Hughes, Administrator, v. Fetter et al. (341 U.S. 609)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 4, 1951 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 341 U.S. 609 · 71 S. Ct. 980
- Docket
- No. 355
- Argued
- March 1, 1951
- Decided
- June 4, 1951
- Term
- October Term 1950
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Black
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- State/territorial law held unconstitutional
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Clark, Justice Burton, Justice Douglas, Justice Black (wrote)
- Dissenting
- Justice Minton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Frankfurter (wrote), Justice Reed
Opinion excerpt
Me. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. Basing his complaint on the Illinois wrongful death statute, appellant administrator brought this action in the Wisconsin state court to recover damages for the death of Harold Hughes, who was fatally injured in an automobile accident in Illinois. The allegedly negligent driver and an insurance company were named as defendants. On their motion the trial court entered summary judgment “dismissing the complaint on the merits.” It held that a Wisconsin statute, which creates a right of action only for deaths caused in that state, establishes a local public policy against Wisconsin’s entertaining suits brought under the wrongful death acts of other states. The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed, notwithstanding the contention that the local statute so construed violated the Full Faith and Credit Clause of Art. IV, § 1 of the Constitution. The case is properly here on appeal under 28 U. S. C. § 1257. We are called upon to decide the narrow question whether Wisconsin, over the objection raised, can close the doors of its courts to the cause of action created by the Illinois wrongful death act. Prior decisions have established that the Illinois statute is a “public act” within the provision of Art. IV, § 1 that “Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts ... of every other State.” It is also settled that…
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