Court Opinion

ID: 9417486
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 20:18:55.634175+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:21:22.677487
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Harlan,
with whom concurred Mr. Justice Field, dissented upon the grounds:
1, That the question whether the provision in c. 84, § 2 of 'the General Statutes of Massachusetts that “ whoever travels on the Lord’s Day, except for necessity or charity, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding ten dollars” is a bar. to a recovery in this action, is a question of general law upon which the Federal courts are at liberty to follow their own convictions; and,
2, That it is settled by Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Balimore Railroad v. Philadelphia and Havre de Grace Towboat Co., 23 How. 209, that such a state statute is not a bar to a recovery in an action like this in a Federal court.