Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Meese

Citations

• 239 U.S. 614
• 36 S. Ct. 223
• 60 L. Ed. 467
• 1916 U.S. LEXIS 1910

Syllabus

<p>Federal courts must accept the construction of a state statute deliberately adopted by the highest court of that State.</p> <p>The highest court of. the State having held, in construing the Washington Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1911, that the compensation thereby provided in the cases covered by its terms was intended to be exclusive of every other remedy and that all causes of action theretofore existing and not saved by its provisos were done away with, the Federal court should accept that construction.</p> <p>In view of that construction, held that although the act did not specifically repeal §§183 and 194, Rem. & Ball. Code, the personal representatives of an employé, killed, while in the course, and at the place, of his employment, by the negligence of one not his employer, cannot maintain a suit at law therefor against the latter.</p> <p>On the record in this case it does not appear that the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Washington is unconstitutional as a denial of the equal protection of the law.</p>