5 Day 5 5 Day 5
5.1 Horizontal Choice of Law 5.1 Horizontal Choice of Law
Sometimes, the transaction giving rise to a lawsuit occurs across state boundaries. Perhaps a party in State A makes a contract in State B, and the party in State A later alleges that the other party breached. Perhaps a set of events giving rise to a tort begins in State A and finishes in State B.
If the laws of State A and State B are the same, there is no problem about how to decide a case. But, if the law of State A differs from the law of State B, which governs the case? That is the subject for Day 5.
5.2 Excerpts from the Restatement (First) on Conflicts (1953) 5.2 Excerpts from the Restatement (First) on Conflicts (1953)
There are two primary approaches to horizontal (meaning between-state) choice of law, also called "conflicts" of law.
Until around the 1950s, all states followed the "First Restatement" approach. (We will talk briefly about what a "Restatement" is in class.) About ten or so states continue to use it today. It is also called the "vested rights" approach. The first case we read, the Great Alabama Railroad case, exemplifies this approach.
Beginning in the 1950s (roughly), many states began to transition to following the Second Restatement approach. The Second Restatement actually encapsulates several different theories. Depending on which of these theories predominates, you might hear labels such as "interests analysis" or "center of gravity." The second and third cases we read exemplify this approach.
Excerpts from the First and Second Restatements, dealing with torts, appear below.
Sections dealing with “Wrongs”
§ 377. The Place of Wrong
The place of wrong is the state where the last event necessary to make an actor liable for an alleged tort takes place . . . .
The Restatement (First) then goes on to specify that the following issues are determined by the law of the place of wrong:
- “whether a person has sustained a legal injury,” § 378;
- the state of mind needed to impose responsibility on one committing an act or omission (i.e., intentionality, negligence, or faultless (strict liability)), § 379;
- “whether contributory negligence of the plaintiff precludes recovery in whole or in part,” § 385;
- “whether a master is liable in tort to a servant for a wrong caused by a fellow servant,” §386;
- “whether [a person who authorizes another to do an act for him] is liable for the tort of the other,” § 387;
- “whether a claim for damages for a tort survives the death of the tortfeasor or of the injured person,” § 390;
- the law concerning “a right of action for death,” § 391;
- “the measure of damages for a tort,” § 412; and
- “the right to exemplary damages,” 421.
Sections dealing with “Procedure”
§ 584 What Law Governs Procedure
All matters of procedure are governed by the law of the forum.
Sections dealing with “Procedure,” specifically “Statutes of Limitations”
§ 603 Statute of Limitations of Forum
If action is barred by the statute of limitations of the forum, no action can be maintained though action is not barred in the state where the cause of action arose.
§ 604 Foreign Statute of Limitations
If action is not barred by the statute of limitations of the forum, an action can be maintained, though action is barred in the state where the cause of action arose.
[NOTE: WE WILL NOT NOT COVER THE FOLLOWING SECTION IN CLASS, AND YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR IT.]
§ 605 Time Limitations on Cause of Action
If by the law of the state which has created a right of action, it is made a condition of the right that it shall expire after a certain period of limitation has elapsed, no action begun after the period has elapsed can be maintained in any state.
5.3 Excerpts from the Restatement (Second) on Conflicts (1971) 5.3 Excerpts from the Restatement (Second) on Conflicts (1971)
§ 6. Choice-of-Law Principles
(1) A court, subject to constitutional restrictions, will follow a statutory directive of its own state on choice of law;
(2) When there is no such directive, the factors relevant to the choice of the applicable rule of law include
(a) the needs of the interstate and international systems,
(b) the relevant policies of the forum,
(c) the relevant policies of other interested states and the relative interests of those states in the determination of the particular issue,
(d) the protection of justified expectations,
(e) the basic policies underlying the particular field of law,
(f) certainty, predictability and uniformity of result, and
(g) ease in the determination and application of the law to be applied.
From the sections on “Wrongs,” specifically “Torts”
§ 145 The General Principle
(1) The rights and liabilities of the parties with respect to an issue in tort are determined by the local law of that state which, with respect to that issue, has the most significant relationship to the occurrence and the parties under the principles stated in § 6.
(2) Contacts to be taken into account in applying the principles of § 6 to determine the law applicable to an issue include:
(a) the place where the injury occurred,
(b) the place where the conduct causing the injury occurred,
(c) the domicile, residence, nationality, place of incorporation and place of business of the parties, and
(d) the place where the relationship, if any, between the parties is centered.
These contacts are to be evaluated according to their relative importance with respect to the particular issue.
§ 146 Personal Injuries
In an action for a personal injury, the local law of the state where the injury occurred determines the rights and liabilities of the parties, unless, with regard to the particular issue, some other state has a more significant relationship under the principles stated in § 6 to the occurrence and the parties, in which event the local law of the other state will be applied.
§ 174 Vicarious Liability
The law selected by the application of the rule of § 145 determines whether one person is liable for the tort of another person.
From the sections on “Procedure”
§ 122 Issues Relating to Judicial Administration
A court usually applies its own local law rules prescribing how litigation shall be conducted even when it applies the local law rules of another state to resolve other issues in the case.
From the sections on “Procedure,” specifically “Rules Reflecting Other Values,” from the 1988 Revision (replacing previous §§ 142-43)
§ 142. Whether a claim will be maintained against the defense of the statute of limitations is determined under the principles stated in § 6. In general, unless the exceptional circumstances of the case make such result unreasonable:
(1) The forum will apply its own statute of limitations barring the claim.
(2) The forum will apply its own statute of limitations permitting the claim unless:
(a) the maintenance of the claim would serve no substantial interest of the forum; and
(b) the claim would be barred under the statute of limitations of a state having a more significant relationship to the parties and the occurrence.
5.4 Alabama Great Southern Railroad v. Carroll 5.4 Alabama Great Southern Railroad v. Carroll
This case is an example of the First Restatement approach to horizontal choice of law. Under this approach, the state whose laws govern the case is the state in which the “wrong” was complete, i.e., the place of injury. We look to the state in which the last event that vested a plaintiff with the right to sue occurred; this state’s law will govern the substantive issues of the case.
What might be the benefits and drawbacks of this approach? In this case, even though the wrongful act that led to the plaintiff's injury (the failure to inspect the train coupling) occurred in Alabama, the injury done to the plaintiff occurred fortuitously in Mississippi, where the train decoupled. Consequently, under the First Restatement approach, Mississippi’s fellow-servant law was applied. Does this approach adequately protect parties’ interests or the interests that other states may have?
Alabama Great Southern RailRoad Co. v. Carroll.
■ Action by Employe for Injuries Sustained in Another State.
1. Negligence of fellow-servant not cause of action against master at common-law.— Under the common-law, both in Alabama and Mississippi, the master is not liable for an injury inflicted through the negligence of a fellow-servant.
2. Section 8590 of the Coda has no extra territorial operation. — There can be no recovery in Alabama for injuries to the person sustained in another State, unless actionable by the law of the State where received, and this rule is not varied because the negligence which produced the casualty transpired in Alabama, where the common-law liability of the master is modified, nor by the facts that both master and employee reside in this State and services were required of the employee in both States.
3. Section 8590 imposes no contractual obligations. — The liability of the employer under Section 2590 of the Oocje, does not spring from the contract of employment, the only office of which is to establish the relation of master and servant, and it is alone upon the incidents of that relation that the statute operates. Hence, a servant injured in another State by the negligence of a fellow-servant, under such circumstances as would create no right of action against the master ♦in that State, cannot recover against the latter in Alabama, although the contract was entered into and the services partly performed here.
Appeal from City Court of Birmingham.
Tried before Hon. H. A. Sharpe.
J. W. Eewell, and A. Gr. Smith, for appellant.
That the action is not for breach of contract, nor for breach of duty growing out of contract. — R. R. Go. v. Doyle, 60 Miss. 977; A. T. & R. R. v. Moore, 11 Am. & Eng. R. R. cases 243 ; LeForest v. Tolman, 19 Am. Rep. 400; McMaster v. R. It. Go., 65 Miss. 264; Davis v. N. Y. R. R. 143 Mass. 301; 33 Kan. 83; 98 N. Y. 377 ; 61 Iowa 441; 61 Tex. 432 ; 72 Ind. 220; 10 Ohio St. 121; E. T. V. & G. Rwy. v. Lewis, 14 S. W. Rep. 603 ; 23 N. Y. 465 ; 5 Am. & Eng. Éncyc. 127; 3 lb. 522; 10 S. Rep. 661; 2 Thornp. on Neg. p. 1282.
Brooks <fe Brooks, for appellee,
as to jurisdiction, cited Denwick v. R. R. Go. 103 U. S. 18; Knight v. R. R. Go. 108 Pa. St. 38; Am. Rep. 492; A. G. 8. v. Thomas, 89 Ala. 293.
That the law is part of the contract, Hanriek v. Andretvs, 9 Port. 9; MeDougald v. Rutherford, 30 Ala. 253; Walker v. *127 Forbes, 31 Ala. 9; Brouc/Mon v. Bradley, 36 Ala. 689; Oubbedge v. Napier, 62 Ala. 518; 100 U.'S. 213; 116 lb. 647; 3 Ám. & Eng. Encyc. 545.
— The plaintiff "W. D. Carroll is, and was at the time of entering into the service of the defendant, the Alabama Great Southern Bailroad Company, and at the time of being injured in that service, a citizen of Alabama. The defendant is an Alabama corporation operating a railroad extending from Chattanooga in the State of Tennessee through Alabama to Meridian in the State Mississippi. At the time of the casualty complained of, plaintiff was in the service of the defendant in the capacity of brakeman on freight trains running from Birmingham, Alabama, to Meridian, Mississippi, under a contract which was made in the State of Alabama. The injury was caused by the. breaking of a link between two cars in a freight train which was proceeding from Birmingham to Meridian. The point at which the link broke and the injury was suffered was in the State of Mississippi. The evidence tended to show that the link which broke was a defective link and that it was in a defective condition when the train left Birmingham. It Avas shoAvn that this link, had come to the defendant’s road at Chattanooga, Tennessee, with a car which belonged to and came to that point over a road Avhich was foreign to the A. G. S. road. That at Chattanooga, this foreign car Avas coupled into a train of the defendant by means of this link, the destination of the car next in rear of it being Birmingham, and the destination of the second car in the rear of it, Avhich belonged to defendant, being Meridian, to which point the foreign car Avas also bound. At Birmingham the car betAveen this foreign car and the A. G. S. car which Avere billed to Meridian was cut out, and these tAvo were coupled together by means of the link which had come to the defendant Avith the foreign car. The evidence went also to sIioav that the defect in this link consisted in or resulted from its having been bent Avhile cold, that thi^ tended to weaken the iron and in this instance had cracked the link someAvhat on the outer curve of the bend, and that the link broke at the point of this crack. It was shovvn to be the duty of certain employees of defendant stationed along its line to inspect the links attached to cars to be put in trains or forming the couplings between cars in trains at Chattanooga, Birmingham, and some points betAveen Birmingham and the place where this link broke, and *128also that it was the duty of the conductor of freight trains and the other train-men to maintain such in spection as occasion afforded throughout the runs or trips of such trains; and the evidence affords ground for inference that there was a negligent omission on the part of such employees to perform this duty, or if performed, the failure to discover the defect in and to remove this link was the result of negligence.
The foregoing statement of facts, either proved or finding lodgment in the tendencies of the evidence, together with the evidence' of the law of Mississippi, as to the master’s liability for injuries sustained by an employee in his service, will suffice for the consideration and determination of the question which is of chief importance in this ease, namely, whether the defendant is liable at all on the facts presented by this record for an injury sustained by the defendant in the State of Mississippi. The affirmative of this inquiry is sought to be rested and maintained upon two distinct propositions. In the first place, it is insisted that the negligence which one aspect of the evidence tends to establish is that of the defendant in respect of a duty which the law imposes upon the master and which whether performed or undertaken to be performed in the particular instance by the hand of the master or by the hand of one to whom he had delegated its performance is yet to be taken as being performed or attempted to be performed by the master himself, in such sort that the employer is responsible for its misperformance or non-performance whereby injury results to one of his employees under the doctrine o! the common-law and wholly irrespective of statutory jarovisions. These doctrines are presumed, and also shown bjr the evidence in this case, to obtain in the State of Mississippi ; and the defendant being an Alabama corporation it cannot be questioned that an action may be maintained in this State to recover damages for an injury sustained in Mississippi, by one of its servants, if the facts present a good cause of action under the law of that State. It is manifest beyond adverse inference on the evidence, conceding the link, the breaking of which caused the accident, to have been in a defective condition when it came to defendant’s road at Chattanooga attached to, and intended to be used in the further transportation, of the foreign car, that it was so used from that point to the place of the accident, that this defective condition of the link was patent to such observation as should have been bestowed upon it and that the defect in it was the proximate cause of the injury to the plaintiff, it *129is, we say clear upon every aspect of the testimony, conceding all this to be true, that the use of that link in coupling the foreign car to the defendant’s train and also in its use throughout the voyage from Chattanooga into Mississippi was due to the negligence of employees of the defendant who were charged by it with the duty of inspecting the link before and at the time of incorporating the foreign car into this train and at the several points in Alabama where inspectors were stationed as shown by the evidence, and also of the train-men charged with the duty of inspection as the train was en route. There is no pretense that the defendant had not been sufficiently careful in the selection of these inspectors or that they were incompetent. It is not pretended that -they were insufficient in number or stationed at points too widely separated along the line. There is no such idea advanced as .that the defendant was negligent in the purchasing of links of adequate strength, and supplying them to these inspectors and to trains generally.; or that there was any necessity for the continued use of this link upon a discovery of its defective condition; but on the contrary it is affirmatively shown that the defendant purchased and supplied its trains and employees with all necessary links of good quality and perfect condition to be used in its trains, to supply the places of links which became defective from use, and to substitute for defective links coming to this road with foreign cars. The only negligence, in other words and in short, which finds support by direction or inference in any tendency of the evidence, is that of persons whose duty it was to inspect the links of the train, and remove such as were defective and replace them with others which were not defective. This was the negligence not of the master, the defendant, but of fellow-servants of the plaintiff, for which at common-law the defendant is not liable. Thus it is said in McKinney on Fellow-Servants, § 127 : “It is a very common thing for train hands to receive injury through the negligence of persons employed by the company to inspect their cars to discover defects and repair them. The weight of authority, perhaps, is to the effect that the negligence of such employees in the performance of such duties cannot be attributed to the company, and it is consequently not liable for it.” Citing among other cases Smith v. Potter, 46 Mich. 258; s. c. 2 Am. & Eng. R. R. Cas. 140; Mackin v. Railroad Co., 135 Mass. 201; s. c. 15 Am. & Eng. R. R. Cas. 196; Railroad Co. v. Webb, 12 Ohio St. 475; Railroad Co. v. Rice, 11 So. West Rep. (Ark.) 699 ; Kidwell v. Railroad Co. 3 Wood (U. S.) 313; and our own case *130of Smoot v. Mobile & Montgomery R. R. Co. 67 Ala. 13; and these and other cases are cited to the same proposition in 7 Am. & En. Encyc. of Law p. 864, note.
There are cases-which hold to the contrary, but the law is and has long been settled in this State as we have stated it, the case of Smoot v. Mobile & Montgomery R. R. Co. supra, being directly in point. — Mobile & Ohio R. R. Co. v. Thomas, 42 Ala. 672, 720 et seq; Mobile & Montgomery Ry. Co. v. Smith, 59 Ala. 245; Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co. V. Allen, 78 Ala. 494.
This being the common-law applicable to the premises as understood and declared in Alabama, it will be presumed in our courts as thus declared to be the common-law of Mississippi, unless the evidence shows a different rule to have been announced by the Supreme Court of the State as being the common-law thereof. The evidence adduced here fails to show any such thing; but to the contrary it is made to appear from the testimony of J udge Arnold and by the decisions of the Supreme Court of Mississippi which were introduced on the trial below that that court is in full accord with this one in this respect. Indeed, if any thing, those decisions go further than this court has ever gone in applying the doctrine of fellow-servants- to the exemption of railway companies from liability to one servant for injuries resulting from the negligence of another, holding in one case that a hostler whose only duty it was to supply an engine with sufficient sand before turning it over to the engineer to go on the road is a fellow-servant of the engineer for whose negligent failure to supply the same the company would not be liable. — L. & N. R. R. Co. v. Petty, 67 Miss. 255; in another, that a section foreman and a laborer working under him were fellow-servants in such sort- that their common master would not be liable fox the negligence of the former in attempting to repair a fishbar which he ought to have discarded and applied for a new one. — Lagrave v. Mobile & Ohio R. R. Co. 67 Miss. 532; and in yet another case, that a section foreman and train-man are fellow-servants in respect of the negligence of the former unknown to the comp>any in failing to keep the track in repair, and that an engineer on a passing train who was injured in consequence could not recover against common employer. — N. O. J. & G. N. R. R. Co. v. Hughes, 49 Miss. 258; and the doctrine of this case is said by Mr. McKinney to be “substantially the rule recognized by - the English common-law decisions.” McKinney on Eellow-servants, p. 82 § 29. See also McMaster v. Illinois Central R. R. Co. 65 Miss. 264.
*131Proceeding therefore on the presumptions we are authorized to indulge and also on the evidence adduced in this case as to the law of Mississippi in this connection, and upon the testimony most favorable to the plaintiff as to the cause of his injuries, we feel entirely safe in declaring that plaintiff has shown no cause of action under the common-law as it is understood and applied both here and in Mississippi.- ___.
It is, however, further contended that the plaintiff, if his evidence be believed, has made out a ease for the recovery sought under the Employer’s Liability Act ■ of Alabama, it being clearly shown that there is no such, or similar law of force in the State- of Mississippi. Considering this position in the abstract, that is dissociated from the facts of this particular case which are supposed to exert an important influence upon it,' there can not be two opinions as to its being unsound and untenable. So looked at, we do not understand appellee’s counsel even to deny either the proposition or its application to this case, that there can be no recovery in one State for injuries to the person sustained in another unless the infliction of the injuries is actionable under the law of the State in which they were received. Certainly this is the well established rule of law subject in some jurisdictions to the qualification that the infliction of the injuries would also support an action in the State where the suit is brought, had they been received within that State, 3 Am. & Eng. Encyc. of Law, pp. 508-9; Hyde's Admr. v. Wabash, St Louis & Pacific Ry. Co. 61 Iowa, 441; East Tenn. Va. & Ga. R. R. Co. v. Lewis, 14 S. W. Rep. 603; Buckles v. Ellers, 72 Ind. 220; Willis v. Mo. Pac. Ry. Co. 61 Texas, 432; Woodward v. M. S. & N. I. R. R. Co. 10 Ohio St. 121; Whitford v. Panama Railroad Co. 23 N. Y. 465; Debovois v. N. Y. L. E. & W. R. R. Co. 98 N. Y. 377; N. C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Foster, 11 Amer. & Eng. R. R. Cas. 180; 2 Rover on Railroads, p. 1149; Kahl v. M. & C. R. R. Co. 95 Ala. 337; C. St. L. & Mo. R. R. Co. v. Doyle, 60 Miss. 977; Davis v. N. Y. & N. E. R. R. Co. 143 Mass. 301; LeForest v. Tolman, 117 Mass. 109; s. c. 19 Amer. Rep. 400; Lime-killer v. H. & St. J. R. R. Co. 33 Kan. 83; The Scotland, 105 U. S. 24; The Santa Cruz, 1 C. Rob. 50; A. T. & S. F. R. R. Co. v. Moore, 11 Am. & Eng. R. R. Cas. 243.
But it is claimed that the facts of this case take it out of the general rule which the authorities cited above abundantly support, and authorize the courts of Alabama to subject the defendant to the payment of damages under section 2590 of the Code, although the injuries counted on were sustained in Mississippi under circumstances which involved no liability on the defendant by the laws of that State,
*132This insistence is in the first instance based on that aspect of the evidence which goes to show that the negligence which produced the' casualty transpired in Alabama, and the theory that wherever the consequence of that negligence manifested itself, a recovery can be had in Alabama. We are referred to no authority in support of this proposition, and exhaustive investigation on our part has failed to disclose any. There are at least two well considered cases against it, one of which involved an effort to recover for personal injuries sustained in Alabama under circumstances which afforded no cause of action in Alabama in the courts of Tennessee lohere the causal negligence occurred and where also had the negligence manifested itself in the results complained of .there, the plaintiff would have been entitled to recover, j The accident happened on a train going from Naslívillé to Chattanooga, in Tennessee, on a railway which runs for a comparatively short distance through Alabama. The negligence relied on consisted in the failure of employees of the defendant charged in that behalf to discover and remedy a defective brake before the train left Nashville as well as during its passage through Tennessee. While the train was running through Alabama, a brakeman was killed in consequence of the defect in this brake. All this is precisely on all fours with our case in those of its aspects most favorable to the plaintiff. That plaintiff, the court conceded, would have had a good cause of action under the law of Tennessee, the place of the negligence, if his intestate had been injured within its limits. So here, the plaintiff on one aspect of the evidence would have had a good cause for ac&ion in Alabama, the place of the negligence, had he been injured in Alabama. But it was found in that case that the law of Alabama gave no cause of action for the negligent failure to inspect the appliances used in operating a train, but held the brakeman and the inspectors to be fellow-servants in respect thereto, just as here the laws of Mississippi afforded no redress for the consequence of such negligence, though our statutes have since the Tennessee decision provided therefor; and it was held on the authority of Mobile & Ohio R. R. Co. v. Thomas, 42 Ala. 672, that there could have been no recovery in Alabama and that of consequence no cause of action existed in Tennessee, the court saying: ‘-There is no question but the laws of Alabama • ■ • controlled the rights of the parties in this case, and whether there was error in this part of the charge (referring to an instruction as to defendant’s liability on the negligence shown) as given, or the refusal of the specific instructions asked for (substantial*133ly that the negligence of a car inspector from which a brakeman suffers injury is no ground for action against their common employer,) depends wholly upon the laws of that State. Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Ry. Co. v. Foster, 10 Lea, 352; s. c. 11 Amer. & Eng. R. R. Cas. 180. In the other case the precise point here under consideration was brought before the Supreme Court of Mississippi, in an action instituted in that State sounding in damages for fatal injuries inflicted upon plaintiff’s intestate in the State of Tennessee. It was insisted that inasmuch as the death of the deceased resulted from the negligent failure of a train dispatcher in Mississippi to give requisite orders to the trainmen at a certain point in Tennessee, the rights of the parties were determinable by the laws of Mississippi the place of the disastrous negligent omission. But the court held to the contrary, saying: “The right of the appellee is determinable by the laws of Tennessee, in which State the killing of her husband occurred. The view that no recovery could be had here, except for a result traceable to an omission of duty in Mississippi is unfounded. Physical force proceeding from this State and inflicting injury in another State might give rise to an action in either State, and vice versa but the omission of duty in Mississippi cannot transfer a consequence of it manifested physically in another State to Mississippi. The cases of injuries commenced in one jurisdiction 'and completed in another illustrate our views on this subject. The true view is that the legal entity called the corporation is- omni-present on its railroad, and the presence or absence of negligence with respect to an occurrence at any point of the line is not to be resolved by the place at which an officer or employe was stationed for duty. The question is as to duty operating effectually at the place where its alleged failure caused harm to result. The locality of the collision was in Tennessee. It was there, if any where, that the company was remiss in duty, for there is where its proper caution should have been used.” — Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans R. R. Co. v. Doyle, 60 Miss. 977, 984. If this doctrine was properly applied to the facts of that case where the act to be performed, the failure to perform which caused the injury, could only be performed at a point in Mississippi and by an employe who was stationed and remained at that place, it would seem to address itself with more force to the case at bar where it appears the corporation was in fact present with the train and with the defective link every inch of the journey from Birmingham to the point of the accident in the person of the conductor and other trainmen who were charg*134eel with the duty' all along the line of discovering and removing -the unsafe appliances.
■ The position of the Mississippi court appears to us to be eminently sound in principle and upon logic. It is admitted, or "at least cannot be denied, that negligence of duty unproductive of damnifying results will not authorize or support a recovery. ■ Up to the time train'passed out of Alabama no injury had resulted. For all ttmr occurred in Alabama, therefore, no cause of action whatever arose. The fact, which created the right to sue, the injury without which confessedly no action would lie anywhere, transpired in the State of Mississippi. It was in that State, therefore, necessarily that the cause of action; if any, arose; and whether a cause of action arose and existed at all or not must in all reason be determined by the law which obtained at the time and place when and where the fact whrh. is relied on to justify a recovery transpired. Section 2590 of the Code of Alabama had no efficiency beyond the lines of Alabama. It cannot be allowed to operate upon facts occurring in another State so as to evolve put of them rights and liabilities which do not exist under the law of that State which is of course paramount-in the premises. Where the facts occur in Alabama and a liability becomes fixed in Alabama, it may be enforced in another State having like enactments, or whose policy is not opposed to the spirit of such enactments, but this is quite a different matter. This is but enforcing,the statute upon facts to which it is applicable all of which' occur within the territory for the government of which it was enacted. Section 2590-of the Code, in other words is to be interpreted in the light of universally recognized principles of private international or interstate law, as if its operation had been expressly limited to this State and as if its first line read as follows: “When a personal injury is received in Alabama by a servant or employee,” &c., &c. The negligent infliction of an injury here under statutory circumstances creates a right of action here, which, being transitory, may be enforced in any other State or country the comity of which admits of it; but for an injury inflicted elsewhere than in Alabama our statute gives no right of recovery, and the aggrieved party must look to the local law to ascertain what his rights are. Under that laAv this plaintiff had no cause of action, as we have seen, and hence he has no rights which our courts can enforce, unless it be upon a consideration to be presently adverted to. We have not been inattentive to the suggestions of counsel in this connection, which are based upon that rule of the statutory and common crim*135inal law under which a murderer is punish able-where the fatal blow is delivered, regardless of the place where death ensues. — Green v. State, 66 Ala. 40. This principle is patently without application here. There would be some analogy if the plaintiff had been stricken in' Alabama and suffered in Mississippi, which is not the fact. There is,however, an analogy which is afforded by the criminal law, but which points away from the conclusion appellee’s counsel desire us to reach. This is found in that well established doctrine of criminal law, that where the unlawful act-is committed in one jurisdiction or State and takes effect — produces the result which .it is the purpose of the law to prevent, or, it having ensued, punish for — in another jurisdiction or State, the crime is deemed to have been commited and is punished in that jurisdiction or State in which the result is manifested, and not where the act was committed.. 1 Bish. Cr. Law, § 110 et seq. ; 1 Bish. Cr. Pro. § 53 et seq.
Another considerationAthat referred to above — it is insisted, entitles this plaintiff to recover here under the Employer’s Liability Act for an injury inflicted beyond the territorial operation of that act. This is claimed upon the fact that at the time plaintiff was injured he was in the discharge of duties which rested on Mm by the terms of a contract between Mm and defendant which had been entered into in Alabama, and, hence, was an Alabama contract, 'in connection with the facts that plaintiff was and is a citizen of this State, and the defendant is an Alabama corporation. These latter facts — of citizenship and domicile respectively of plaintiff and defendant — are of no importance in this connection, it seems to us, further than this: they may tend, to show that the contract was made here, which is not controverted, and if the plaintiff has a cause of action at all, he, by reason of them, may prosecute it in our courts. They have no bearing on the primary question of existence of a cause of action, and as that is the question before us, we need not further advert to the fact of plaintiff’s citizenship or defendant’s domicile. " 1
The contract was that plaintiff should serve the defendant in the capacity of a brakeman on its freight train between Birmingham, Alabama, and Meridian, Mississippi, and should receive as compensation a stipulated sum for each trip from Birmingham to Meridian and return. The theory is that the Employer’s Liability Act became a part of this contract; that the duties and liabilities which it prescribes became contractual duties and liabilities, or duties and liabilities springing out of the contract, and that these duties *136attended upon the execution whenever its performance was required — in Mississippi as well as in Alabama — and that the liability prescribed for a failure to perform any of such duties attached upon such failure and consequent injury wherever it occurred, and was enforceable here because imposed by an Alabama'contract notwithstanding the remission of duty and the resulting injury occurred in Mississippi, under whose laws no liability was incurred by such remission. The argument is that a contract for service is a condition precedent to the application of the statute, and that “as soon as the contract is made the rights and obligations of the parties, under the Employer’s Act, became vested and fixed,” so that “no subsequent repeal of the law could deprive the injured party of his rights nor discharge the master from his liabilities,” &c., &c. If this argument is sound, and it is sound if the duties and liabilities prescribed by the act can be said to be contractual duties and obligations at all, it would lead to conclusions the possibility of which has not hitherto been suggested by any court or law writer, and which, to say the least, would be astounding to the profession. For instance: If the act of 1885 becomes a part of every contract of service entered into since its passage, just “as if such law were in so many words expressly included in the contract as a part thereof,” as counsel insist it did, so as to make the liability of the master to pay damages from injuries to a fellow-servant of his negligent employe, a contractual obligation, no reason can be conceived why the law existing in this regard prior to the passage of that act did not become in like manner a part of every contract of service then entered into, so that every such contract would be deemed to contain stipulations for the non-liability of the master for injuries flowing from the negligence of a fellow-servant, and confining the injured servant’s right to damage to a claim against his negligent fellow-servant — the former, in other words, agreeing to look jdpne to jhe latter. / There were many thousands of such contracts existing in this country and England at the time when statutes similar to section 2590 of our Code were enacted, there were indeed many thousands of such contracts existing in Alabama when that section became the law of this State. Each of these contracts, if the position of plaintiff as to our statute being embodied ' into the terms of his contract so that its duties were contractual duties, and its liabilities contractual obligations to pay money can be maintained, -involved the assurances of organic provisions, State and Federal, of the continued non-liability of the master for the *137negligence of his servants, notwithstanding the passage of such statutes. Yet these statutes were passed, and they have been applied to servants under pre-existing contracts as fully as to servants under subsequent contracts, and there has never been a suggestion even in any part of the common-law world that they werenot rightly so applied. If plaintiff’s contention is well taken, many a judgmeut has gone on the rolls in this State, and throughout the country, and has been satisfied, which palpably overrode vested rights without the least suspicion on the part of court or counsel that one of the most familiar ordinances of the fundamental law was being violated. Nay more, another result not heretofore at all contemplated would ensue. Contracts for service partly in Alabama might be now entered into in adjoining States where the common-law rule still obtains, as in Mississippi,' for instance, where the servant has no right to recover for the negligence of his fellow, and the assumption of this risk under the law becoming, according to the argument of counsel, a contractual obligation-to bear it, such contracts would be good in Alabama and as to servants entering into them, our statute would have no operation even upon negligence and resulting injury within its terms occurring wholly in Alabama. And on the other hand, if this defendant is under a contractual obligation to pay the plaintiff the damages sustained by him because of the injury inflicted in Mississippi, the contract could be of course enforced in Mississippi and damages there awarded by its courts, notwithstanding the law of that State provides that there can be no recovery under any circumstances whatever by one servant for the negligence of his fellow employe. "We do not suppose that such a proposition ever has been or ever will be made in the courts of Mississippi. Yet that it should be made and sustained is the natural and necessary sequence of the position advanced in this case. These considerations demonstrate the infirmity of plaintiff’s position in this connection, and serve to show the necessity and propriety of the conclusion we propose to announce on this part of the case. That conclusion is, thaf'the duties and liabilities'! incident to the relation befween the plaintiff and the' defendant which are involved in this case, are not imposed by and do not rest in or spring from the contract between .the parties. The only office of the. contract, under section 2590 of the Code, is the establishment of a relation between them, that of master and servant; and it is upon that relation, that incident or consequence of the contractj and not upon the rights of the parties under thej contract, that our statute operates., The law is not con*138cerned with the contractual stipulations, except in so far as to determine from them that the relation upon which it is to operate existsF/Finding this relation the statute ■ imposes certain duties and liabilities on the parties to it wholly regardless of the stipulations of the contract as to the rights of the parties under it, and, it may be, in the teeth of such stipulations. It is the purpose of the statute and must be the limit of its operation to govern persons standing in the relation of master and servants to each other in respect of their conduct in certain particulars within the State of Alabama. ^^Mississippi has the same right to establish governmental rules for such. persons within hex borders as AlabamaNahd’ she has established rules which are different from those of our law. And the conduct of such persons toward each other is, when its legality is brought in question, to be adjudged by the rules of the one or the other ~___StatesasJd_falls territorially within the o.ne or the other. The doctrine is like that which prevails in respect of other relations, as that of man and wife. Marriage is a contract. The entering into this contract raises up certain duties and imposes certain liabilities in all civilized countries. What these duties and liabilities are at the place of the contract are determinable by the law of that place; but when the parties go into other jurisdictions, the relation created by the contract under the laws of the place of its execution will be recognized, but the personal duties, obligations and liabilities incident to the relation are such as exist under the law of the jurisdiction in which an act is done or omitted as to the legality, effect or consequence of which the question arises. It might as well be said where there is a marriage in Alabama and the parties remove to MissisEi, and the wife there makes a contract ydiich is void in fissippi but valid under our statute, and subsequently they return to Alabama, that our courts will enforce that contract, or if such husband while in Mississippi does an act which is innocuous and lawful in that State, but which if done here would entail liability upon him, and the parties afterwards return here, that the liability imposed by bur laws could be enforced here, because the parties entered into the contract here, as that a master is liable here for qonduct towards his servant which was proper, or at least involved no liabilty, where it took place, simply because the contract which created the relation was entered into in this State. The whole argument is at fault. The only true doctrine is that each sovereignty, state or nation, has the exclusive power to finally determine and declare what acts or *139omission in the conduct of one to another,-whether they he strangers or sustain- relations to each other which the law recognizes, as parent and child, husband and wife, master and servant, and the like, shall impose a liability in damages for the consequent injury, and the courts of no -other sovereignty can impute a damnifying quality to an act or omission which afforded no cause of action where it transpired. ¡ These propositions-find illustration and support in the case of Whitford v. The Panama R. R. Co., 23 N. Y. 465, where the relation involved was that of carrier and- passenger, a relation which had been created by a contract made in New York, between a corporation and -a citizen thereof for carriage, commencing in that State and ending in San Francisco, via Panama and over the Panama railroad. ■ The passenger was killed through the fault of the corporation’s servants while being transported along this railroad. The law of New York gave to the personal representative of a person whose death was caused by the wrongful' act or omission of another, a right of action therefor in-all cases where the deceased, had the injury fallen short of death, could have recovered. It did not appear that the laws of New Granada where the injury was inflicted, authorized any recovery on the facts alleged and proved. It was urged, as here, that the domicile of the parties and the fact that they contracted in New York took the case out of general rules as to territorial limitations upon the operation of statutes, but the plaintiff was non-suited, it being held-in effect that the laws of New Granada were controlling as to-the duties and liabilities incident to the relation which existed between them, while the contract of carriage was being performed in that country, and that the carrier so far as care and diligence were concerned owed the passenger no duties there except such as were imposed upon the relation by the local law, and that no liability for negligence and its results not prescribed by that law rested on the company. And the court, inter alia, said: ’‘Suppose the government of New Granada to have enacted that the proprietors of a railroad company should not be responsible for the negligence of its servants, provided there was no want of due care in selecting them; it could not be pretended that its will could be set at naught by prosecuting the corporation in the courts of another State where the law was different. . . . The true theory is, that no suit whatever respecting this injury could be sustained in the courts of this State, except pursuant to the law of international comity. By that law foreign contracts and foreign transactions, out of which liabilities have arisen, *140may be prosecuted in our tribunals by tbe implied assent of tbe government of this State; but in all such cases, we administer tbe foreign law as from the proofs we find it to be, or as without proofs, we presume it to be.” So, in the casé of Gray v. Jackson & Co., 51 N. H., 9, there was a contract of affreightment by the terms of which goods were to be carried out of one State into and through other States. They were lost in a State other than that in which the contract was made and the carriage commenced. By the law of the place of the contract the carrier was liable for the loss under the circumstances shown in evidence had it occurred in that State. By the law of the State where the loss occurred, however, the carrier was not liable. In an action fox the loss prosecuted in the State of the contract, the' law, not of that State, but of the place of the loss which operated as to the particular transaction on the relation of shipper and carrier and prescribed the duties and liabilities incident to that relation in that State, regardless of the place where the contract creating the relation was entered into, was applied and made to determine the rights of the parties to be other than they were under the law of the place of the contract which was also, as here, the place of the forum.
The foregoing views will suffice to indicate the grounds of our opinion that the rights of this plaintiff are determinable solely by the law of the State of Mississippi, and of our conclusion that upon no aspect or tendency of the evidence as to the circumstances under which the injury was sustained and as to the laws of Mississippi obtaining in the premises was the plaintiff entitled to recover.
The general affirmative charge requested for defendant should have been given. The other very numerous assignments of error need not be considered.
Eor the error in refusing to instruct the jury to find for the defendant if they believed the evidence, the judgment is reversed and the cause will be remanded.
5.5 Notes following Alabama Great Southern Railroad 5.5 Notes following Alabama Great Southern Railroad
The Great Alabama Railroad case holds that the law of the last event necessary to give rise to the lawsuit will determine almost all aspects of a torts case. There are several problems:
1) Sometimes, as in this case, the location of the last event is entirely fortuitous or a matter of accident. Is it fair or rational that chance should decide whether a plaintiff can recover? Does focusing on the last event allow a court to effectuate the purposes and policies of states' laws?
2) If the law of two states differ, which one determines what the last event necessary to give rise to a cause of action was? Don't we have to make a decision of which state's law governs the question of which was the last necessary event in order to know what that last event was? But, is that decision itself a choice-of-law decision? In other words, don't we have to make a choice-of-law decision in order to know what the last key event was, which is what is supposed to determine the choice-of-law decision in the case?
These criticisms apply to the First Restatement approach. But, there is a broader issue: is horizontal choice of law (under the First or Second or nth Restatement) coherent in the modern era defined by the Internet? What about in cases when the “last event” is not in a tangible geographic location, as when, for example, a plaintiff accuses a defendant of stealing something that exists only online? Or cases about financial transactions or intangible property like welfare benefits? Note the year in which the Great Alabama Railroad decision was issued.
5.6 Babcock v. Jackson 5.6 Babcock v. Jackson
Babcock involved a car accident that occurred in Ontario, Canada. At the time of the accident, Ontario law had what is sometimes called a “guest statute,” which immunized the driver of a noncommercial vehicle from being sued by a passenger for negligence that resulted in the passenger’s injury or death. New York, on the other hand, had no such guest statute, meaning that a passenger injured as a result of a driver’s negligence could sue the driver. Babcock, a New York resident, sued Jackson, also a New York resident, in New York state court for negligence, but the trial court dismissed the complaint after it applied Ontario law. The intermediate appellate court affirmed, and the passenger took the case to the New York Court of Appeals (New York’s state high court).
As you read the case, keep in mind two particular things:
- How does the court determine that the state of New York had a superior interest in the litigation (i.e., what facts did it list to show this)?
- What does the court identify as possible interests that Ontario might have in this litigation, and why does it believe that they do not apply here? (Hint: There are at least two interests that work in favor of applying Canadian law, and the court gives different reasons for concluding those interests do not govern the issue of the guest statute’s applicability.)
Georgia W. Babcock, Appellant,
v.
Mabel B. Jackson, as Executrix of William H. Jackson, Deceased, Respondent.
Court of Appeals of the State of New York.
John M. Regan for appellant.
Ellsworth Van Graafeiland for respondent.
Chief Judge DESMOND and Judges DYE, BURKE and FOSTER concur with Judge FULD; Judge VAN VOORHIS dissents in an opinion in which Judge SCILEPPI concurs.
[476] FULD, J.
On Friday, September 16, 1960, Miss Georgia Babcock and her friends, Mr. and Mrs. William Jackson, all residents of Rochester, left that city in Mr. Jackson's automobile, Miss Babcock as guest, for a week-end trip to Canada. Some hours later, as Mr. Jackson was driving in the Province of Ontario, he apparently lost control of the car; it went off the highway into an adjacent stone wall, and Miss Babcock was seriously injured. Upon her return to this State, she brought [477] the present action against William Jackson, alleging negligence on his part in operating his automobile.[1]
At the time of the accident, there was in force in Ontario a statute providing that "the owner or driver of a motor vehicle, other than a vehicle operated in the business of carrying passengers for compensation, is not liable for any loss or damage resulting from bodily injury to, or the death of any person being carried in * * * the motor vehicle" (Highway Traffic Act of Province of Ontario [Ontario Rev. Stat. (1960), ch. 172], § 105, subd. [2]). Even though no such bar is recognized under this State's substantive law of torts (see, e.g., Higgins v. Mason, 255 N.Y. 104, 108; Nelson v. Nygren, 259 N.Y. 71), the defendant moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that the law of the place where the accident occurred governs and that Ontario's guest statute bars recovery. The court at Special Term, agreeing with the defendant, granted the motion and the Appellate Division, over a strong dissent by Justice HALPERN, affirmed the judgment of dismissal without opinion.
The question presented is simply drawn. Shall the law of the place of the tort[2] invariably govern the availability of relief for the tort or shall the applicable choice of law rule also reflect a consideration of other factors which are relevant to the purposes served by the enforcement or denial of the remedy?
The traditional choice of law rule, embodied in the original Restatement of Conflict of Laws (§ 384), and until recently unquestioningly followed in this court (see, e.g., Poplar v. Bourjois, Inc., 298 N.Y. 62, 66; Kaufman v. American Youth Hostels, 5 N Y 2d 1016, modfg. 6 A D 2d 223), has been that the substantive rights and liabilities arising out of a tortious occurrence are determinable by the law of the place of the tort. (See Goodrich, Conflict of Laws [3d ed., 1949], p. 260; Leflar, The Law of Conflict of Laws [1959], p. 207; Stumberg, Principles of Conflict of Laws [2d ed., 1951], p. 182.) It had its conceptual foundation in the vested rights doctrine, namely, that a right to recover for a foreign tort owes its creation to the law of the [478] jurisdiction where the injury occurred and depends for its existence and extent solely on such law. (See Hancock, Torts in the Conflict of Laws [1942], pp. 30-36; Reese, The Ever Changing Rules of Choice of Law, Nederlands Tijdschrift Voor Internationaal Recht [1962], 389.) Although espoused by such great figures as Justice HOLMES (see Slater v. Mexican Nat. R. R. Co., 194 U. S. 120) and Professor Beale (2 Conflict of Laws [1935], pp. 1286-1292), the vested rights doctrine has long since been discredited because it fails to take account of underlying policy considerations in evaluating the significance to be ascribed to the circumstance that an act had a foreign situs in determining the rights and liabilities which arise out of that act.[3] "The vice of the vested rights theory", it has been aptly stated, "is that it affects to decide concrete cases upon generalities which do not state the practical considerations involved". (Yntema, The Hornbook Method and the Conflict of Laws, 37 Yale L. J. 468, 482-483.) More particularly, as applied to torts, the theory ignores the interest which jurisdictions other than that where the tort occurred may have in the resolution of particular issues. It is for this very reason that, despite the advantages of certainty, ease of application and predictability which it affords (see Cheatham and Reese, Choice of the Applicable Law, 52 Col. L. Rev. 959, 976), there has in recent years been increasing criticism of the traditional rule by commentators[4] and a judicial trend towards its abandonment or modification.[5]
[479] Significantly, it was dissatisfaction with "the mechanical formulae of the conflicts of law" (Vanston Committee v. Green, 329 U. S. 156, 162) which led to judicial departure from similarly inflexible choice of law rules in the field of contracts, grounded, like the torts rule, on the vested rights doctrine. According to those traditional rules, matters bearing upon the execution, interpretation and validity of a contract were determinable by the internal law of the place where the contract was made, while matters connected with their performance were regulated by the internal law of the place where the contract was to be performed. (See Swift & Co. v. Bankers Trust Co., 280 N.Y. 135, 141; see, also, Restatement, Conflict of Laws, §§ 332, 358; Goodrich, Conflict of Laws [3d ed., 1949], pp. 342-343.)
In Auten v. Auten (308 N.Y. 155), however, this court abandoned such rules and applied what has been termed the "center of gravity" or "grouping of contacts" theory of the conflict of laws. "Under this theory," we declared in the Auten case, "the courts, instead of regarding as conclusive the parties' intention or the place of making or performance, lay emphasis rather upon the law of the place `which has the most significant contacts with the matter in dispute'" (308 N. Y., at p. 160). The "center of gravity" rule of Auten has not only been applied in other cases in this State,[6] as well as in other jurisdictions,[7] but has supplanted the prior rigid and set contract rules in the most current draft of the Restatement of Conflict of Laws. (See Restatement, Second, Conflict of Laws, § 332b [Tentative Draft No. 6, 1960].)
Realization of the unjust and anomalous results which may ensue from application of the traditional rule in tort cases has also prompted judicial search for a more satisfactory alternative in that area. In the much discussed case of Kilberg v. Northeast Airlines (9 N Y 2d 34), this court declined to apply the law of the place of the tort as respects the issue of the quantum of the recovery in a death action arising out of an airplane crash, [480] where the decedent had been a New York resident and his relationship with the defendant airline had originated in this State. In his opinion for the court, Chief Judge DESMOND described, with force and logic, the shortcomings of the traditional rule (9 N Y 2d, at p. 39):
"Modern conditions make it unjust and anomalous to subject the traveling citizen of this State to the varying laws of other States through and over which they move. * * * An air traveler from New York may in a flight of a few hours' duration pass through * * * commonwealths [limiting death damage awards]. His plane may meet with disaster in a State he never intended to cross but into which the plane has flown because of bad weather or other unexpected developments, or an airplane's catastrophic descent may begin in one State and end in another. The place of injury becomes entirely fortuitous. Our courts should if possible provide protection for our own State's people against unfair and anachronistic treatment of the lawsuits which result from these disasters."
The emphasis in Kilberg was plainly that the merely fortuitous circumstance that the wrong and injury occurred in Massachusetts did not give that State a controlling concern or interest in the amount of the tort recovery as against the competing interest of New York in providing its residents or users of transportation facilities there originating with full compensation for wrongful death. Although the Kilberg case did not expressly adopt the "center of gravity" theory, its weighing of the contacts or interests of the respective jurisdictions to determine their bearing on the issue of the extent of the recovery is consistent with that approach. (See Leflar, Conflict of Laws, 1961 Ann. Sur. Amer. Law, 29, 45.)
The same judicial disposition is also reflected in a variety of other decisions, some of recent date, others of earlier origin, relating to workmen's compensation,[8] tortious occurrences arising [481] out of a contract,[9] issues affecting the survival of a tort right of action[10] and intrafamilial immunity from tort[11] and situations involving a form of statutory liability.[12] These numerous cases differ in many ways but they are all similar in two important respects. First, by one rationale or another, they rejected the inexorable application of the law of the place of the tort where that place has no reasonable or relevant interest in the particular issue involved. And, second, in each of these cases the courts, after examining the particular circumstances presented, applied the law of some jurisdiction other than the place of the tort because it had a more compelling interest in the application of its law to the legal issue involved.
The "center of gravity" or "grouping of contacts" doctrine adopted by this court in conflicts cases involving contracts impresses us as likewise affording the appropriate approach for accommodating the competing interests in tort cases with multi-State contacts. Justice, fairness and "the best practical result" (Swift & Co. v. Bankers Trust Co., 280 N.Y. 135, 141, supra) may best be achieved by giving controlling effect to the law of the jurisdiction which, because of its relationship or contact with the occurrence or the parties, has the greatest concern with the specific issue raised in the litigation. The merit of such a rule is that "it gives to the place `having the most interest in the problem' paramount control over the legal issues arising out of a particular factual context" and thereby allows the forum to apply "the policy of the jurisdiction `most [482] intimately concerned with the outcome of [the] particular litigation.'" (Auten v. Auten, 308 N.Y. 155, 161, supra.)
Such, indeed, is the approach adopted in the most recent revision of the Conflict of Laws Restatement in the field of torts. According to the principles there set out, "The local law of the state which has the most significant relationship with the occurrence and with the parties determines their rights and liabilities in tort" (Restatement, Second, Conflict of Laws, § 379[1]; also Introductory Note to Topic 1 of Chapter 9, p. 3 [Tentative Draft No. 8, 1963]), and the relative importance of the relationships or contacts of the respective jurisdictions is to be evaluated in the light of "the issues, the character of the tort and the relevant purposes of the tort rules involved" (§ 379[2], [3]).
Comparison of the relative "contacts" and "interests" of New York and Ontario in this litigation, vis-a-vis the issue here presented, makes it clear that the concern of New York is unquestionably the greater and more direct and that the interest of Ontario is at best minimal. The present action involves injuries sustained by a New York guest as the result of the negligence of a New York host in the operation of an automobile, garaged, licensed and undoubtedly insured in New York, in the course of a week-end journey which began and was to end there. In sharp contrast, Ontario's sole relationship with the occurrence is the purely adventitious circumstance that the accident occurred there.
New York's policy of requiring a tort-feasor to compensate his guest for injuries caused by his negligence cannot be doubted — as attested by the fact that the Legislature of this State has repeatedly refused to enact a statute denying or limiting recovery in such cases (see, e.g., 1930 Sen. Int. No. 339, Pr. No. 349; 1935 Sen. Int. No. 168, Pr. No. 170; 1960 Sen. Int. No. 3662, Pr. No. 3967) — and our courts have neither reason nor warrant for departing from that policy simply because the accident, solely affecting New York residents and arising out of the operation of a New York based automobile, happened beyond its borders. Per contra, Ontario has no conceivable interest in denying a remedy to a New York guest against his New York host for injuries suffered in Ontario by reason of conduct which was tortious under Ontario law. The object of Ontario's guest statute, it has been said, is "to prevent the fraudulent assertion [483] of claims by passengers, in collusion with the drivers, against insurance companies" (Survey of Canadian Legislation, 1 U. Toronto L. J. 358, 366) and, quite obviously, the fraudulent claims intended to be prevented by the statute are those asserted against Ontario defendants and their insurance carriers, not New York defendants and their insurance carriers. Whether New York defendants are imposed upon or their insurers defrauded by a New York plaintiff is scarcely a valid legislative concern of Ontario simply because the accident occurred there, any more so than if the accident had happened in some other jurisdiction.
It is hardly necessary to say that Ontario's interest is quite different from what it would have been had the issue related to the manner in which the defendant had been driving his car at the time of the accident. Where the defendant's exercise of due care in the operation of his automobile is in issue, the jurisdiction in which the allegedly wrongful conduct occurred will usually have a predominant, if not exclusive, concern. In such a case, it is appropriate to look to the law of the place of the tort so as to give effect to that jurisdiction's interest in regulating conduct within its borders, and it would be almost unthinkable to seek the applicable rule in the law of some other place.
The issue here, however, is not whether the defendant offended against a rule of the road prescribed by Ontario for motorists generally or whether he violated some standard of conduct imposed by that jurisdiction, but rather whether the plaintiff, because she was a guest in the defendant's automobile, is barred from recovering damages for a wrong concededly committed. As to that issue, it is New York, the place where the parties resided, where their guest-host relationship arose and where the trip began and was to end, rather than Ontario, the place of the fortuitous occurrence of the accident, which has the dominant contacts and the superior claim for application of its law. Although the rightness or wrongness of defendant's conduct may depend upon the law of the particular jurisdiction through which the automobile passes, the rights and liabilities of the parties which stem from their guest-host relationship should remain constant and not vary and shift as the automobile proceeds from place to place. Indeed, such a result, we note, [484] accords with "the interests of the host in procuring liability insurance adequate under the applicable law, and the interests of his insurer in reasonable calculability of the premium." (Ehrenzweig, Guest Statutes in the Conflict of Laws, 69 Yale L. J. 595, 603.)
Although the traditional rule has in the past been applied by this court in giving controlling effect to the guest statute of the foreign jurisdiction in which the accident occurred (see, e.g., Smith v. Clute, 277 N.Y. 407; Kerfoot v. Kelley, 294 N.Y. 288; Naphtali v. Lafazan, 8 N Y 2d 1097, affg. 8 A D 2d 22), it is not amiss to point out that the question here posed was neither raised nor considered in those cases and that the question has never been presented in so stark a manner as in the case before us with a statute so unique as Ontario's.[13] Be that as it may, however, reconsideration of the inflexible traditional rule persuades us, as already indicated, that, in failing to take into account essential policy considerations and objectives, its application may lead to unjust and anomalous results. This being so, the rule, formulated as it was by the courts, should be discarded. (Cf. Bing v. Thunig, 2 N Y 2d 656, 667; Woods v. Lancet, 303 N.Y. 349, 355.)[14]
In conclusion, then, there is no reason why all issues arising out of a tort claim must be resolved by reference to the law of the same jurisdiction. Where the issue involves standards of conduct, it is more than likely that it is the law of the place of the tort which will be controlling but the disposition of other issues must turn, as does the issue of the standard of conduct itself, on the law of the jurisdiction which has the strongest interest in the resolution of the particular issue presented.
[485] The judgment appealed from should be reversed, with costs, and the motion to dismiss the complaint denied.
VAN VOORHIS, J. (dissenting).
The decision about to be made of this appeal changes the established law of this State, one of the most recent decisions the other way being Kaufman v. American Youth Hostels (5 N Y 2d 1016), where all of the "significant contacts" were with New York State except the mountain which plaintiff's intestate was climbing when she met her death. The defense of immunity of a charitable corporation under the Oregon law, where the accident occurred, was inapplicable under the law of New York where the defendant corporation was organized and staffed, and plaintiff and his intestate resided. Nevertheless the court declined to strike that defense from the answer, based upon Oregon law. Concerning, as it did, solely the status of the defendant corporation, Kaufman v. American Youth Hostels presented a stronger case for the application of New York law than does the present. The case of Auten v. Auten (308 N.Y. 155), involving a separation agreement between English people and providing for the support of a wife and children to continue to live in England, accomplished no such revolution in the law as the present appeal. Auten v. Auten dealt with contracts, the agreement was held to be governed by the law of the country where it was mainly to be performed, which had previously been the law, and the salient expressions "center of gravity", "grouping of contacts", and similar catchwords were employed as a shorthand reference to the reconciliation of such rigid concepts in the conflict of laws as the formulae making applicable the place where the contract was signed or where it was to be performed — rules which themselves were occasionally in conflict with one another. In the course of the opinion it was stated that "even if we were not to place our emphasis on the law of the place with the most significant contacts, but were instead simply to apply the rule that matters of performance and breach are governed by the law of the place of performance, the same result would follow" (308 N. Y., p. 163). The decision in Auten v. Auten rationalized and rendered more workable the existing law of contracts. The name "grouping of contacts" was simply a label to identify the rationalization of existing decisions on the conflict of laws in [486] contract cases which were technically inconsistent, in some instances. The difference between the present case and Auten v. Auten is that Auten did not materially change the law, but sought to formulate what had previously been decided. The present case makes substantial changes in the law of torts. The expressions "center of gravity", "grouping of contacts," and "significant contacts" are catchwords which were not employed to define and are inadequate to define a principle of law, and were neither applied to nor are they applicable in the realm of torts.
Any idea is without foundation that cases such as the present render more uniform the laws of torts in the several States of the United States. Attempts to make the law or public policy of New York State prevail over the laws and policies of other States where citizens of New York State are concerned are simply a form of extraterritoriality which can be turned against us wherever actions are brought in the courts of New York which involve citizens of other States. This is no substitute for uniform State laws or for obtaining uniformity by covering the subject by Federal law. Undoubtedly ease of travel and communication, and the increase in interstate business have rendered more awkward discrepancies between the laws of the States in many respects. But this is not a condition to be cured by introducing or extending principles of extraterritoriality, as though we were living in the days of the Roman or British Empire, when the concepts were formed that the rights of a Roman or an Englishman were so significant that they must be enforced throughout the world even where they were otherwise unlikely to be honored by "lesser breeds without the law." Importing the principles of extraterritoriality into the conflicts of laws between the States of the United States can only make confusion worse confounded. If extraterritoriality is to be the criterion, what would happen, for example, in case of an automobile accident where some of the passengers came from or were picked up in States or countries where causes of action against the driver were prohibited, others where gross negligence needed to be shown, some, perhaps, from States where contributory negligence and others where comparative negligence prevailed? In the majority opinion it is said that "Where the defendant's exercise of due care in the operation of his automobile is in issue, the jurisdiction in which the allegedly wrongful conduct occurred [487] will usually have a predominant, if not exclusive, concern." This is hardly consistent with the statement in the footnote that gross negligence would not need to be established in an action by a passenger if the accident occurred in a State whose statute so required. If the status of the passenger as a New Yorker would prevent the operation of a statute in a sister State or neighboring country which granted immunity to the driver in suits by passengers, it is said that it would also prevent the operation of a statute which instead of granting immunity permits recovery only in case of gross negligence. There are passenger statutes or common-law decisions requiring gross negligence or its substantial equivalent to be shown in 29 States. One wonders what would happen if contributory negligence were eliminated as a defense by statute in another jurisdiction? Or if comparative negligence were established as the rule in the other State?
In my view there is no overriding consideration of public policy which justifies or directs this change in the established rule or renders necessary or advisable the confusion which such a change will introduce.
The judgment dismissing the complaint should be affirmed.
Judgment reversed, with costs in all courts, and matter remitted to Special Term for further proceedings in accordance with the opinion herein.
[1] Jackson having died after the commencement of the suit, his executrix was substituted in his place as defendant.
[2] In this case, as in nearly all such cases, the conduct causing injury and the injury itself occurred in the same jurisdiction. The phrase "place of the tort," as distinguished from "place of wrong" and "place of injury," is used herein to designate the place where both the wrong and the injury took place.
[3] See Cavers, A Critique of the Choice-of-Law Problem, 47 Harv. L. Rev. 173, 178; Cheatham, American Theories of Conflict of Laws: Their Role and Utility, 58 Harv. L. Rev. 361, 379-385; Cook, The Logical and Legal Bases of the Conflict of Laws, 33 Yale L. J. 457, 479 et seq.; Hill, Governmental Interest and the Conflict of Laws, 27 U. Chi. L. Rev. 463; Lorenzen, Territoriality, Public Policy and the Conflict of Laws, 33 Yale L. J. 736, 746-749; Yntema, The Hornbook Method and the Conflict of Laws, 37 Yale L. J. 468, 474 et seq.
[4] See Dicey, Conflict of Laws (7th ed., 1958), p. 937 et seq.; Leflar, The Law of Conflict of Laws (1959), p. 217 et seq.; Stumberg, Principles of Conflict of Laws (2d ed., 1951), p. 201 et seq.; Morris, The Proper Law of a Tort, 64 Harv. L. Rev. 881; Ehrenzweig, Guest Statutes in the Conflict of Laws, 69 Yale L. J. 595; Currie, Survival of Actions: Adjudication versus Automation in the Conflict of Laws, 10 Stan. L. Rev. 205.
[5] See, e.g., Richards v. United States, 369 U. S. 1, 12-13; Grant v. McAuliffe, 41 Cal. 2d 859; Schmidt v. Driscoll Hotel, 249 Minn. 376; Haumschild v. Continental Cas. Co., 7 Wis. 2d 130.
[6] See, e.g., Haag v. Barnes, 9 N Y 2d 554; Zogg v. Penn Mut. Life Ins. Co., 276 F.2d 861 (2d Cir.).
[7] See, e.g., Jansson v. Swedish Amer. Line, 185 F.2d 212, 218-219; Barber Co. v. Hughes, 223 Ind. 570, 586; Kievit v. Loyal Protective Life Ins. Co., 34 N. J. 475, 491-493; Estate of Knippel, 7 Wis. 2d 335, 343-345.
[8] See, e.g., Alaska Packers Assn. v. Industrial Acc. Comm., 294 U. S. 532; Matter of Nashko v. Standard Water Proofing Co., 4 N Y 2d 199; Kennerson v. Thames Towboat Co., 89 Conn. 367; Pierce v. Bekins Van & Stor. Co., 185 Ia. 1346; Aleckson v. Kennedy Motor Sales Co., 238 Minn. 110; see, also. 2 Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law, § 84.
[9] See Dyke v. Erie Ry. Co., 45 N.Y. 113; see, also, Bowles v. Zimmer Mfg. Co., 277 F.2d 868 (breach of warranty).
[10] See Grant v. McAuliffe, 41 Cal. 2d 859, supra; Herzog v. Stern, 264 N.Y. 379; see, also, Currie, Survival of Actions: Adjudication versus Automation in the Conflict of Laws, 10 Stan. L. Rev. 205.
[11] See Emery v. Emery, 45 Cal. 2d 421; Koplik v. C. P. Trucking Corp., 27 N. J. 1; Mertz v. Mertz, 271 N.Y. 466; Haumschild v. Continental Cas. Co., 7 Wis. 2d 130, supra; see, also, Ehrenzweig, Parental Immunity in the Conflict of Laws, 23 U. Chi. L. Rev. 474; Ford, Interspousal Liability for Automobile Accidents in the Conflict of Laws, 15 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 397. But cf. Coster v. Coster, 289 N.Y. 438.
[12] See Schmidt v. Driscoll Hotel, 249 Minn. 376, supra; Osborn v. Borchetta, 20 Conn. S. 163; Levy v. Daniels' U-Drive Auto Renting Co., 108 Conn. 333. See, also, Daily v. Somberg, 28 N. J. 372 (effect of release to one of several parties jointly liable for plaintiff's injury).
[13] We note that the Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the refusal of the Quebec courts to apply the Ontario guest statute to an accident affecting Quebec residents which occurred in Ontario. (See McLean v. Pettigrew, [1945] 2 D. L. R. 65.) This decision was dictated by the court's resort to the English choice of law rule, whereby the foreign tort is deemed actionable if actionable by the law of the forum and not justifiable by the law of the place of the tort. See Phillips v. Eyre, [1870] L. R. 6 Q. B. 1, 28-29; see, also, Dicey, Conflict of Laws [7th ed., 1958], p. 940.) However that may be, it would seem incongruous for this court to apply Ontario's unique statute in circumstances under which its own sister Provinces would not.
[14] It of course follows from our decision herein that, given the facts of the present case, the result would be the same and the law of New York applied where the foreign guest statute requires a showing of gross negligence.
5.7 Notes following Babcock v. Jackson 5.7 Notes following Babcock v. Jackson
- Issues in litigation. In Babcock, you are introduced to the idea of cutting up litigation into various different “issues.” For example, the enforceability of a forum-selection clause might be one issue among many others in a case about a contract.
- The Babcock court asserted near the end: “[T]here is no reason why all issues arising out of a tort claim must be resolved by reference to the law of the same jurisdiction.” What separate issues does the court identify in Babcock?
- Can you think of what might be some other issues in this litigation?
- Note: Keep in mind that cases can get “cut up” into issues, as this becomes relevant in issue preclusion, which we will learn much later in the course.
- “Center of gravity” and Second Restatement. The court in Babcock expressly espouses the Second Restatement. This approach, called the “center of gravity” or an "interest" test, looks to the state with the most significant relationship to the specific issue (or perhaps the state with the strongest interest in the issue) at hand and applies that state’s law to that issue. This would, in theory, serve justice, fairness, and the “best practical result.”
- For the two issues you identified in question 1(a), what law does the court apply to each issue?
- This is a torts case, but Babcock uses an analogy from contracts law: previously, in New York, the law that applied to the “execution, interpretation and validity of a contract” was the law of the state where the contract was formed, and the issues with the performance of the contract were regulated by the law of the state where the contract was to be performed. Auten v. Auten abandoned those rules and instead applied the “center of gravity” test. Do you find this trans-substantive analogizing move appropriate or helpful here?
- Interests of jurisdiction. One way to determine the interests of a jurisdiction is to consider the purpose of enacting the law, but this can be difficult: as you learned or will learn in LegReg, it is not always easy to discern a single purpose of a law. Another way to determine interests is to think about what states want to regulate within their borders and whom they want to protect.
- For the two issues identified in questions 1(a) and 2(a), why does the court apply the law that it does to each specific issue? What state interests does it rely on?
- Note: This case is only an introduction to what is called “interest analysis,” a subfield within the legal field of conflict-of-law. Academics and practitioners debate over what is considered a legitimate state interest, how to determine or quantify it, and how to deal with conflicting interests.
- The Court of Appeals of New York, the highest court in the state, considered the following question: Should the law of the place of the tort or wrongdoing always dictate “the availability of relief for the tort,” or should there also be a consideration of relevant factors, including policy considerations, that might play a role? As we saw in Great Alabama Railroad, the traditional choice-of-law principle was that the court would apply the law of the state in which the injury occurred (lex loci delicti) – i.e., the last place that vests the plaintiff with the right to recover for a tort. As the court noted in Babcock, this might lead to what some consider “unjust and anomalous results.” As we noted in the casenotes for Great Alabama Railroad, sometimes the location of the tort is arbitrary and perhaps does not have a relation to the substantive rights and liabilities that arise out of the tort, and a “merely fortuitous circumstance that the wrong and injury occurred in [a State] [does] not give that State a controlling concern of interest in the amount of the tort recovery.” In this case, was the accident that occurred in Ontario “merely fortuitous”? Put another way, when is the location of an unintentional tort, i.e., an accident, NOT fortuitous? In other words, if no one intends for an accident to occur, an accident’s location is always . . . err . . . accidental, no? If so, then doesn’t the argument about the “fortuitousness” of the location of an accident mean that courts should pay no attention at all to the location of an accident? Or is it really true that the location of an accident is always accidental? Mightn’t the probability of an accident depend on how much precautionary care a potential tortfeasor is exercising at a particular time, and mightn’t the level of care depend on how much liability the tortfeasor expects to face if an accident occurs, which, in turn, could depend on the law the tortfeasor expects to apply to accidents for which it might be sued? But if state interests and the center of gravity are complex and hard to predict in advance (because it's hard to know how a future court will see them), how is a tortfeasor supposed to know the level of resources it should invest in precaution?
- Complex problems. What happens when the facts become trickier? Let’s say the passenger and driver are from different jurisdictions – which jurisdiction’s laws apply to which issues? This situation is presented in our next case, Neumeier.
5.8 Neumeier v. Kuehner 5.8 Neumeier v. Kuehner
In Neumeier, the Court of Appeals of New York considered yet another car-accident-in-Ontario case. Neumeier, a resident of Ontario, was killed in a car driven by Keuhner, a resident of New York. The deceased’s wife brought an action against Keuhner’s estate in New York state court. The defendant argued that the claim was barred by Ontario’s guest statute, and the trial court agreed. The appellate court reversed, and the Court of Appeals took the case.
Look at who wrote the majority opinion for both cases and the years they were decided. Judge Fuld of the Court of Appeals of New York was a part of what academics call the “revolution” in choice-of-law during the 60s and 70s. (Point taken that this is definitely not the most important or interesting revolution happening during this time period.)
Neumeier is an application of the Second Restatement Choice of Law in a more complex factual pattern than what is in Babcock. The court determines that both Ontario and New York have interests here - to protect their domiciliaries. Note how it contends with this and other policy considerations.
Joan Neumeier, as Administratrix of The Estate of Amie Neumeier, Deceased, Respondent,
v.
Irene Kuehner, as Administratrix of The Estate of Arthur Kuehner, Deceased, et al., Appellants.
Court of Appeals of the State of New York.
Frank G. Godson for Irene Kuehner, appellant.
Courtland R. LaVallee for Canadian National Railway, appellant.
James S. McAskill and James N. Schmit for respondent.
Judges BURKE, SCILEPPI and GIBSON concur with Chief Judge FULD; Judge BREITEL concurs in a separate opinion in which Judge JASEN concurs; Judge BERGAN dissents and votes to affirm in an opinion.
[123] Chief Judge FULD.
A domiciliary of Ontario, Canada, was killed when the automobile in which he was riding, owned and [124] driven by a New York resident, collided with a train in Ontario. That jurisdiction has a guest statute, and the primary question posed by this appeal is whether in this action brought by the Ontario passenger's estate, Ontario law should be applied and the New York defendant permitted to rely on its guest statute as a defense.
The facts are quickly told. On May 7, 1969, Arthur Kuehner, the defendant's intestate, a resident of Buffalo, drove his automobile from that city to Fort Erie in the Province of Ontario, Canada, where he picked up Amie Neumeier, who lived in that town with his wife and their children. Their trip was to take them to Long Beach, also in Ontario, and back again to Neumeier's home in Fort Erie. However, at a railroad crossing in the Town of Sherkston — on the way to Long Beach — the auto was struck by a train of the defendant Canadian National Railway Company. Both Kuehner and his guest-passenger were instantly killed.
Neumeier's wife and administratrix, a citizen of Canada and a domiciliary of Ontario, thereupon commenced this wrongful death action in New York against both Kuehner's estate and the Canadian National Railway Company. The defendant estate pleaded, as an affirmative defense, the Ontario guest statute and the defendant railway also interposed defenses in reliance upon it. In substance, the statute provides that the owner or driver of a motor vehicle is not liable for damages resulting from injury to, or the death of, a guest-passenger unless he was guilty of gross negligence (Highway Traffic Act of Province of Ontario [Ont. Rev. Stat. (1960), ch. 172], § 105, subd. [2], as amd. by Stat. of 1966, ch. 64, § 20, subd. [2]). It is worth noting, at this point, that, although our court originally considered that the sole purpose of the Ontario statute was to protect Ontario defendants and their insurers against collusive claims (see Babcock v. Jackson, 12 N Y 2d 473, 482-483), "Further research * * * has revealed the distinct possibility that one purpose, and perhaps the only purpose, of the statute was to protect owners and drivers against suits by ungrateful guests." (Reese, Choice of Law, 71 Col. L. Rev. 548, 558; see Trautman, Two Views on Kell v. Henderson: A Comment, 67 Col. L. Rev. 465, 469.)
[125] The plaintiff, asserting that the Ontario statute "is not available * * * in the present action", moved, pursuant to CPLR 3211 (subd. [b]), to dismiss the affirmative defenses pleaded. The court at Special Term, holding the guest statute applicable, denied the motions (63 Misc 2d 766) but, on appeal, a closely divided Appellate Division reversed and directed dismissal of the defenses (37 A D 2d 70). It was the court's belief that this result was dictated by Tooker v. Lopez (24 N Y 2d 569).
In reaching that conclusion, the Appellate Division misread our decision in the Tooker case — a not unnatural result in light of the variant views expressed in the three separate opinions written on behalf of the majority. It is important to bear in mind that in Tooker, the guest-passenger and the host-driver were both domiciled in New York, and our decision — that New York law was controlling — was based upon, and limited to, that fact situation. Indeed, two of the three judges who wrote for reversal — Judge KEATING (24 N Y 2d, at p. 580) and Judge BURKE (at p. 591) — expressly noted that the determination then being made left open the question whether New York law would be applicable if the plaintiff passenger happened to be a domiciliary of the very jurisdiction which had a guest statute.[1] Thus, Tooker v. Lopez did no more than hold that, when the passenger and driver are residents of the same jurisdiction and the car is there registered and insured, its law, and not the law of the place of accident, controls and determines the standard of care which the host owes to his guest.
What significantly and effectively differentiates the present case is the fact that, although the host was a domiciliary of New York, the guest, for whose death recovery is sought, was domiciled in Ontario, the place of accident and the very jurisdiction which had enacted the statute designed to protect the host from liability for ordinary negligence. It is clear that, although New York has a deep interest in protecting its own residents, injured in a foreign state, against unfair or anachronistic statutes of that state, it has no legitimate interest in [126] ignoring the public policy of a foreign jurisdiction — such as Ontario — and in protecting the plaintiff guest domiciled and injured there from legislation obviously addressed, at the very least, to a resident riding in a vehicle traveling within its borders.
To distinguish Tooker on such a basis is not improperly discriminatory. It is quite true that, in applying the Ontario guest statute to the Ontario-domiciled passenger, we, in a sense, extend a right less generous than New York extends to a New York passenger in a New York vehicle with New York insurance. That, though, is not a consequence of invidious discrimination; it is, rather, the result of the existence of disparate rules of law in jurisdictions that have diverse and important connections with the litigants and the litigated issue.
The fact that insurance policies issued in this State on New York-based vehicles cover liability, regardless of the place of the accident (Vehicle and Traffic Law, § 311, subd. 4), certainly does not call for the application of internal New York law in this case. The compulsory insurance requirement is designed to cover a car-owner's liability, not create it; in other words, the applicable statute was not intended to impose liability where none would otherwise exist. This being so, we may not properly look to the New York insurance requirement to dictate a choice-of-law rule which would invariably impose liability. As Justice MOULE wrote in the course of his dissenting opinion below (37 A D 2d, at pp. 75-76), "The statute [Vehicle and Traffic Law, § 311, subd. 4] does not purport to impose liability where none would otherwise exist. We must observe that Judge KEATING'S statement ([in Tooker, 24 N Y 2d, at] p. 577) that the Legislature `has evinced commendable concern not only for the residents of this State, but residents of other States who may be injured as a result of the activities of New York residents' was in the context, not of proving that New York had a governmental interest in overriding foreign rules of liability, but of demonstrating that it was immaterial in that case that the driver and passenger, while domiciliaries of New York, were attending college in Michigan. While New York may be a proper forum for actions involving its own domiciliaries, regardless of where the accident happened, it does not follow that we should apply New York law simply because some may think it is a better rule, where doing so does not advance any New York State [127] interest, nor the interest of any New York State domiciliary."
When, in Babcock v. Jackson (12 N Y 2d 473, supra), we rejected the mechanical place of injury rule in personal injury cases because it failed to take account of underlying policy considerations, we were willing to sacrifice the certainty provided by the old rule for the more just, fair and practical result that may best be achieved by giving controlling effect to the law of the jurisdiction which has the greatest concern with, or interest in, the specific issue raised in the litigation. (See, also, Tooker v. Lopez, 24 N Y 2d 569, 584 [concurring opn.], supra.) In consequence of the change effected — and this was to be anticipated — our decisions in multi-state highway accident cases, particularly in those involving guest-host controversies, have, it must be acknowledged, lacked consistency. This stemmed, in part, from the circumstance that it is frequently difficult to discover the purposes or policies underlying the relevant local law rules of the respective jurisdictions involved. It is even more difficult, assuming that these purposes or policies are found to conflict, to determine on some principled basis which should be given effect at the expense of the others.
The single all-encompassing rule which called, inexorably, for selection of the law of the place of injury was discarded, and wisely, because it was too broad to prove satisfactory in application. There is, however, no reason why choice-of-law rules, more narrow than those previously devised, should not be successfully developed, in order to assure a greater degree of predictability and uniformity, on the basis of our present knowledge and experience. (See, e.g., Cavers, The Choice of Law Process, 121-122; Reese, Choice of Law, 71 Col. L. Rev. 548, 555, 561-562; Reese, Choice of Law: Rules or Approach, 57 Corn. L. Rev. 315, 321 et seq.; Rosenberg, Comments on Reich v. Purcell, 15 UCLA L. Rev. 641, 642, 646-647.) "The time has come," I wrote in Tooker (24 N Y 2d, at p. 584), "to endeavor to minimize what some have characterized as an ad hoc case-by-case approach by laying down guidelines, as well as we can, for the solution of guest-host conflicts problems." Babcock and its progeny enable us to formulate a set of basic principles that may be profitably utilized, for they have helped us uncover the underlying values and policies which are operative in this area of the law. To quote again from the concurring [128] opinion in Tooker (p. 584), "Now that these values and policies have been revealed, we may proceed to the next stage in the evolution of the law — the formulation of a few rules of general applicability, promising a fair level of predictability." Although it was recognized that no rule may be formulated to guarantee a satisfactory result in every case, the following principles were proposed as sound for situations involving guest statutes in conflicts settings (24 N Y 2d, at p. 585):
"1. When the guest-passenger and the host-driver are domiciled in the same state, and the car is there registered, the law of that state should control and determine the standard of care which the host owes to his guest.
"2. When the driver's conduct occurred in the state of his domicile and that state does not cast him in liability for that conduct, he should not be held liable by reason of the fact that liability would be imposed upon him under the tort law of the state of the victim's domicile. Conversely, when the guest was injured in the state of his own domicile and its law permits recovery, the driver who has come into that state should not — in the absence of special circumstances — be permitted to interpose the law of his state as a defense.
"3. In other situations, when the passenger and the driver are domiciled in different states, the rule is necessarily less categorical. Normally, the applicable rule of decision will be that of the state where the accident occurred but not if it can be shown that displacing that normally applicable rule will advance the relevant substantive law purposes without impairing the smooth working of the multi-state system or producing great uncertainty for litigants. (Cf. Restatement, 2d, Conflict of Laws, P.O.D., pt. II, §§ 146, 159 [later adopted and promulgated May 23, 1969].)"
The variant views expressed not only in Tooker but by Special Term and the divided Appellate Division in this litigation underscore and confirm the need for these rules. Since the passenger was domiciled in Ontario and the driver in New York, the present case is covered by the third stated principle. The law to be applied is that of the jurisdiction where the accident happened [129] unless it appears that "displacing [the] normally applicable rule will advance the relevant substantive law purposes" of the jurisdictions involved. Certainly, ignoring Ontario's policy requiring proof of gross negligence in a case which involves an Ontario-domiciled guest at the expense of a New Yorker does not further the substantive law purposes of New York. In point of fact, application of New York law would result in the exposure of this State's domiciliaries to a greater liability than that imposed upon resident users of Ontario's highways. Conversely, the failure to apply Ontario's law would "impair" — to cull from the rule set out above — "the smooth working of the multi-state system [and] produce great uncertainty for litigants" by sanctioning forum shopping and thereby allowing a party to select a forum which could give him a larger recovery than the court of his own domicile. In short, the plaintiff has failed to show that this State's connection with the controversy was sufficient to justify displacing the rule of lex loci delictus.
Professor Willis Reese, the Reporter for the current Conflict of Laws Restatement, expressed approval of rules such as those suggested above; they are, he wrote, "the sort of rules at which the courts should aim" (Reese, Choice of Law, 71 Col. L. Rev. 548, 562; see, also, Reese, Choice of Law: Rules or Approach, 57 Corn. L. Rev. 315, 321, 323, 328).[2] Indeed, in discussing the present case following the determination at Special Term that Ontario law should govern, he expressed the opinion that any other result would have been highly unreasonable (71 Col. L. Rev., at p. 563): "So far as the New York law was concerned, Judge Keating had argued in Tooker v. Lopez that New York's motor vehicle compulsory insurance law revealed a `commendable concern' not only for New York residents but also for non-residents injured by New Yorkers. On this basis, it could perhaps be argued that New York policy would be furthered by application of the New York rule imposing upon the driver the duty of exercising ordinary care for [130] the protection of his guest. But could this argument really be made with a straight face in support of an Ontario guest picked up in Ontario and who enjoyed no similar protection under Ontario Law? Was the New York rule really intended to be manna for the entire world? One can well understand the relief with which the trial judge seized upon Judge Fuld's third rule and followed it by holding the Ontario statute applicable."
In each action, the Appellate Division's order should be reversed, that of Special Term reinstated, without costs, and the questions certified answered in the negative.
BREITEL, J. (concurring).
I agree that there should be a reversal, but would place the reversal on quite narrow grounds. It is undesirable to lay down prematurely major premises based on shifting ideologies in the choice of law. True, Chief Judge FULD in his concurring opinion in the Tooker case (Tooker v. Lopez, 24 N Y 2d 569, 583, at p. 584) took the view that there had already occurred sufficient experience to lay down some rules of law which would reduce the instability and uncertainty created by the recent departures from traditional lex loci delictus. This case, arising so soon after, shows that the permutations in accident cases, especially automobile accident cases, is disproof that the time has come.
Problems engendered by the new departures have not gone unnoticed and they are not confined to the courts of this State (Juenger, Choice of Law in Interstate Torts, 118 U. Pa. L. Rev. 202, 214-220). They arise not merely because any new departure of necessity creates problems, but much more because the departures have been accompanied by an unprecedented competition of ideologies, largely of academic origin, to explain and reconstruct a whole field of law, each purporting or aspiring to achieve a single universal principle.
Babcock v. Jackson (12 N Y 2d 473), an eminently correctly and justly decided case, applied the then current new doctrine of grouping of contacts. Troubles arose only when the universality of a single doctrine was assumed (Macey v. Rozbicki, 18 N Y 2d 289; Dym v. Gordon, 16 N Y 2d 120). By the time of Miller v. Miller (22 N Y 2d 12) and the Tooker case (24 N Y 2d 569, supra), [131] the new doctrine had been displaced by a still newer one, that of governmental interests developed most extensively by the late Brainerd Currie, and the court was deeply engaged in probing the psychological motivation of legislatures of other States in enacting statutes restricting recoveries in tort cases. Now, evidently, it is suggested that this State and other States may have less parochial concerns in enacting legislation restricting tort recoveries than had been believed only a short time ago. The difficulties this case has given the courts below, and now this court, stems, it is suggested, more from a concern in sorting out ideologies than in applying narrow rules of law in the traditional common-law process (Juenger, op. cit., supra, at p. 233).
What the Babcock case (12 N Y 2d 473, supra) taught and what modern day commentators largely agree is that lex loci delictus is unsoundly applied if it is done indiscriminately and without exception. It is still true, however, that lex loci delictus is the normal rule, as indeed Chief Judge FULD noted in the Tooker case (24 N Y 2d 569, supra), to be rejected only when it is evident that the situs of the accident is the least of the several factors or influences to which the accident may be attributed (for discussion, see dissenting opn. in Tooker v. Lopez, 24 N Y 2d, at pp. 595-596). Certain it is that States are not concerned only with their own citizens or residents. They are concerned with events that occur within their territory, and are also concerned with the "stranger within the gates" (Juenger, op. cit., supra, at pp. 209-210).
In this case, none would have ever assumed that New York law should be applied just because one of the two defendants was a New York resident and his automobile was New York insured, except for the overbroad statements of Currie doctrine in the Tooker case (24 N Y 2d 569, supra), stemming from one particular school of academic thinking in the field of conflicts law (see the concurring opn. by Judge BURKE in the Tooker case, 24 N Y 2d, at pp. 586-592, and for that matter, the dissenting opn. by Judge BERGAN, in this case).
Consequently, I agree that there should be a reversal and the defenses allowed to stand. The conclusion, however, rests simply on the proposition that plaintiff has failed by her allegations to establish that the relationship to this State was sufficient [132] to displace the normal rule that the lex loci delictus should be applied, the accident being associated with Ontario, from inception to tragic termination, except for adventitious facts and where the lawsuit was brought.
BERGAN, J. (dissenting).
The doctrine of lex loci delictus, whatever its other shortcomings may be, including a somewhat abrasive effect on inconsistent law of the forum, had at least the virtues of certainty and reckonability.
But the operation of the guest statutes of other jurisdictions worked out so differently — unjustly by New York standards — that in a series of highly debatable and debated decisions from Babcock v. Jackson (12 N Y 2d 473 [1963]) to Tooker v. Lopez (24 N Y 2d 569 [1969]) this court refused to follow the rule of lex loci delictus in special situations and applied New York law in New York litigation to motor vehicle torts occurring in other jurisdictions.
The rationale of departure from the settled rule was that New York had a greater "concern" or "interest" in the controversy or the parties; or had closer "contacts" than the jurisdiction of the situs of the accident. See Miller v. Miller (22 N Y 2d 12); Farber v. Smolack (20 N Y 2d 198), and Macey v. Rozbicki (18 N Y 2d 289). The decision in Dym v. Gordon (16 N Y 2d 120) went the other way. The direction taken and justified by the rationale of "interest" or "contact", however, necessarily started with the court's preference for the local rule and a belief in its greater justice.
There is a difference of fundamental character between justifying a departure from lex loci delictus because the court will not, as a matter of policy, permit a New York owner of a car licensed and insured in New York to escape a liability that would be imposed on him here; and a departure based on the fact a New York resident makes the claim for injury. The first ground of departure is justifiable as sound policy; the second is justifiable only if one is willing to treat the rights of a stranger permitted to sue in New York differently from the way a resident is treated. Neither because of "interest" nor "contact" nor any other defensible ground is it proper to say in a court of law that the rights of one man whose suit is accepted [133] shall be adjudged differently on the merits on the basis of where he happens to live.
This crunch in the rule announced in Babcock (12 N Y 2d 473, supra) was inevitable as it worked its way into the practice. And the difficulty was recognized in Tooker (24 N Y 2d 569, supra). Although Tooker, unlike the present case, involved a New York plaintiff and thus was similar to Babcock and the cases which had followed Babcock, the opinion of the court laid it down that the New York owner of a car insured in New York would not be permitted to escape liability through the guest statute of Michigan and that this was the main ground of decision. The court in Tooker said (p. 575): "This purpose [of a statute of another jurisdiction establishing higher standards for the recovery of guests in vehicles] can never be vindicated when the insurer is a New York carrier and the defendant is sued in the courts of this State. Under such circumstances, the jurisdiction enacting such a guest statute has absolutely no interest in the application of its law."
The decision was 4-to-3; but a majority of the Judges expressly subscribed to the opinion by Judge KEATING even though Chief Judge FULD and Judge BURKE stated additional grounds of concurrence. The quoted statement of policy in the Tooker opinion, which was the court's statement and not the view of an individual Judge has the normal binding effect of such an opinion.
Reading these words of the opinion of the court the Bar would reasonably anticipate that the more basic and justifiable ground for refusing a New York vehicle the differential benefit of a foreign statute would be applied in future. Such a rule would offer more in the way of reckonability and predictability than the elusive grouping of "contacts" or "interests".
Hence the Appellate Division was justified in reading Tooker (24 N Y 2d 569, supra) to dismiss the asserted defense in this action. What the court is deciding today is that although it will prevent a New York car owner from asserting the defense of a protective foreign statute when a New York resident in whose rights it has an "interest" sues; it has no such "interest" when it accepts the suit in New York of a nonresident. This is an inadmissible distinction.
The order should be affirmed.
Orders reversed, etc.
[1] In the other concurring opinion (24 N Y 2d, at p. 585), I wrote that in such a case — where the passenger is a resident of the state having a guest statute — "the applicable rule of decision will [normally] be that of the state where the accident occurred".
[2] These rules have also been found acceptable by several other courts. (See, e.g., Arbuthnot v. Allbright, 35 A D 2d 315; Weinstein v. Abraham, 64 Misc 2d 76; Hancock v. Holland, 63 Misc 2d 811; see, also, Pryor v. Swarner, 445 F.2d 1272, 1275 et seq. [2d Cir.]; Beaulieu v. Beaulieu, 265 A. 2d 610, 617 [Maine].)
5.9 Notes following Neumeier 5.9 Notes following Neumeier
- Second Restatement and Section 6 factors. The takeaway is that in a Second Restatement state, we apply the principle of lex loci delicti unless there are Section 6 factors that advise otherwise. We cut up the litigation into multiple issues and determine which state’s law applies to each issue, but with respect to each issue, we presume that we apply the law of the place of the harm unless the Section 6 factors (vague as they are) require a different conclusion.
- What happens if two or more states have compelling interests in the same issue? Who gets to decide which state’s law applies, and how do they do so?
- What might be an adverse or unfavorable consequence of cutting up issues and applying different laws? Consider the idea of “Frankenlaw,” named after Frankenstein’s monster. For example, imagine State A requires a plaintiff to prove a higher degree of misconduct (such as gross negligence) in car accident lawsuits (including, for example, those filed by pedestrians) but has no guest statute, while State B allows a plaintiff to recover after proving only a lower level of culpability (e.g., simple negligence) but does have a guest statute (effectively eliminating suits from one group of people who might be injured by a driver’s negligent conduct). If a court applies the law of State B to the issue of the standard of care and the law of State A to whether a guest statute applies, mightn’t the plaintiff prevail when neither State A law nor State B law would allow them to do so? Is this fair? Does it make sense?
- State interests: revisited. The court admits that it might have made a mistake in Babcock when it asserted that the main purpose of the Ontario guest statute related to insurance, because further research revealed “the distinct possibility that one purpose, and perhaps the only purpose, of the statute was to protect owners and drivers against suits by ungrateful guests.”
- How does this change the way you see the Babcock analysis and holding? Can we trust judges to “discover the purposes or policies underlying the relevant local law rules of the respective jurisdictions involved”?
- Now that the court identifies a different purpose of the guest statute, how does it see Ontario’s interest in this case differently than how it did in Babcock?
- How might a party’s status (defendant or plaintiff) influence how the court analyzes the interest of the state where the party is domiciled? Note the discussion early in the opinion, with the sentence starting, “It is clear that, although New York has a deep interest in protecting its own residents, injured in a foreign state…” (Who decides where to sue in the first place?)
- The choice-of-law revolution.
- At the end of the day, is there a meaningful difference between the First and Second Restatements? As a practitioner, when might you want to sue in a First or Second Restatement state? What sort of facts might you need to show in order to successfully argue against the presumption of lex loci delicti in a Second Restatement state?
- Are rules preferable to standards? It took the New York Court of Appeals at least three cases (Babcock, Tooker, and Neumeier), using the Second Restatement “standards” approach, to decide this question of choice-of-law in guest statute cases. The court itself admitted the lack of “consistency” that resulted from its abandonment of lex loci delicti. What are the advantages and disadvantages of rules and standards?
- Did the “revolution” in choice-of-law accomplish anything? Did academics bring analytical clarity to this issue, or did they further muddy the waters? How much attention should judges pay to academics?
5.10 Video (42 minutes) 5.10 Video (42 minutes)
Watch the video found here. It is about 42 minutes long, and you may need to watch it more than once. Plan accordingly.
5.11 Three Types of Personal Jurisdiction 5.11 Three Types of Personal Jurisdiction
In Days 1-4, you learned about one kind of jurisdiction, called federal court subject matter jurisdiction. The question was whether a federal district court could exercise power over a certain type of dispute. We assumed throughout that a state court, some state court, could always exercise power over that type of dispute. There was, however, little in those discussions about where, geographically, the lawsuit could take place.
To understand the importance of geography, imagine that a driver from Florida hits a pedestrian from Florida in Miami. The pedestrian sues the driver in a state court in . . . Alaska. We know that cannot be OK, at least, not unless the Florida driver consents to a lawsuit in Alaska. But why not?
In the remainder of Day 5 and in all of Days 6, 7, and 8, we will learn about a doctrine called "Jurisdiction over the Person or Property," sometimes just called, "Personal Jurisdiction." It governs the geographic limits on a court's power.
One more thing: Days 1-4 concerned the power of federal courts. Again, we assumed at all times that state courts could hear disputes involving any subject matter. So, the focus was on federal courts. For Personal Jurisdiction, we will learn that (for purposes of this course), the power of a federal court in North Carolina is pretty much the same as that of a state court in North Carolina. So, this module is far more about geography than it is about state versus federal courts.
Traditionally, courts have had three types of jurisdiction over a person or a piece of property:
- in personam: a court exercising its power due to the party's physical presence or citizenship within a state
- in rem: a court exercising its power over a party's rights and ownership regarding property located, even temporarily, within a state's borders
- quasi in rem: a court seizing property within its jurisdictional boundaries, even temporarily, in order to satisfy a plaintiff's claim, even if the rights and ownership regarding that particular piece of property are not at stake in the case. Recovery in a quasi in rem lawsuit is thus limited to the value of the property a court can seize.
These concepts stem from international law of the 1800s. Say that Alice lived in the country of Ames, and Harold lived in the country of Holmes. If Alice were injured by Harold in Ames, she would have three options for how to proceed: in personam in Ames (but her judgment may be worthless in Holmes if Holmes refuses to honor the Ames judgment, so she may be unable to recover), quasi in rem in Ames (although her recovery would be limited to the value of whatever property Harold had in Ames), or proceed in the courts of Holmes (where she may be disadvantaged, but her judgment would be enforceable in Holmes, where Harold is more likely to have property that a Holmes court could seize and sell). Because Alice likely prefers to proceed in the Ames courts (think about why the U.S. has diversity jurisdiction), she might take the second option, and hope for at least some recovery.
5.12 Constitutional Provisions 5.12 Constitutional Provisions
Read the following constitutional provisions. You can access them via the internet, or the supplemental handout provided on Canvas.
- U.S. Const. art. IV § 1
- U.S. Const. amend. XIV
5.13 The Preamble to Pennoyer 5.13 The Preamble to Pennoyer
The following is a brief summary of the cast of characters present in the events surrounding Pennoyer v. Neff. For a more thorough introduction (which is worth reading for entertainment value), see Wendy C. Perdue, Sin, Scandal, and Substantive Due Process: Personal Jurisdiction and Pennoyer Reconsidered, 62 Wash. L. Rev. 479 (1987), from which this summary is adapted. Professor Perdue's paper can be found here, and the relevant section begins on page 481 (at "Our story begins") and ends on page 490 (with "Mitchell's funeral expenses").
In 1848, Marcus Neff traveled across the country by wagon train from Iowa to seek his fortune. In 1862, Neff met an attorney in Portland, J.H. Mitchell, who was using the name as an alias. In reality, Mitchell's name was John Hipple, and he had been forced to leave his teaching profession in Pennsylvania after he had seduced a 15-year old student. Hipple had made his way west in 1860 along with a mistress and stolen client money, the former abandoned by Hipple in California before he settled in Portland, took up a new name, and became a successful lawyer. Neff likely sought Mitchell's services in order to secure a land grant from the federal government, called a land "patent," under the Oregon Donation Act.
On November 3, 1865, Mitchell/Hipple filed suit against his client, Neff, in Oregon state court seeking payment for legal services. Neff did not appear, and default judgment was entered on February 19, 1866. Mitchell, though, waited until June to seek to execute the judgment (per the long video, to execute the judgment, he would need to find land owned by Neff in Oregon that he could ask the court to seize and sell), possibly waiting for Neff's land grant to arrive so that he could ask the court to seize and sell it.
In August, the property on Neff's grant was sold at a sheriff's auction (here, the sheriff was acting at the behest of the court, so, in other words, an Oregon court had seized and auctioned the land Neff received via grant from the federal government). Though the Supreme Court and later commentators believed the buyer to be Sylvester Pennoyer, the buyer was in fact J.H. Mitchell himself, who sold Pennoyer the property three days later, leading to the events of the case.
5.14 Pennoyer v. Neff 5.14 Pennoyer v. Neff
Pennoyer v. Neff.
• 1. A statute of Oregon, after providing for service of summons upon parties or their representatives, personally or at their residence, declares that when ■ service cannot be thus made, and the defendant, after due diligence, eann.ot be found within the State, and “ that fact appears, by affidavit, to the satisfaction of the court or judge thereof, and it, in like manner, appears that a cause of action exists against the defendant, or that he is- a proper party to an action relating, to real property in the State, such court or judge may grant ah order that , the service -be made by publication of summons, . . when the defendant is not a resident of the State, but has property therein, and the court has jurisdiction of the subject of the action,” — the order to designate a newspaper of the county where the action is commenced in which the publication shall be made, — and that proof of such publication shall be “ the affidavit of the printer, or his foreman, or his principal • clerk.” Held, that defects in the affidavit for the order can only be taken advantage of on appeal, or by some other direct proceeding, and cannot be urged, to. impeach the judgment collaterally; and'that the provision as to ■ proof of the publication is satisfied when the affidavit‘is made by the editor ■ of the paper. • .
2 A personal judgment is without any validity, if it be rendered by- a State • court in an. action upon a money-demand against a non-resident of- the State, who-was served by a publication of summons,but upon whom no personal service of process within the State was- made, and who did not appear; and no title to property passes -by a sale under an execution issued upon such a judgment.
8. The State, having .within her territory property-of a non-resident, may hold .and appropriate it-to satisfy the claims of .hpr.citizens against him;' and her tribunals may inquire into 1ns obligations to the extent necessary to control the disposition of that property. If he has no property in tbe State, there is nothing Upon which her tribunals can adjudicate.
4; Substituted, service by- publicarán, or in any other authorized form; is suffi-' cient to inform-a non-tesident of the object of proceedings taken, where ■ *715property-is once, brought under the control of the court by seizure or some equivalent act; but where the suit is brought to determine his personal rights «lid obligations, that is, where it is, merely in personam, such service upon him .is ineffectual for any purpose.
5. Process from the! tribunals of one State cannot run into another State, and'summon a party there domiciled to respond to proceedings against him; . áñd-publication of process or of notice within the'State in which the tribunal sits cannoj.create any greater obligation upon .him to appear.- Process • sent-to him out of the State, and.process published within it, are equally . unavailing in proceedings to establish his personal liability.
6: Except in-cases affecting the personal status■ of the plaintiff, and in those • wherein that mode of service may be considered to have been assented to in-advance, the substituted service of process "by. publication, .allowed by .the, law of Oregon and by similar laws in other States where actions are brought ..against non-residents; is effectual only where, in connection, with process against the person for-commencing the action, property in the State is.-brought. uhdef the centrol of the court, and subjected to its disposition ' by process adapted to. that purpose, or where the' judgment is sought as a means, of reaching such property, or affecting some interest therein; in other words, where the action is in .the nature of a proceeding in 'rem.
¶. Whilst the coarts.'of the United States are not-foreign tribunals in their rela- . tions to the State courts, they are tribunals of a different sovereignty,’and' are hound to "give-to a-judgment of a State court only the same faith and credit .to which it is entitled in the courts of another State. .
fr. The term, “ due process of law,” when applied to judicial -proceedings, means a course of legal proceedings according’to those rules and principles which, have been established by our jurisprudence for the protection and enforce- • ment'of private rights; To-give such proceeding^ any validity, there must . be a competent tribunal.to pass upon their subject-matter; and, if that involves merely.-a determination of .the personal liability of the defendant, -he must be -brought within its jurisdiction by service of process within the ' State, or by his voluntary appearance.
: Error to ' jibe Circuit' Court of the United States for tbe District' of Oregon. .
" .This action was brought by Neff- against Pennoyer for tKe recovery, of a tract - of - larrd situated’ in Multnoinab County,. Oregon. - Permoyer, in his answer, tjenied Neff’s title and right to possession, and set up a title- in-himself, ‘ '
•By .consent of parties, and'in pursuance of their written-stipulation filed in tbe cáse, -.tbe cause was tried .by the court; and a special Verdict ’ given, upon -wbicb judgment was rendered • in favor .of Neff; whereupon Beniioyer Sued out this writ of error.
■ -Tbe parties,'respectively-claimed title as' follows Neff, under: & patent issued to'.' bim' by tlie United States, March 19, *7161866; and Pennoyer, by virtue of a sale made by the sheriff of said county, under an execution sued out upon a judgment against Neff, rendered Feb. 19, 1866, by the Circuit Court for said county, in an action wherein he was defendant, and J. H. Mitchell was plaintiff. Neff was then a non-resident of - Oregon.
In Mitchell v. Neff, jurisdiction of Neff was obtained by service of summons by publication. Pennoyer offered in evidence duly certified copies of the complaint, summons, order for publication of summons, affidavit of service by publication, and the judgment in that case; to the introduction of which papers the plaintiff objected, because, 1, said judgment is in personam, and appears to have been given- without the appearance of the defendant in the action, or personal service of the summons upon him, and while he was a non-resident of the State, and is, therefore, void; 2, said judgment is not in rem, and, therefore, constitutes no basis of title in the defendant; 3, said copies of complaint, &c., do not show jurisdiction to give the judgment alleged, either in rem or personam ; and; 4, it appears from said papers that no proof of service by publication was ever made, the affidavit thereof being made by the “ editor ” of the “ Pacific Christian Advocate,’’.and not by “the printer, or his foreman or principal clerk.” The court admitted the evidence subject to the objections.
The finding of,'the court in regard to the facts bearing upon the asserted jurisdiction of the State court is as follows: —
That on Nov.- 13, 1865, Mitchell applied to said Circuit Court, upon his own affidavit of that date, for an order allowing the service of the summons in said action to be made upon, Neff, by publication thereof; whereupon said court 'made said order, in the words following: “Now, at this day, comes the plaintiff in his proper person, and by his attorneys, Mitchell and Dolph, and files affidavit' of plaintiff, and motion for an order of publication of summons, as follows, to wit: ‘ Now comes the plaintiff, by his attorneys, and upon the affidavit of plaintiff, herewith filed, moves the court for an order of publication of summons against defendant, as required by law, he being a non-resident; ’ and it appearing to the satisfaction of the court that the defendant cannot, after due diligence, be *717found in this State, and that he is a non-resident thereof, that his place of residence is unknown to plaintiff, and cannot, with reasonable diligence, be.ascertained by him, and that the plain-. tiff has a cause of action against defendant, and that defendant has 'property in this county and State, it-is ordered and adjudged by the court that service of the' summons in this action be made by publication for. six weeks successively in t the ‘ Pacific Christian Advocate,’ a weekly newspaper published in Multnomah County, Oregon, and this action is continued for such service.” That the affidavit of'.plaintiff,' referred to in said order, is in the words following: “ I, J. H. Mitchell, being first duly sworn,-say that the defendant, Marcus Neff, is a nonresident of this State.; that he resides somewhere in'the State of California, at what place affiant knows not, and . he cannot be found in this State; that plaintiff has a just cause of action against defendant for a money-demand on account; that this court has jurisdiction of such action; that the defendant has property in this county and. S.tate.” That the complaint in said action was; verified and filed on Nov. 3,1865, and contained facts tending to prove that at that date said Mitchell had a cause of action against said Neff for services as an- attorney, performed, “.between Jan. 1, Í862, and May 15,. 1863.” That the entry of judgment in' said action contained the following averments: “.And it appearing to the court that the defendant was, at the time of the commencement of this notion, and ever since has been,' a non-resident of. this State; and. it -further appearing that he has property .in this State, and that defendant had notice of the pendency of this action by publication of the summons for six' successive wéeks in the ‘ Pacific. Christian Advocate,’ a weekly newspaper'of general circulation published in Multnomah County, State of Oregon,.the last issue of .which was more than twenty days before the first-day of this term-” That the -affidavit showing the publication of the summons in the “ Advocate ” aforesaid was made. as stated therein by the “ editor ” of that paper. That said complaint, summons, affidavit of Mitchell, and of the “ editor ” of the “ Advocate ” aforesaid, and entry of judgment, were in-the judgment roll, made up by the clerk in'the case, but the' order for publication of the- summons aforesaid was not placed in said roll *718by said clerk, but remains on tbe files of said court; and that when said court made said order for publication, and gave said judgment against Neff, the only evidence it- had before it to prove the facts necessary to give it jurisdiction therefor, and particularly to authorize it to find and state that Neff’s residence was unknown to Mitchell, and could not, with reasonable diligence, be ascertained, by him, and that Neff had notice of the pendency of said action by the publication of the summons as aforesaid, was, so far as appears by the said, roll and the records and files of the said court, the said complaint and affidavits of Mitchell and the editor of the “ Advocate.”
The statute of Oregon at the time of the commencement of the suit against Neff was as follows: —
“ Sect. 55. When service of the summons cannot be made as prescribed in the last preceding section, and the defendant, after due diligence, cánnot be found within the State, and when that fact appears, by affidavit, to the satisfaction of the court or judge thereof, or justice in an action in a justice’s court, and it also appears that a cause of action exists against the defendant, or that he is a proper party to an action relating to real property in this State, such .court or judge or justice may grant an order that the service be made by publication of summons in either of the following cases: . . .
“3. When the defendant is not a resident of the State, but has property therein, and the court has jurisdiction of the subject of the action.
' “ Sect. 56. The order shall direct the publication to be made in a newspaper published in the county where the action is commenced, and, if no newspaper b.e published in the county, then in a newspaper to be designated as most likely to_give notice to the person to be served, and for such length of time as may be deemed reasonable, not less than once a week for six weeks. In case of publication, the court or judge shall also direct a copy of the summons and complaint to be forthwith deposited in the post-office, directed to the defendant, at his place of residence, unless it shall appear that such residence is neither known to the. party making the application, nor can, with reasonable diligence, be ascertained by him. When. publication is ordered, personal service of a copy of the summons and complaint out of the State shall be equivalent to publication and deposit in the post-office. In either case, the defendant shall appear and answer by the first day of the term following the *719expiration of the time prescribed in the order for publication; and, if he does not, judgment may be taken against him for want thereof.In case of personal service out of the State, the summons shall specify the time prescribed in the order for publication.
“ Sect. 57. The defendant against whom publication is ordered, or his personal representatives, on application and sufficient cause shown, at any time before judgment, shall be allowed to defend the action; and the defendant against whom-publication is ordered, or his representatives, may in like'manner, upon good cause shown, and upon such terms as may be proper, be allowed to defend after judgment, and within one year after the entry of such judgment, on such terms as may be just; and, if the defence be successful, and the judgment or any part thereof have been collected or otherwise enforced, such restitution may thereupon be compelled as the court shall direct. But the title to property sold upon execution issued on such judgment to a purchaser in good faith shall not be thereby affected.”
“.Sect.'60. Proof of the service of summons shall be, in ca’se of publication, the affidavit of the printer, or his foreman, or his principal clerk, showing the same.”
Mr. W. F. Trimble for the plaintiff in error.
Mr. James K. Kelly, contra.
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an action to recover the possession of a tract of land, of the alleged value of $15,000, situated in the State of Oregon. The plaintiff asserts title to the premises by a patent of the United States issued to him in 1866, under the act of Congress of Sept. 27,1850, usually known as the Donation Law of Oregon. The defendant claims to have acquired the premises under a sheriff’s deed, made .upon a sale of the property on execution issued upon a judgment recovered against the plaintiff in one of-the circuit courts of the State. The case turns upon the validity of this judgment.
It appears from the record that the judgment was rendered in February, 1866, in favor of J. H. Mitchell, for less than $800, including costs, in an action brought by him upon a demand for services as an attorney; that, at the time the action was commenced and.' the judgment rendered, the defendant therein, the plaintiff here, was a non-resident of the State; *720that he' was not personally served with prooess, and did not appear therein; and that the. judgment'was entered-.upon his default in not answering the complaint, upon a constructive service of summons by publication. ■ •
The Code- of Oregon provides for such service when an. action is brought against a non-resident and absent defendant, who has property within the State. It also provides,, where the action is for the recovery of money or damages, for the attachment of the property of the non-resident. And it also declares that.no natural. person is subject-to the jurisdiction of a court of the State, “unless he appear in the court, or be found within the State, or be a resident thereof, or have property therein; and, in the last case, only to the extent of such property at the timé the jurisdiction attached.” ' Construing this latter provision to mean, that, in an action for money or damages where a defendant .does not appear in the court, and is not found" within the State, and is not a resident thereof, but has property therein, the jurisdiction of the court extends only over Such property, the declaration expresses a principle of general, if,, not universal,law. The authority of every tribunal is, necessarily restricted by the territorial limits of' the State in which jit is established; Any attempt to exercise authority •beyond .those limits would be deemed in every other forum, as has been,said by this court, an illegitimate assumption of power, and be resisted as mere abuse. D'Arcy v. Ketchum et al., 11 How. 165. In the case against the plaintiff, the property here in controversy sold under the judgment rendered was not attached, nor in any way brought under the jurisdiction of the court. Its first connection with the. case was'caused,by a levy of the execution. It was not, therefore, disposed of. pursuant to any adjudication, but only in enforcement of a personal judgment, having-no relation to the property,'rendered against a non-resident without service of process upon him in the action, or his appearance therein. The court below did not consider that an attachment of the property was essential to its jurisdiction or- to the validity of the sale, but held .that the judgment was invalid from defects' in the affidavit upon which the order of publication was obtained, and in the affidavit by which the publication "as proved.
*721There is some difference of opinion among the members of this court as to the rulings upon these alleged defects. The majority are-of opinion that inasmuch as the statute requires, for an order of publication, that certain facts shall appear by affidavit to the satisfaction, of the court or judge, defects in such affidavit can only be taken advantage of on appeal, or by some other direct proceeding, and cannot be urged to impeach the judgment collaterally. The majority of the court are also of opinion that the provision of the statute requiring proof of the publication in' a newspaper to be made by the. “ affidavit of the printer, or his foreman, or his principal clerk,” is satisfied when the affidavit is made by the editor of the paper. The term “ printer,” in their judgment, is there used not to indicate the person who sets up' the type, — he does not usually have a foreman or clerks, — it is rather used as synonymous with publisher. The Supreme Court of New York so held in one case; observing that, for the purpose of making the required proof,.publishers were ‘- within the spirit of the statute.” Bunce v. Reed, 16 Barb. (N. Y.) 350. And, following this ruling, the Supreme Court of California held that an affidavit made by a “ publisher and proprietor” was sufficient. Sharp v. Daugney, 33 Cal. 512. The term “ editor,” as used when the statute of New York was passed, from which the Oregon law is borrowed, usually in-eluded not only the person who wrote or-selected the articles-for publication, but the person who published the paper and put it into circulation. Webster, in an early edition of his Dictionary, gives as one of the. definitions of an editor, a person “ who superintends the publication of a newspaper.” It is principally since that time that the business of an editor has been separated from that of a publisher and printer, and has become an independent profession.
If, therefore, we were confined to the rulings of 'the court below upon the defects in the affidavits -mentioned, we should' be unab.le to uphold its decision. But it was also contended in that court, and is insisted upon here, that the judgment in the State court against the plaintiff was void for want of personal service of process on him, or of his appearance in the action in which it was rendered, and that the premises in- controversy could not be. subjected to the payment of the. demand. *722of 'a resident creditor except by a proceeding in rem; that is, by a direct proceeding against- tbe property for that purpose. If these positions are sound, the ruling of the Circuit Court as to the' invalidity of that judgment must be sustained, notwithstanding our dissent from the reasons upon which ij; was made. And that they are sound would seem to follow from two well-established! principles of public law respecting the jurisdiction of an independent State over persons and property. The several States of the Union are .hot, it is true, in every respect independent, many of the rights and powers which originally belonged to them being now vested in the government created by the Constitution. ' But, except as restrained and limited. by that instrument, they possess and exercise -the authority of independent States, and the principles of public law to which we have referred are applicable to them. One of these principles is; that every State possesses exclusive jurisdiction and sovereignty over persons and property.within its territory. As a consequence, every State has the power to determine for itself the civil.status and capacities of its inhabitants; to prescribe the subjects upon which they may contract, the forms and solemnities with which their contracts shall be executed, the rights-and-obligations” arising from them, and'the mode in which their validity .shall .be determined and their obligations .enforced ; and also to .regulate the manner and conditions' ' upon which property situated within such‘territory, both personal and real, may be acquired,'enjoyed; and transferred. ' The -other principle of public law referred to follows from--.the one mentioned; that is, that no .State can’ exercise direct jurisdiction, .arid authority. oyer persons or property without, its territory. -Story, Confl. Laws, c. 2; Wheat. Int. Law, pt. 2, c. 2. The several States are of equal dignity and authority,- and the independence-of one implies the'exclusion of power from all others. And' so it is .laid down- by jurists, as an elementary principle, that the laws of one State have no operation-outside .of .its territory, except so far as is allowed by comity; and that ho tribunal established by it can extend its process beyond that territory so as to subject either persons or property to its decisions. “Any. exertion of authority o'f this, sort beyond this limit,” says Story, “ is. a mere nullity, and incapable of binding *723such persons or.property in any other tribunals.” Story, Confl. Laws,.sect. 539.
But as contracts made in one State may be enforceable only in another State, and property may be held by non-residents, the exercise of- ,the jurisdiction which every State is admitted to possess oyer persons and property within its own territory will often affect .persons and property, without it.' To any influence exerted in this way by a State affecting persons resident or property situated elsewhere, no objection can be justly taken ; whilst any direct exertion of authority upon them, in an attempt to give ex-territorial operation to its laws, or to enforce an ex-territorial jurisdiction by its tribunals, would be deemed an encroachment upon the independence of the State in which the persons are domiciled or the property is situated, and be resisted as usurpation.
Thus the State, -through its tribunals, may compel persons domiciled within its limits to execute, in pursuance of their' contracts respecting property elsewhere situated, instruments in such form-and with such solemnities as to transfer the title, so far as such formalities can be complied with; and the exercise of this jurisdiction in no manner interferes with the supreme control over the. property by the State within which it is situated. Penn v. Lord Baltimore, 1 Ves. 444; Massie v. Watts, 6 Cranch, 148; Watkins v. Holman, 16 Pet. 25; Corbett v. Nutt, 10 Wall. 464.
So the State, through its tribunals, may subject property situated within its limits owned by non-residents to the payment of the demand of its own citizens against them; and the exercise of this jurisdiction in no respect infringes upon the sovereignty of the State where the owners are domiciled. Every State owes protection to its own citizens; and, when nonresidents deal with them, it is a legitimate and just exercise of authority to hold and appropriate any property owned by such .non-residents to satisfy the claims of its citizens. It- is in virtue of the State’s jurisdiction over the property of the nonresident situated.within its limits that its tribunals can inquire into that non-resident’s obligations to its own citizens, and the inquiry can then be carried only-to the extent necessary to control -the disposition of the property. If the non-resident *724have no property in the State, there is nothing upon which the tribunals can adjudicate.
These views are not new. They have been frequently expressed, with more or less distinctness, in. opinions of eminent judges, and have been carried into adjudications in numerous cases. Thus, in Picquet v. Swan, 5 Mas. 35, Mr. Justice Story said: —
. “ Where a party is within a territory, he may justly be subjected to its pi-ocess, and bound personally by the judgment pronounced on such process against him. Where he is not within such territory, and .is not personally subject to its laws, if, on account of his supposed or actual property being within the territory, process by the local laws may,'by attachment, go to compel his appearance, and for his default to appear judgment may be pronounced against him, such a judgment must, upon -general principles, be deemed only to hind him to the extent.of such property,, and cannot have the effect of a conclusive judgment in personam, for the plain reason, that, exfeept so far as the property is concerned, it is a judgment coram non judiceP
And in Boswell’s Lessee v. Otis, 9 How. 336, where the title of the plaintiff in ejectment was acquired on a sheriff’s sale, under a money decree rendered upon publication of'notice against non-residents, in a'suit brought to enforce a contract relating to land, Mr. Justice McL.ean said: —,
“Jurisdiction is acquired in one of two modes: first, as against the person of the defendant by the service of process; or, secondly, by a procedure against the property of the' defendant within the jurisdiction ,of the courtv In the’ latter case, the defendant is not personally bound by the judgment beyond the property in question. And .it is immaterial whether the proceeding against the property be by an attachment or bill in chancery. It must be substantially a proceeding in remP
These citations arS not made as authoritative expositions of the law; for the language was perhaps not essential to the decision of the cases in which it was used, but,as expressions of the opinion of eminent jurists. But in Cooper v. Reynolds, reported in the 10th of Wallace, it was essential to the disposition of the case to declare the effect of a personal action against an absent party, without the jurisdiction of the court, not served *725•with process or voluntarily submitting to, tbe tribunal, when it was sought to subject his property to the payment of a demand of a resident complainant; and in the opinion there delivered' we have a clear statement of the law as to the. efficacy of such actions, and the. jurisdiction of the court over them. In that case, the action was for damages for alleged false .imprisonment of the plaintiff; and, upon his affidavit that the defendants had fled from the State, or had absconded or concealed themselves so that the ordinary process of law could not reach them, a writ of attachment was' sued out against their property. Publication was ordered by the court, giving notice to them to appear and plead, answer or demur, or that the action would be- taken as confessed and proceeded in ex . parte as-to them. Publication was had ; but they made default,.and judgment was entered against them, and the attached property was sold under it. The-purchaser'having been put into possession 'of the property, the original. owner brought ejectment for its • recovery. In considering the character of the proceeding, the court, speak-, ing through Mr. Justice Miller, said: — -
“ Its .essential purpose or nature is to establish, by the judgment of the court, a demand or claim against the defendant, and subject his property lying within the territorial jurisdiction of the court to the payment of that demand. But.'the plaintiff is met'at the commencement of- his proceedings by the fact that the defendant is not within the territorial jurisdiction, and cannot be served with any process by which he can be brought personally within the power of the court. For this difficulty the statute has provided a' remedy. It says that, upon affidavit being made of that fact, a writ of attachment may be issued and levied on any of the defendant’s, property, and a publication may be made warning him to appear; and that thereafter the court may proceed in the case, whether he' appears, or not. , If .the defendant appears,, the cause becomes mainly a suit in* personam, with the added incident, that the. property attached remains liable, under the control of the • court, to answer to any -demand which may be established-against the defendant by the final judgment of -the court. But if there is no appearance of the defendant, and no service of process,on him, the case becomes in its essential nature a proceeding-in rem, the only effect of which is to subject the property .attached to the payment of the demand •which the. court may find to be' due to the plaintiff. That..such is *726the nature of this proceeding in this latter class of cases is clearly evinced by two well-established propositions: first, the judgment of the court, though in form a personal judgment against the defendant, has no effect beyond the property attached in-that suit. No general execution can be issued for any balance unpaid after-the attached property is exhausted. No suit can.be maintained on such a judgment in the same court, or in any other ; nor can it be used as evidence in any other proceeding not affecting the attached property; nor could the costs in that proceeding be collected of defendant out of any other property than that attached in the suit. Second, the eourt, in such a suit, cannot proceed, unless the ofiicer finds some property of defendant op Which to levy the writ of attachment. A return that - none can be found is the end of the ease, and deprives the court of further jurisdiction, though the publication may -have been duly made and proven in court.”
The fact that the defendants in that case ha‘d fled from the State, or had concealed themselves, so as not to be reached by the ordinary process of the court, and were not non-residents, was not made a point in the, decision. The opinion treated them as being without the territorial jurisdiction of the court; and the grounds, and extent of its authority over persons and property thus situated were considered, when they were not brought within its jurisdiction by personal service or voluntary appeai’anee.'
The writer of the present opinion considered that some of the objections to the preliminary proceedings in the attachment suit were well taken, and therefore dissented from the judgment of the court; but to the doctrine declared in the above citation he agreed, and he may add, that it received the approval of all the judges. It is the only doctrine consistent with proper protection to citizens of other States. If, without personal service, judgments in personam, obtained ex parte against nonresidents and absent “parties, upon mere publication of process, which, in- the great majority, of cases, would never be seen by thé parties interested, could be upheld and enforced, they would be the constant instruments of fraud and oppression. Judgments for all sorts of claims upon contracts and for torts, real or pretended, would be thus obtained, under which property would be seized, when the evidence of the transactions upon *727which they vs ere founded, if they ever had any existence, had •perished.
Substituted service by publication, or inany other authorized form, may be sufficient to inform parties of the object of proceedings taken where property is once brought under the. control of the court by seizure or some equivalent act. The law assumes that property is always'in the possession of its owner, in person or by agentand it proceeds upon the theory that its seizure will inform him, not only that it is taken into the' custody of the court, but that he must look to a'hy proceedings authorized by law upon such seizure for its condemnation and sale. Such service may also be sufficient in cases where the object of the action is to reach and, dispose of property in the State, or of some interest therein, by enforcing a contract or a lien respecting the same, or to partition it among different, owners, or, when the public, is a party, to condemn and appropriate it for a public purpose. In other words, such service may answer in all actions which are substantially proceedings in rent. But where the entire object of the action is to determine the personal rights and' obligations of the. defendants, that is, where the suit is merely in personam, constructive service in this form upon a non-resident is ineffectual for any purpose. - Process from the tribunals of one State cannot run into another State, and summon parties there domiciled to leave its territory .and respond to proceedings. against ■ them. Publication of process or notice within the State where the tribunal sits cannot create- any greater obligation upon the non-resident to appear. Process sent to him out of the State, and process published within it, are equally unavailing in proceedings to establish his personal liability.
The want of authority of the tribunals of' a State to. adjudicate upon the obligations of non-residents, where they have no property within its limits, is not denied by the court below: but the position is .assumed, that, -where they have property within the State, it is immaterial whether the property is in the first instance brought' under the control of the court by attachment or .some'other equivalent act, anfi afterwards applied by its judgment to, the-satisfaction of demands against its owner; or such -detilhnds be first established in a personal action, and *728the property of the non-resident be afterwards seized and sold on execution. But the answer to this position has already been given in the statement, that the jurisdiction of the court to inquire into and determiné his obligations at all is only incidental to its jurisdiction over the property. Its jurisdiction'in that respect cannot be made to depend upon facts to be ascertained after it has tried the cause and rendered the judgment. If the judgment be previously void, it will not become valid by the subsequent discovery of property of the defendant, or by his subsequent acquisition of it. The judgment, if void . when rendered, will always remain void:' it cannot occupy the doubtful position of being valid if property be found, and void if there be ¡none. Even if the position assumed were confined to cases where the non-resident defendant possessed property in the State at the commencement of the action, it would still make the validity of the proceedings and judgment depend upon the question whether, before the levy of the execution, the defendant had or had not disposed of the property. If before the levy the property should be sold, then, according to this position, the judgment would not be binding. This doctrine would introduce a new element of uncertainty in judicial proceedings. The contrary is the law: the validity of every judgment depends upon the jurisdiction of the court before it is rendered* not upon what may occur subsequently. ■ In Webster' v. Reid, reported in' 11th of Howard, the plaintiff claimed title to land sold under judgments recovered in suits brought in a térritorial court of Iowa, upon publication of notice under, a law of the territory, without service of process; and the court skid: —
“These suits were not a proceeding in rem against the land, but -were 'in personam against tbe owners of it. Whether they all resided within the territory or not does not appear, nor is it á matter of any importance. No person is required to answer in a suit on whom process has not been served, or whose property has not been attached. In this case, there was no personal notice, nor an attachment or other proceeding against the land, until after the judgments. The judgments, therefore, are nullities, and did not authorize the executions on which the land was sold.”
*729The force and effect of judgments rendered against non-residents without personal service of process upon them, or their voluntary appearance, have been the subject of frequent consideration in the courts of the United States and of the several States, as attempts have bees made tó enforce such, judgments in States other than those iif which they were rendered, under the provision of the Constitution'requiring that “full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State ; ” and the act of Congress providing for' the mode of authenticating such acts, records, and proceedings, and declaring that, when thus authenticated, “ they shall have such faith and credit given to them in every court within the United States as they have by law or usage in the courts of the State from which they are or shall be taken.” In the earlier cases, it was supposed that the act gave to all judgments the same effect in other States which they had by law in the State where rendered. But this view was after-wards qualified so as to make the act applicable only when the court rendering the judgment ha'd jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject-matter, and not to preclude an inquiry into the jurisdiction of the court in which the judgment was rendered, or the fight of the State itself to exercise authority over the person or the subject-matter. M'Elmoyle v. Cohen, 13 Pet. 312. In the case of D'Arcy v. Ketcchum, reported in the. 11th of Howard, this view is stated with great clearness. That was an action in the Circuit Court of the United States for Louisiana, brought upon a judgment rendered in New York under a State statute, ágainst two joint debtors, only one of whom had been served with process, the 'other being a non-resident of the State. The Circuit Court held the judgment conclusive and binding upon the non-resident' not' served with process; but this court reversed its decision, observing, that it was a familiar rule that countries foreign to'óur own disregarded a judgment merely against the person, where the defendant had not been served with process nor had á day in court; th'at national comity was never thus extended; that the proceeding was deemed an- illegitimate assumption of power, and resisted as mere abuse; that no faith and credit or force and effect had been given to such judgments by any State of the Union, so far-*730as known; and that the State courts had uniformly, and in many instances, held them to be void. “ The international law,” said the court, “as it existed among the States in 1790, was that a judgment rendered in one State, assuming to bind the person of a citizen of another, was void within the foreign State, when the defendant had not been served with process' or voluntarily made defence; because neither the legislative jurisdiction nor that of courts of justice had binding force.” And-the court held that the act of Congress did not intend to declare a new rule, or to embrace judicial records of this description. As was stated in a subsequent case, the doctrine of this court is, that the act “ was not designed to displace that principle of natural justice which requires a person to have notice of a suit before he can be conclusively bound by its result, nor those rules of public law which protect "persons and property within one State from the exercise of jurisdiction over them by another,” The Lafayette Insurance Co. v. French et al., 18 How. 404.
This whole subject has been very fully and learnedly considered in the recent case of Thompson v. Whitman, 18 Wall. 457, where all the authorities jare carefully reviewed and distinguished, and the conclusion above stated is not only reaffirmed, but the doctrine is asserted, that the'record of a judgment rendered in another State may .be contradicted as to the facts necessary -to give the court jurisdiction against its recital of their existence. In all the cases brought in the State and Federal courts, where- attempts have been made under the act of Congress to give effect in one State to personal judgments rendered in another State ‘'against non-residents, without service upon them, or upon substituted service by publication, or in some.other form, it has been held, without-an exception, so far as-we are aware, that such judgments were without any binding force, except ,as to property, or interests in property, within the State, to" reach and affect which was the object of-the action in which the judgment was rendered, and which property was brought under control of the- court in connection with the-process against the -person,. The proceeding in such' cases, though in the form of 'a personal action, has been uniformly treated, where service wag/hot obtained, and the party did not volunta*731rily appear, as effectual and binding merely as a proceeding in rem, and as having no operation beyond the disposition of the property, or some interest therein. And the reason assigned for this conclusion has been that whieh we have already stated,, that the tribunals of one State have no jurisdiction over persons beyond its limits, and can inquire only into their obligations to its citizens when exercising .its conceded- jurisdiction over their property within its limits. In Bissell v. Briggs, decided by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts as early as. 1813, the.law is stated substantially in conformity with these views. In that case, the court considered at length the effect'of' the constitutional provision, and the act of Congress mentioned, and after stating that, in' order to entitle the judgment rendered in any court of the United States to the full faith and credit mentioned in the Constitution, the court must have • had jurisdiction not only of the cause, but of the parties, it proceeded to illustrate its position by observing, that, -where a debtor living in one State has goods, effects, and credits in another, his creditor living in the other State may have the property attached pursuant to its laws, and, oh recovering judgment, -have the property applied to its satisfaction; and that the. party in whose hands the property was would be protected by the judgment in the State of the debtor against a suit for it, because the court' rendering the judgment had jurisdiction to.that extent; but that if the property attached were insufficient to satisfy the judgment, and the creditor should sue on that judgment in the State of the debtor,' he would fail, because the. defendant was not amenable to the court rendering the judgment. In other words, it was held that over the property within the State the - court had jurisdiction by the attachment, but had none over' his person; and that any determination of Ms liability,'except.só'far as was necessary for the disposition -of the property, was invalid.
In Kilbourn v. Woodworth, 5 Johns, (N. Y.) 37, an action of’ debt was brought in New York upon a personal judgment, recovered in Massachusetts. The defendant in that judgment was not served with process; and the suit was. commenced by the attachment of a bedstead belonging to the. defendant, accompanied with a summons to appear, served on his wife after she had left her place in Massachusetts. The court held- that ’ *732the attachment bound only the property attached as a proceeding in rem, and that it could not bind the defendant, observing, that to bind a defendant personally, when he was never personally summoned on had notice of the proceeding, would be contrary to the first principles of justice, repeating the language in that respect of Chief Justice DeGrey, used in the case of Fisher v. Lane, 3 Wils. 297, in 1772. See also Borden v. Fitch, 15 Johns. (N. Y.) 121, and the cases there cited, and Harris v. Hardeman et al., 14 How. 334. To the same purport decisions are found in all the State courts. In several of the cases, the decision has been accompanied with the observation that a personal judgment thus recovered has no binding force without the State in which it is rendered, implying that in such State it may be valid and binding. But if the court has no jurisdiction over the person of the defendant by reason of his non-residence, and, consequently, no authority to pass upon his personal rights and obligations; if the whole proceeding, without service upon him -or his appearance, is 'coram non judiee, and void; if to hold a defendant bound by such a judgment is contrary to the first principles of justice, — it is difficult to see hos tile judgment can legitimately have any force within the State. The language used can be justified only on the ground • that there was no mode of directly reviewing such judgment or impeaching its validity within the State where rendered; and that, therefore,'- it could be called in question only when its enforcement was’ elsewhere attempted. In later cases, this language, is repeated with less frequency than formerly, it beginning to be considered, as it always ought to have been,that a judgment which can be treated in any State of this Union as contrary to the first principles of justice, and as an absolute nullity, because rendered without any jurisdiction of the tribunal over-the party, is not entitled to any respe'ct in the State where rendered. Smith v. McCutchen, 38 Mo. 415; Darrance v. Preston, 18 Iowa, 396; Hakes v. Shupe, 27 id. 465; Mitchell’s Administrator v. Gray, 18 Ind. 123.
Be. that as it may, the courts of the United States are not required to give effect to judgments of this character-when any right is claimed under thepi,. Whilst they are not foreign tribunals in their relations to the State courts, they are tribunals *733of a different sovereignty, exercising a distinct and independent jurisdiction, and are bound to give to the judgments of the State courts only the same faith and credit’ which the courts of another State are bound to give to them.
Since tbe adoption of the 'Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, the validity of such judgments may be directly questioned, and their enforcement in the State resisted, on the ground that proceedings in- a court of justice to deter mine the personal rights and obligations of parties over' whom that court has no jurisdiction do not constitute, due process of' law. Whatever difficulty may be. experienced in giving to' those terms a definition which will embrace every permissible exertion of power affecting private rights, and exclude such as is forbidden, there can be no doubt of their meaning when' applied to judicial proceedings. They then mean a course of legal proceedings according .to those rules and principles which’ have been established in our- systems of jurisprudence for the protection and enforcement of private rights. To give such proceedings any validity, there must bem tribunal competent by its constitution — that is, by the law offTts creation — to pass upon the subject-matter of the suit; and, if that involves merely a determination of the personal liability of .the defendant, he must be brought within 'it's jurisdiction by service of process within tbe State, or his voluntary appearance.
Except in cases affecting the personal status of the plaintiff, and cases in which that mode of service may be considered to •have been- assented to in advance, as hereinafter mentioned, tbe substituted service of process by publication, allowed by the law of Oregon and by similar laws in other States, where actions axe brought against non-residents, is effectual only where, in connection with process ¡against the person for commencing the action, property in the State is brought under the control of tbe court, and subjected to its disposition by process adapted to that purpose, or where the judgment is sought, as a means of reaching such property or affecting some interest therein; in other words, where the action is in the nature of a proceeding in rem. As stated by Cooley in his Treatise on Constitutional Limitations, 405, for any other purpose than'to subject the property of a non-resident to valid claims, against *734him in the State, “ due process of law would require appearance or personal service before the defendant could be personally bound by any judgment rendered.”
It is true that, in a strict sense, a proceeding in rem is one taken directly against property, and has for its object the disposition of the property, without reference to the title of individual claimants; but, in’ a larger and more general sense, the terms are applied to actions between parties, where the direct object is to reach and dispose of property owned by them, or-of some interest therein. Such are cases commenced by attachment against the property of debtors,’ or instituted to partition real estate, foreclose a mortgage, or enforce a lien. So far as they affect property in the State, they are substantially proceedings in rem in the broader sense which we have mentioned.
It is hardly necessary to observe, that in all we have said we have had reference to proceedings in courts of first instance; and to their jurisdiction, and not to proceedings in an appellate tribunal to review the action of such courts.- The latter may be taken upon' such- notice, .personal or constructive, as the State creating the tribunal may provide. They are considered as rather a continuation of the original litigation than the commencement of a new action. Nations et al. v. Johnson et al., 24 How. 195.
It follows from the views expressed that the personal .judgment recovered in the State court of Oregon against the plaintiff herein, then- a non-resident of the State, was without any validity,- and did not authorize a sale of the property in controversy. - ,
To prevent any misapplication of the views expressed in this-opinion, it is proper to observe that we do not- mean to assert, by any thing we have said, that a .State mqy not authorize proceedings to determine the status of one of its citizens towards a non-resident, which would be binding within the State, though made without service of process or personal notice to the' notí-resident.- .The jurisdiction which every State possesses to determine' the civil status and capacities of all its inhabitants involved authority to prescribe the conditions on which proceedings affecting them may be commenced and .carried on Within its territory. The State, for example, has absolute *735right to prescribe the condition's upon which the marriage relation between its own citizens shall be created, and' the causes for which it may be dissolved. One of the parties guilty of acts for which, by the law of the State, a dissolution may be granted, may have removed to a State where no dissolution is permitted. The complaining party would, therefore, fail if a divorce were sought in the State of the defendant; and if application could not be made "to the tribunals of the complainant’s domicile in such case, -and proceedings be there instituted without personal service of process or personal notice to the offending party, the injured citizen would be without redress. Bish. Marr. and Div., sect. 156.
Neither do we mean to assert that a State may not require a non-resident entering into a partnership or association, within its limits, or making contracts enforceable there, to- appoint an agent or representative in the State to receive service of process and notice in legal proceedings instituted with respect to such partnership, association, or contracts, or to designate a place where such service may- be made and notice given, and provide, upon their failure, to make such appointment or to designate such place that service may be made upon a public officer designated for that purpose, or in some other prescribed way, and that judgments rendered upon such service may not be binding upon the non-residents both within and without the State. As was said by the Court of Exchequer in Vallee v. Dumergue, 4 Exch. 290, “ It is not -contrary to natural justice that a man who has agreed to receive-a particular mode of notification of legal proceedings should be bound by a judgment in which that particular mode of notification has been followed, even though he may not have actual notice of them.” See also The Lafayette Insurance Co. v. French et al., 18 How. 404, and Gillespie v. Commercial Mutual Marine Insurance Co., 12 Gray (Mass.), 201. Nor do we doubt that a State, oh creating corporations or other institutions for pecuniary or charitable purposes, may provide a mode in. which their conduct may be investigated, their obligations enforced, or their charters revoked, which shall require other than personal service upon their officers or members. Parties becoming members. of .such corporations or Institutions would hold their *736interest subject to the conditions prescribed by law. Copin v. Adamson, Law Rep. 9 Ex. 345.
In the present case, there is no feature of this kind, and, consequently, no consideration of what would be the effect of such legislation in enforcing the contract of a non-resident can arise. The question here respects only the validity of a money judgment rendered in one State, in an action upon a simple contract against the resident of another, without service of process upon him, or his appearance therein.
Judgment affirmed.
dissenting.
I am compelled to dissent from' the opinion and judgment of the court, and, deeming the question involved tobe important, I take leave to record my views upon it.
The judgment of the court below was placed upon the ground that the provisions of the statute were not complied with. This is of comparatively little importance, as it affects the present case only. The judgment of this court is based upon the theory that the legislature had no power to pass the law in question; that the principle of the statute is vicious, and every proceeding under it void. It, therefore, affects all like cases, past and.future, and in every State.
The precise cáse is this: A statute of Oregon authorizes suits to be commenced by the service of a summons. In the case of a non-resident of the State, it authorizes the service of the summons to be made by publication for not less than six weeks, in a newspaper published in the county where the action is.commenced. A copy of the summons must also be sent by mail, directed to the defendant at his place of residence, unless it be shown that the residence is not known .and cannot be ascertained. It authorizes a judgment and execution to be obtained in such, proceeding. Judgment in a suit commenced by one Mitchell in the Circuit Court of Multnomah County, where the summons was thus served, was obtained against Neff, the present plaintiff; and the land in question, situate in Multnomah County; was bought by the defendant Pennoyer, at a sale upon the judgment in such suit. This court now holds; that, by reason of the absence of a personal service .of *737the summons on the defendant, the Circuit Court of Oregon had no jurisdiction, .its judgment could not authorize the sale of land in said county, and, as a necessary result, a purchaser of land under it obtained no title; that, as to the former owner, it is a case of depriving a person of his property without due process of law.
In my opinion, this decision is at variance with the long-established practice under the statutes of the States of this Union, is unsound iñ principle, and, I fear, may be disastrous in its effects. It tends to produce confusion in titles which bave been obtained under similar statutes in existence for nearly. a century; it invites litigation and strife, and over throws a well-settled rule of property.
The result of the authorities on the subject, and the sound conclusions to be drawn from the principles which shoiild govern the decision, as I shall endeavor to show, are these—
1. A soveréign State must necessarily have such control over the real and personal property actually being within its limits, as that it may subject the same to the payment of debts justly due to its citizens.. '
2. This result is not altered by the circumstance that the owner of the property is non-resident, and so absent from the State that legal process cannot be served upon him personally.
3. Personal notice of a proceeding by which title to property is passed is pot indispensable ; it is ebmpetent to the State to authorize substituted service by publication or otherwise, as the commencement of a suit against non-residents, the judgment in which -will authorize the sale of property in such State.-
4. It belongs to the legislative power of the State to determine what shall be the modes and means proper to be adopted to-give notice to an absent defendant of the commen'cement of a suit; and if they are such as are reasonably likely to communicate to him information of the proceeding against him, and are in good faith designed to give him such information, and an opportunity to defend is provided for him in the event of his appearance in the suit, it is not competent to the judiciary, to declare that such proceeding .is void as not being by due process of law.
5. Whether the property of suoh non-resident shall be seized *738upon attachment as the commencement of a suit which shall be carried into judgment and execution, upon which it shall then be sold, or whether .it shall be sold upon an execution and judgment without'such preliminary seizure, is. a matter not of constitutional power, but of municipal regulation only-'
To say that a sovereign State has the power to ordain- that the property of non-residents within its territory may be subjected to the payment of debts due to its citizens, if the property is levied upon at the commencement- of a suit, but that it has not such power if the property is levied upon at-the end of the suit, is a refinement and a depreciation of a great general principle that, in my judgment, cannot be sustained
A reference to the statutes of the different States, and to the statutes of the United States,' and to the decided cases, and a consideration of the principles on which they stand, will more clearly exhibit my view of. the question..
The statutes are of two classes: first, those which authorize the commencement of actions by publication, accompanied by an attachment which is levied upon property, more or less, of an absent debtor; second, those giving the like mode of commencing a suit without an attachment.
The statute of Oregon relating to publication of summons, supra, p. 718, under which the question arises, is nearly a transcript of a series of provisions contained in the New York statute, adopted thirty years since. The latter authorizes the commencement of a suit against a- non-resident by the publication of an' order for his appearance, for a time not less than six weeks, in such newspapers as shall be most likely to give notice to him, and the deposit of a copy of the summons and complaint in the post-office, directed to him at his residence, if it can. be ascertained; and provides for the allowance to defend the action before judgment, and within seven years after its rendition, upon good cause shown, and that, if the defence be successful, restitution shall be ordered. It then declares: “ But the title to property sold under such judgment to a purchaser in good faith shall' not be thereby affected.” Code, sects. 34, 35; 5 Edm. Rev. Stat. of N. Y., pp. 37-39.
Provisions similar in their effect, in authorizing the commencement.'of suits by attachment against absent debtors, in *739which all of the property of the absent debtor, real and personal, not merely that seized upon the attachment, is placed under the- control of trustees, who sell it for the benefit of all the creditors, and make just distribution thereof, conveying absolute title to the property sold, have been upon the. statute-book of New York for more than sixty years. 2 id., p. 2 and following; 1 Rev. Laws, 1813, p. 157.
The statute of New York, before the Code, respecting proceedings in chancery where absent debtors are. parties, had long been in use' in that State, and was adopted in all cases of chancery jurisdiction. Whenever a defendant resided out of the State, his appearance might be compelled .by publication in the manner pointed out. A' decree might pass against him, and performance be compelled by sequestration of ,his real or personal property, or by causing possession of specific property to be delivered, where that relief is sought. The relief was not confined to cases of mortgage foreclosure, or where there was a-specific claim upon the property, but included cases requiring the payment of money as well. 2 Edm. Rev. Stat. N. Y., pp. 193-195; 186, m.
I doubt not that many valuable titles are now held by virtue of the provisions of these statutes.
The statute of California authorizes the service of a summons on a non-resident defendant by publication, permitting him to come in and defend upon the merits within one year after‘the entry of judgment.. Code, sects. 10,412, 10,473. In its general character it is like the statutes of Oregon and New York, already referred to. ' ..
The Code of Iowa, sect. 2618, that of Nevada, sect. 1093, and that of Wisconsin, are to the same general effect. The Revised- Statutes of Ohio, sects. 70, 75, 2 Swan & Critchfield,. provide for a similar publication, and that the defendant may come in to defend within five years after the entry of the judgment, but that the title to property held by any purchaser in good faith under the judgment shall not be affected thereby. ■
The attachment laws of New Jersey, Nixon Dig. (4th ed.), p. 55, are like those of New York-already quoted, by which title may be transferred to' all the property of á non-resident' debtor. And the provisions of the Pennsylvania statute regu*740lating proceedings in equity, Brightly’s Purden’s Dig., p. 5988, sects-. 51, 52, give the same authority in substanee, and the same result is produced as under the New York statute.-
Without going into a wearisome detail of the statutes of the various States, it is safe to say that nearly every State in the Union provides a process by. which the lands and other property of a non-resident debtor may be subjected to the payment of his debts, through a judgment or. decree against the owner, obtained upon a substituted service of the summons or writ commencing the action.
The principle of substituted service is also a rule of property under the statutes of the United States.
The act of Congress “to amend the law of the District of Columbia in relation to judicial proceedings therein,” approved. Feb. 23, 1867, 14' Stat. 403, contains the same general provisions. It enacts (sect. 7) that publication may be substituted for personal service, when the defendant cannot be found, in suits for partition, divorce, by attachment, for the foreclosure of mortgages and deeds of trust, and for the enforcement of mechanics’ liens and all other liens against real or personal property,-and in all actions at law or in equity having for their immediate object the enforcement or establishment of any lawful right, claim, or demand to or against any real or personal property within the jurisdiction of the court.
A following - section points out the mode of. proceeding, and closes in these words: —
“ The decree, besides' subjecting the thing upon which the lien has attached to the satisfaction of the plaintiff’s demand against the defendant, shall adjudge that the plaintiff recover his demand against the defendant, and that he may have execution thereof as at law.” Sect. 10.
A formal judgment against the debtor is thus authorized, by means of which any other property of the defendant within the jurisdiction of the court, in addition to that which is the subject of the lien, may be sold, and the title transferred to the purchaser, - ...
All these statutes are now adjudged to be uncüristitutional and void. The titles obtained under them are not of the value *741of the paper on which they are recorded, except where a preliminary attachment was issued.
Some of the statutes and several of the authorities I cite go further than the present case réquires. In. this case, property lying in the State where the suit was brought, OAvned by the non-resident debtor, was sold upon the judgment against him ; and it is on the title to that property that the controversy turns. •
The question whether, in a suit commenced like the present one, a judgment can be obtained, which, if sued upon in another State, will be conclusive against the debtor, is not before us; nor does the question arise as to the faith- and credit to be given in. one State to a judgment recbvered in another.. The learning on that subject is not applicable. The point is simply whether land lying in the same State may be subjected to process at the end of a suit thus commenced.
It is here necessary only to maintain the principle laid down by Judge Cooley in his .work on Constitutional Limitations, p. 404, and cited by Mr. Justice Field in Galpin v. Page, 3 Sawyer, 93, in these words: —
“• The fact that process was not personally served is a conclusive objection to the judgment as a personal claim, unless the defendant caused his appearance to be entered in the attachment proceedings. Where- a party has property in a State, and resides elsewhere, his property is justly subject to all valid claims that may exist against lxim thex-e; but beyond this, due process of law would require appearance or personal service before the defendant could be Personally bound by any judgment rendered.”
The learned author does not make it a condition that there should be a preliminary seizure of the property by attachment; he” lays down the rule that all a person’s property in a State may be subjected - to all valid claims there existing against him.
The objection now made, that suits commenced by substii uted service, as by publication, axxd judgments obtained without actual notice to the debtor, are in violation of that constitutional provision that no man shall be deprived of his property “without du3 process of law,” has often been presented.
In Matter of the Empire City Bank, 18 N. Y. 199, which *742was a statutory proceeding to establish and to enforce the responsibility of the stockholders of a banking corporation, and the proceedings in which resulted in á personal judgment against-the stockholders for the amount found due, the eminent and learned Judge Denio, speaking as the organ of the Court of Appeals, says: —
The notice of hearing is to be personal, xrr by service at ,the residence of the parties who live in the county, or by advertisement as to others. It may, therefore, happen that some of the persons who are made liable will, not have received actual notice, and the question is, whether personal service of process or actual notice to the party is essential to constitute due process of law. We have i ot been referred to any adjudication holding -that no man’s right of property can be affected by judicial proceedings unless he have personal notice. It may be admitted that a statute which should authorize any debt or damages to be adjudged against a person upon a purely ex parte proceedings without a pretence of notice or any provision for defending, would be a violation of the Constitution,, and be void; but where the legislature has prescribed a kind of notice by which it is reasonably probable that the party proceeded against will be apprised of what is going on against him, and an opportunity is afforded him to defend, I am of the opinion that the' courts have not the power to pronounce the proceeding illegal. The legislature has uniformly acted upon that understanding of the Constitution.”
Numerous provisions of the statutes of the State are commented upon, after which he proceeds: —
“ Various prudential regulations are made with respect to these remedies; but it may possibly happen, notwithstanding all these precautions, that a citizen who owes nothing, and has done none of the acts mentioned in' the statute, may be deprived of his estate, without any actual knowledge of .the process by which it has,been taken from him. If we hold, as we must in order to sustain this legislation, that the Constitution does not positively require personal notice in order to constitute a legal proceeding due process of law, it then belongs to the legislature to determine whether the case calls for this kind of exceptional legislation, and what manner’ of constructive'notice shall be sufficient'to reasonably, apprise the party proceeded against of the legal steps which are taken against him.”
*743In Happy v. Mosher, 48 id. 313, the court say: —
“ An approved definition of due process of law is ‘law in its regular administration through courts of justice.’ 2 Kent, Com. 13. It need not be a legal proceeding according to the course of the common law, neither must there be personal notice to the party whose property is in question. It is sufficient if a kind of notice is provided by which it is reasonably probable that the party proceeded against will be apprised of what is going on against him, and an opportunity afforded him to defend.”
The same language is used in Westervelt v. Gregg, 12 id. 202, and in Campbell v. Evans, 45 id. 356. Campbell v. Evans and The Empire City Bank are cases not of proceedings against property to enforce a lien or claim; but in each of them a personal judgment in damages was rendered against the party complaining.
It is undoubtedly true, that, in many cases where the question respecting due process of law- has arisen, the case in hand,was that of a proceeding in rem. -, It is true, also, as is asserted, that the process of .a State cannot be supposed to run beyond its own' territory. It is equally true, however, that, in every instance where the question has been presented, the validity of substituted service, which is used to subject property within the State belonging to a non-resident .to a.judgment obtained by means thereof, has been sustained. I have found no case in which it is adjudged that a statute must require a preliminary seizure of such property as necessary to the validity of the proceeding against it, or that there must have been a previous specific lien upon it; that is, I have found no case where such has been the judgment of the court upon facts making necessary the decision of the point. On the contrary, in the ease of the attachment laws of New York and of New Jersey, which -distribute all of the non-resident’s property, not merely that levied on by the attachment, and in several of the reported cases already referred to, where the judgment was sustained, neither of these preliminary facts existed.
The case of Galpin v. Page, reported in 18 Wall. 350, and again in 3 Sawyer, 93, is cited in hostility to the views I have expressed. There may be general expressions which will justify *744this suggestion, but the judgment is in harmony with those principles.^ In the case as reported in this court, it was held that the title of the purchaser under a decree against a non-resident infant was invalid, for two reasons: 1st, That there was no jurisdiction of the proceeding under the statute of California, on account of the entire absence of an affidavit of non-residence, and of diligent inquiry for the residence of the debtor; 2d, the absence of any.ordet for publication in Eaton’s case, — — both of which are conditions precedent to the jurisdiction of the court to take any action on the subject. The title was held void, also, for the reason that the decree under which it was obtained had been reversed in the'State court, and the title was not taken at the sale, nor held then by a purchaser in good faith, the purchase being made by one of the attorneys in the suit, and the title being transferred to his law partner after the reversal of the decree. The court held that there was a failure of jurisdiction in the court under which the plaintiff claimed title, and that he could not recover. The learned justice who delivered the opinion in the Circuit Court and in this court expressly affirms the authority of a State over persons not only, but property as well, within its limits, and this by means of a substituted service. The judgment so obtained, he insists, can properly be used as a. means of reaching property within the State, which is thus ‘brought under the control of the court and subjected to its judgment. This is .the precise point in controversy in the present action.
The case of Cooper v. Reynolds, 10 Wall. 308, is cited for the same purpose. There the judgment of the court below, refusing to give effect to a judgment obtained upon an order of publication against a non-resident, was reversed in this court. The suit was commenced, or immediately accompanied (it is not clear which), by an attachment which was levied upon the real 'estate sold, and for the recovery of which this action was brought. This court sustained the title founded upon the suit commenced against the non-resident .by attachment. In the opinión delivered in that case there may be remarks, by way of argument or illustration, tending to-show that a judgment obtained in a suit not commenced by the levy of an attachment will not give title tó land purchased under it. They are, *745however, extra-judicial, the decision itself sustaining the judgment obtained under the State statute by publication.
Webster v. Reid, 11 How. 437, is also cited. There the action involved the title to certain lands in the State of Iowa, being lands formerly belonging to. the half-breeds of the Sac and Fox tribes; and title was claimed against the Indian right under the statutes of June 2, 1838, and January, 1839. By these statutes, commissioners were appointed who were authorized to hear claims for accounts against the Indians, and commence actions for the same, giving a notice thereof of eight weeks in the Iowa “ Territorial Gazette,” and to enter up judgments which should be a lien on the lands. It was. provided that it should not be necessary to name the defendants in the suits, but the words “ owners of the half-breed lands lying in Lee County ” should be a sufficient designation of- the defendants in such suits; and it provided that the trials should be by the. court, and not by a jury. It will be observed that the lands were not only within the limits of the territory of Iowa, but that all the Indians who were made defendants under the name mentioned were also residents of Iowa, and, for aught that appears to the contrary, of the very county of Lee in’ which the proceeding was taken. Non-residenee was not a fact in the case. Moreover, they were Indians, and, presumptively, not citizens of any State; and the judgments under which the lands were sold were rendered by the commissionérs for their own services under the act.
The court found abundant reasons, six in number, for refusing to sustain the title thus obtained. The act was apparently an attempt dishonestly, to obtain the' Indian title, and not intended to give a substitution for a personal service which would . be likely, or was reasonably designed, to reach the persons to be affected.
The case of Voorhees v. Jackson, 10 Pet. 449, affirmed the title levied under the attachment laws of Ohio, and laid down the principle of assuming that all had been rightly done by a court having general jurisdiction of the subject-matter.
In Cooper v. Smith, 25 Iowa, 269, it is said, that where no process is served on the defendant, nor property attached, nor garnishee charged, nor appearance entered, a judgment based *746on a publication of' the pendency of the suit will be void, and may be impeached, collaterally or otherwise, -and forms no bar 'to a recovery in opposition to it, nor any foundation 'for a title claimed under it. The language is very general, and goes much beyond the requirement of the case, which was an appeal from a personal judgment obtained by publication against the defendant, and where, as the court say, the petition was not properly verified. All that the court decided was that this judgment should be reversed. This is quite a different question from the one before us. Titles obtained by purchase at a sale upon an erroneous judgment are generally good, although the judgment .itself be afterwards reversed. McGoon v. Scales, 9 Wall. 311.
In Darrance v. Preston, 18 Iowa, 396, the distinction is pointed out between the validity of a judgment as to the amount realized from the sale of- property within the jurisdiction of the court and its. validity beyond that amount. Picquet v. Swan, 5 Mas. 35; Bissell v. Briggs, 9 Mass. 462; Ewer v. Coffin, 1 Cush. (Mass.) 23, are cited; but neither of them in its facts touches the question before us.
In Drake on Attachment, the rule is laid down in very general language; but none of the cases cited by him will control the present case. They are the following: —
Eaton v. Bridger, 33 N. H. 228, was decided upon the peculiar terms of’ the New Hampshire statute, -which forbids the entry of a judgment, unless the debtor was served with process, or actually appeared and answered in the suit. The court say the judgment was “not only unauthorized by law, but rendered in violation of its express-provisions.”
Johnson v. Dodge was a proceeding in the same action to obtain a reversal on appeal of the general judgment, and did not arise upon a contest for property sold under the judgment. Carleton v Washington Insurance Co., 35 id. 162, and Bruce v. Cloutman, 45 id. 37, are to the same effect and upon the same statute.
Smith v. McCutchen, 38 Mo. 415, was a motion in the former suit to set aside the execution by a garnishee, and it was held that the- statute was intended to extend to that .class of cases. Abbott v. Shepard, 44 id. 273, is to the same effect, and is based upon Smith v. McCutchen, supra.
*747So in Eastman v. Wadleigh, 65 Me. 251, the question arose in debt on the judgment, not upon a. holding of land purchased under the judgment. It was decided upon the express language of the statute of Maine, strongly implying the power óf the legislature to make it otherwise, had they so chosen.
It is said that the-case where a preliminary seizure has been made, and jurisdiction .thereby conferred, differs from that where the property is seized at the end of the action, in this: in thfe first case, the property is supposed to b.e so near to its owner, that,- if seizure is made of it,-he will be aware of the fact, and have his opportunity to defend, and jurisdiction of the person is thus obtained. This, however, is matter of discretion and-of judgment only. Such seizure is not in itself notice to the defendant, aná it is not certain that he will by that means .receive notice. Adopted as a means of communicating it, and although a very good means, it is not the only one, nor necessarily better than a publication of the pendency of the suit, made .with an honest intention to reach the debtor. Who. shall assume to say to the legislature, that if it authorizes a particular mode of giving notice to a debtor,, its action may be sustained, but, if it adopts any or all others, its action is’ unconstitutional and void ? The rule is universal, that modes, means, questions óf expediency or necessity, are éxclusively within the judgment -of the legislature, and that the judiciary cannot review them. This has been so held in relation to a bank of the United States, to the legal-tender act, and to cases arising under other provisions of the Constitution.
In Jarvis v. Barrett, 14 Wis. 591, such is the holding. The court say: —
“ The essential.fact on which the publication is made to depend is property of the defendant in the State, and not. whether it has been attached. . . . There is no 'magic about the writ [of attachment] which should make it the exclusive remedy. The same legislative, power which devised it can devise some other, and declare that it shall have the same force-and effect. The particular -means to be used are always within the control of the legislature, so that the end be not beyojid the scope of legislative power.” ■
If the legislature shall think that publication and deposit in the post-office are likely to give- the notice,' there seems tq be *748nothing in the nature of things to prevent their adoption in lieu of the attachment. The point of power cannot be thus controlled.
That a State can subject land within its limits belonging to non-resident owners to debts due to its own citizens as it can legislate upon all other local matters; that it can prescribe the mode and process by which it is to be reached; — seems to me very plain.
I am not willing to declare that a sovereign State cannot subject the land within its limits to the payment of debts due to its citizens, or that the power to do. so depends upon the fact whether its statute shall authorize the property ,to be levied upon at the commencement of the suit or at its termination. This is a matter of detail, and I am of opinion, that if reasonable notice be given, with an opportunity to defend when appearance is made, the question of power will be fully satisfied.
5.15 Pennoyer's Post-Credits Scene 5.15 Pennoyer's Post-Credits Scene
Once again, see Wendy C. Perdue, Sin, Scandal, and Substantive Due Process: Personal Jurisdiction and Pennoyer Reconsidered, 62 Wash. L. Rev. 479 (1987), found here.
After the litigation, Neff disappeared, Pennoyer later became the Governor of Oregon, and Mitchell was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1872, though he only served one term. Just prior to another election in 1885, the lower court judge in Pennoyer v. Neff discovered a set of love letters written by Mitchell. The letters were addressed to the younger sister of his second wife, with whom he had had a five-year affair. Though the judge turned the letters over to a newspaper, Mitchell was re-elected to the Senate four days later. He served until 1905, when he was convicted of land fraud, sentenced to jail time and a fine, and was disbarred from holding public office.