U.S. Supreme Court ALASKA PACKERS ASS'N v. INDUSTRIAL ACC. COM'N, 294 U.S. 532 (1935)

[Page 294 U.S. 532, 548]

basis, that of the conflicting interests involved those of the foreign state are superior to those of the forum. It follows that not every statute of another state will override a conflicting statute of the forum by virtue of the full faith and credit clause; that the statute of a state may sometimes override the conflicting statute of another, both at home and abroad; and, again, that the two conflicting statutes may each prevail over the other at home, although given no extraterritorial effect in the state of the other.

This was fully recognized by this Court in Bradford Electric Light & Power Co. v. Clapper, supra, pages 157-162 of 286 U.S., 52 S.Ct. 571. There, upon an appraisal of the governmental interests of the two states, Vermont and New Hampshire, it was held that the compensation act of Vermont, where the status of employer and employee was established, should prevail over the conflicting statute of New Hampshire, where the injury occurred and the suit was brought. In reaching that conclusion, weight was given to the following circumstances: That liability under the Vermont act was an incident of the status of employer and employee created within Vermont, and, as such, continued in New Hampshire where the injury occurred; that it was a substitute for a tort action, which was permitted by the statute of New Hampshire; that the Vermont statute expressly provided that it should extend to injuries occurring without the state and was interpreted to preclude recovery by proceedings brought in any other state; and that there was no adequate basis for saying that the compulsory recognition of the Vermont statute by the courts of New Hampshire would be obnoxious to the public policy of that state. [Footnote 4]

[Page 294 U.S. 532, 550]

legislation and is greater than that of Alaska, of which the employee was never a resident and to which he may never return. Nor should the fact that the employment was wholly to be performed in Alaska, although temporary in character, lead to any different result. It neither diminishes the interest of California in giving a remedy to the employee, who is a member of a class in the protection of which the state has an especial interest, nor does it enlarge the interest of Alaska whose temporary relationship with the employee has been severed.

The interest of Alaska is not shown to be superior to that of California. No persuasive reason is shown for denying to California the right to enforce its own laws in its own courts, and in the circumstances the full faith and credit clause does not require that the statutes of Alaska be given that effect.

Affirmed. Footnotes

Footnote 1 L. 1929, c. 25; Comp. Laws 1933, c. 41, art. 4, 2161 et seq.

Footnote 2 L. 1913, c. 176, p. 279; L. 1917, c. 586, p. 831; L. 1919, c. 471, p. 910; L. 1923, cc. 161, 379, pp. 375, 770; L. 1929, c. 227, p. 430; L. 1931, c. 944, p. 1950.

Footnote 3 Section 1, article 4, of the Constitution provides:'Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may be general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.''The Act of May 26, 1790, c. 11, 1 Stat. 122, provided for the proper authentication of the acts, records, and judicial proceedings and declared:'And the said records and judicial proceedings authenticated as aforesaid, 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 whence the said records are or shall be taken.'

That of March 27, 1804, c. 56, 2 Stat. 298, extended the provisions of this statute to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of the territories of the United States. These enactments subsequently became sections 905, 906 of the Revised Statutes, U.S.C., tit. 28, 687, 688 ( 28 USCA 687, 688).

Footnote 4 The case arose in the federal District Court for New Hampshire. The state court had not spoken on the subject.