Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/308/463/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-12-14 21:02:10
Document Index: 92647965

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 7', '§ 9', '§ 7', '§ 7', '§ 7', '§ 15', '§ 15', '§ 9']

BONET V. TEXAS COMPANY , INC., 308 U. S. 463 - Volume 308 - 1940 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 308 > BONET V. TEXAS COMPANY , INC., 308 U. S. 463 (1940) > Full Text
Respondent brought this action in a Puerto Rico court to enjoin the Treasurer of Puerto Rico from enforcing by distraint, orders of the Puerto Rico Workmen's Relief Commission awarding compensation for the death of each of three laborers while in the employ of respondent. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico interpreted the Workmen's Accident Compensation Act of Puerto Rico [Footnote 1] as not permitting such collateral attack on orders of the Commission and affirmed a judgment dismissing the bill. 52 D.P.R. 658, 53 D.P.R. 475. On appeal (43 Stat. 936), the Circuit Court of Appeals vacated that judgment and remanded the cause with directions to issue the injunction.
And it indicated that, on such appeal the
question of whether or not respondent was uninsured was among the issues which could have been reviewed. [Footnote 4] The Commission, however, had directed the awards to the Attorney General on April 24, 1928, for collection under § 7 of the Act, a section providing for collection of awards against uninsured employers. [Footnote 5] But eight years passed, and the Attorney General made no attempt to collect. Respondent contended that it did not appeal under § 9 since it was waiting to defend, on the ground that it was insured, an action by the Attorney General under § 7. And though a new method of collection of such awards was created within a few months after these awards were made, [Footnote 6] respondent contended that the new law, in providing
that pending litigation was not to be affected, [Footnote 7] preserved its former opportunity to defend under § 7. To this the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico replied that the purpose of the saving clause in the new act [Footnote 8] was merely to preserve the rights of workmen to compensation, not to make the new procedure inapplicable to pending cases in contradiction to the well settled rule that procedural statutes are immediately applicable. It also added that, in any event, the procedure of § 7 had not survived the issuance of the order by the Commission since by the 1935 amendment that procedure was to be "followed in such litigations or claims, until their termination" [Footnote 9] -- the issuance of the orders of the Commission having terminated the case within the meaning of the amendment.
Power of Petitioner to Distrain. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico concluded that petitioner had the power
But the Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with that conclusion. It reasoned that petitioner had no power to collect in that manner, since, by § 15 of the 1935 amendments, the person who was to "determine" the amount of the claim and "certify its decision" [Footnote 13] to petitioner was the Manager of the State Fund created under that law. [Footnote 14] That person not being the same as the Workmen's Relief Commission which had issued the orders in question, § 15 was not operative as respects respondent. This reasoning
For over sixty years, this Court has consistently recognized the deference due interpretations of local law by such local courts unless they appeared to be clearly wrong. From Sweeney v. Lomme, 22 Wall. 208, to Bonet v. Yabucoa Sugar Co., supra, decided in 1939, repeated admonitions to that effect have been given. That rule is founded on sound policy. [Footnote 17] As this Court
Measured by such a test, the judgment of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico should not have been reversed. In concluding that, under § 9, an uninsured employer could have an award of the Commission reviewed, including the issue of whether or not he was insured, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico did not take a patently absurd position.
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