■4. When the facts of a case, whether developed by the pleadings 'or by the evidence, bring the Federal law regulating interstate commerce into operation, such law is paramount and excludes all conflicting State regulations, even though the facts are commingled with other facts showing an intrastate operation at the same time by the same parties and by the means used by them.</p> <p>5. Where a decedent was fatally injured while he was employed in the interstate commerce as an employee of a “common carrier by railroad,” as a proximate result of the negligence of the carrier, the dominant Federal law controls and is exclusive, even though the decedent and the carrier were ■ also engaged in intrastate commerce.</p> <p>6. Procedure is not of substance or at all material where the facts on which the cause of action rests do not authorize the action as brought to be maintained.</p>