Getkin v. Pennsylvania Railroad

Citations

• 259 Pa. 150
• 102 A. 506
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 532

Syllabus

<p>Railroads — Relief fund — Death benefits — Suit at law — Recovery —Satisfaction:—Subsequent claim, against relief fund — Affidavits of defense — Sufficiency-—-A ct of Congress of April 1908.</p> <p>1. A regulation of a relief association of a railroad company providing that the recovery of a judgment in a suit for damages on account of injury or death of a member 'Shall preclude any claim upon the relief fund for benefits on account of such injury or death, is valid; and where a widow has recovered a judgment against the railroad company for the death of her husband she cannot thereafter assert a claim against the railroad relief fund, and an affidavit of defense setting up such regulation as a bar to such action is sufficient.</p> <p>2. In such case the Act of Congress of April 22, 1908, 35 Statutes-at-large 65, c. 149, No, 5, providing that any “contract, rule, regulation or device whatsoever, the purpose or intent of whieh shall be to enable any common carrier to exempt itself from any liability created by this act, shall, to that extent, be void,” is not applicable, such act not intending that there should be both a payment of benefits and a recovery of damages for the injury, at least in so far as payments for both are to be made by the same defendant.</p> <p>3. In such case, had plaintiff received payment of the benefit certificate prior to bringing suit for damages, the stipulation in the contract of membership in the relief fund could not have been permitted to defeat the right to recover damages, but defendant would have been entitled to set off the sum it had so paid the plaintiff.</p>