Michigan Central Railroad v. Vreeland

Citations

• 227 U.S. 59
• 33 S. Ct. 192
• 57 L. Ed. 417
• 1913 U.S. LEXIS 2276

Syllabus

<p>If tbe constitutional questions on which the writ of error was based were notforeclosedwhen the writ was sued out, this court retains jurisdiction to consider other assignments'of error even if the constitutional questions have meanwhile been decided in other cases adversély to ■ plaintiff in error.</p> <p>The Employers’ Liability Act of 1908 will not receive such a narrow interpretation as to defeat all liability because the injured employé ■ survived the injury for a brief period.</p> <p>Congress has always had power under the commerce clause of the Constitution to regulate the liability of interstate carriers to their em-ployés for injuries; but until it did act, the subject .was within the police power of the States. Since the passage of the Employers’ Liability Act of 1908, that act is paramount and exclusive and so remains unless and until Congress shall again remit the subject to the States. Reid v. Colorado, 187 U. S. 137.</p> <p>A Federal statute upon a subject exclusively under Fe'deral control must be construed by itself and cannot be pieced out by state legislation. If a liability does not exist under the Employers’ Liability Act of 1908, it does not exist by virtue of any state legislation on the same subject.</p> <p>At common law the right of action for an injury to the person is extinguished by the death of the party injured whether death be instantaneous or not.' As the Employers’ Liability Act of 1908 did not provide for. any such survival, the right was extinguished by death.</p> <p>At common law loss and.damage mayaccrueand a'rightóf actionaccrue to persons dependent upon oneNwrongfully injured; but this cause of . action, except for loss of services prior to death, abates at the death.</p> <p>The evident purpose, however, of Congress, in enacting the Employers’’ Liability Act of 1.908 was to save a right of action to certain relatives dependent upon the employé wrongfully injured for the loss and financial damage resulting from his death, and