Case Name: PENSABENE v. F. & J. AUDITORE CO.
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1913-02-21
Citations: 140 N.Y.S. 266
Docket Number: 
Parties: PENSABENE v. F. & J. AUDITORE CO.
Judges: 
Reporter: West's New York Supplement
Volume: 140
Pages: 266–271

Head Matter:
(155 App. Div. 368.)
PENSABENE v. F. & J. AUDITORE CO.
(Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department.
February 21, 1913.)
Master and Servant (§ 250%, New, vol. 16 Key-No. Series)—Death of Servant—Workingmen's Compensation Act—Enforcement.
The New Jersey Workingmen's Compensation Act (P. L. 1911, p. 136) § 2, subd. 9, providing for the recovery of compensation for injury to or death of a servant, and declaring that every contract of hiring made subsequent to the taking effect of the act shall be presumed to have been made with reference thereto, applies only where the contract of hiring is made in New Jersey, and the complaint in an action for the death of a servant which fails to set up a hiring made in New Jersey is demurrable. .
Appeal from Special Term, Kings County.
Action by Francesco Pensabene, as administrator of Antonio Pensabene, deceased, against the F. & J. Auditore Company. From a _ judgment of the Special Term (78 Mise. Rep. 538, 138 N. Y. Supp. 947) denying a motion made pursuant to Code Civ. Proc. § 976, to sustain a demurrer to the complaint, and overruling the demurrer, defendant appeals. Reversed, and motion granted, with leave to serve an amended complaint.
Argued before JENKS, P. J., and BURR, THOMAS, CARR, and WOODWARD, JJ.
Samuel Greason, Jr., of New York City, for appellant.
Charles A. Ludlow, of New York City, for respondent.

Opinion:
CARR, J.
It is plain from a reading of subdivision 9, § 2, of the New Jersey law (P. L. 1911, p. 136), that its provisions for "elective compensation" apply, by force of said statute, only where the contract of hiring was made in the state of New Jersey. The complaint in this action fails to set up a hiring made in that-state. I am inclined to the view that this failure of allegation was deliberate. Be that as it may, the complaint is defective so far as it is based upon the foreign statute. Beyond this point, I do not concur in the opinion of WOODWARD, J., for the further discussion therein contained is' purely obiter. In view of the fact that this case was submitted to •this court without any brief from the respondent and practically with but little oral argument from her counsel, I think it the better policy to refrain from any expression of views which, as this case stands before us, can be at most but personal views and not the declaration of a principle of law put forth necessarily to decide the actual controversy.
The order is reversed, with $10 costs and disbursements, and the motion to sustain the demurrer is granted, with $10 costs, with leave to the plaintiff to serve an amended complaint within 20 days on payment of costs as aforesaid.
JENKS, P. J., and, BURR and THOMAS, JJ., concur. WOODWARD, J., concurs in separate opinion.