Sultan Railway & Timber Co. v. Department of Labor & Industries
Sultan Railway & Timber Co. v. Department of Labor & Industries
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
These suits present the same .questions, were heard together and may be disposed of in one opinion, as they were below. ,
They were brought to restrain 'the enforcement of an order, legislative in character, made by a state bureau— the objection to the order being that it is repugnant to the Constitution and laws of the United States in that it impinges on the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States.' The order was.upheld by the trial court and by thé Supreme Court of the State, 141 Washington 172. The cases are here on writs of error sued out under § 237(a) of the Judicial Code.
The order is a statute of the, State within the meaning of that section, and therefore our jurisdiction is invoked in the right mode. John P. King Manufacturing Co. v. Augusta, ante, p. 100, and cases there cited.
The order, requires each of the plaintiffs from time to time to report the number of men employed by it in the work about to be described; together with the wages paid to them, and to pay into the State’s workmen’s compensation fund, out of which injured employees are compensated, premiums or assessments based on such wages.
It is settled by our decisions that where the employment, although maritime in character, pertains to local matters, having only an incidental relation to navigation ' and commerce, the rights, obligations and liabilities of the. parties, as between themselves, may be regulated by'local rules which do not work material prejudice to the characteristic features of the general maritime law or interfere with its uniformity. Grant Smith-Porter Co. v. Rohde, 257 U. S. 469; Millers’ Indemnity Underwriters v. Braud, 270 U. S. 59; Alaska Packers Association v. Industrial Accident Commission, 276 U. S. 467.
We think the order in question as applied to the situations disclosed comes within that rule.
Judgments affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
For reasons stated in John P. King Manufacturing Co. v. City Council of Augusta, ante, p. 100, Mr. Justice Holmes and'I think that the writs of error in these cases also should be dismissed. Treating these writs of error as
Reference
- Full Case Name
- SULTAN RAILWAY & TIMBER COMPANY v. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON Et Al.; ECLIPSE MILL COMPANY v. SAME
- Cited By
- 60 cases
- Status
- Published