COLLINS et al. v. AMERICAN BUSLINES, INC. et al.
No. 523.
Argued March 29, 1956.
Decided April 9, 1956.
John P. Frank argued the cause and filed a brief for petitioners.
John F. Franks argued the cause and filed a brief for the Industrial Commission of Arizona, respondent.
Mr. Justice Frankfurter
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Adolphus Henry Collins was killed in an accident near Ehrenburg, Arizona, on September 30, 1953. The accident resulted from the blowout of a tire on an American Buslines’ vehicle which Collins was driving on a regular run from Phoenix to Los Angeles. Collins had been employed as a bus driver for American since 1944. He had done his driving on various routes in the Southwest, and from 1952 until the time of his death he was regularly employed on the Los Angeles to Phoenix and return route. He and his wife and minor child — the petitioners in this proceeding — made their home in Los Angeles, California, in which State Collins was covered by workmen’s compensation.
Petitioners applied on October 14, 1953, to the Industrial Commission of Arizona for compensation in accordance with the terms of the Arizona Workmen’s Compensation Act. In an award dated November 30, 1953, that agency made, inter alia, the following findings:
“That the defendant employer maintained workmen’s compensation coverage in the State of California and that payroll premium on the said Adolphus Henry Collins was reported to the State of California. That no reporting of such was made at any time to the Industrial Commission of Arizona.
“That the said Adolphus Henry Collins, at the time of his death, was not regularly employed in the State of Arizona as said term has been defined by the Supreme Court of Arizona in the case of Industrial Commission vs. Watson Brothers Transportation Company, [75 Ariz. 357, 256 P. 2d 730].”
“That the Industrial Commission of Arizona does not have jurisdiction in the premises, and that said . . . claim on file herein should be denied for lack of jurisdiction.”
On certiorari to the Supreme Court of Arizona, the construction of the Arizona statute on which the Commission based its award was rejected, but its disposition of petitioners’ claim was affirmed. After concluding that American Buslines “operated exclusively in interstate commerce,” the court held that the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution precluded recovery under the Arizona Workmen’s Compensation Act because Collins was covered by the California statute, and to require his interstate employer to insure also in Arizona would place an undue burden on interstate commerce. 79 Ariz. 220, 286 P. 2d 214. We granted certiorari because of the important federal question thus presented. 350 U. S. 931.
The only respondent here is the Arizona Industrial Commission. It is not at all clear from the record before us what the interest of the state agency is in this litigation. If the employer were actively before the Court, it could claim, we assume, that an award in the circumstances of the present case burdens the interstate commerce in that the consequences of such an award would be' to require it in the future to obtain insurance sufficiently comprehensive to cover potential awards in the various States through which it passes. The apparent interest of the Commission is different, namely, that as a result of an award in this case, interstate carriers will seek insurance from a single private insurance carrier capable of giving coverage in all States through which they run. The desire by interstate carriers for such insurance will cause a defection from the state compensation fund, and it is this potential defection which leads to the Commission’s claim that the Arizona Act cannot be applicable in an interstate situation. But this asserted burden upon interstate commerce — the disadvantageous effect upon the state compensation fund — is too intangible and elusive to be deemed a constitutionally disallowable burden.
We have been advised, however, that American Bus-lines has been a non-participating defendant throughout this litigation; that it is in receivership in Nebraska; that an order has been issued by the Nebraska court barring claims against it except in that court; and that petitioners’ claim is against the state compensation fund, administered by the Industrial Commission, which will in a separate proceeding be put to such recourse as it may have against American Buslines. This is not controverted. The Commission, therefore, appears to have an immediate interest of the same character and extent that American Buslines would have were it here. Thus, the Commission can invoke the employer’s claim under the Commerce Clause. But that claim — of an increased insurance burden imposed as a practical matter upon an interstate carrier — while perhaps less tenuous than the defection argument directly pertinent to the Commission’s case, is hardly more substantial. Whatever dollars-and-cents burden an eventual judgment for claimants in the position of petitioners may cast either upon a carrier or the State’s fund is insufficient, compared with the interest of the State in affording remedies for injuries committed within its boundaries, see Carroll v. Lanza, 349 U. S. 408, to dislodge state power. The State’s power is not dislodged so long as the Federal Government has not taken over the field of remedies for injuries of employees on interstate buses as it has done in the case of employees of interstate railroad carriers. New York Central R. Co. v. Winfield, 244 U. S. 147.
The court below and the Commission here rely on Southern Pacific Co. v. Arizona, 325 U. S. 761. It is too slender a reed. Two less similar situations, in which shelter from an exercise of state power is sought under the Commerce Clause, would be difficult to find than that presented by the circumstances of this case, compared with the circumstances of the Southern Pacific case.
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Arizona is reversed, and the case is remanded to that court for further proceedings.
Reversed and remanded.
Section 56-928 of the Arizona Code Annotated, 1939 (Cum. Supp. 1952), provides:
“Employers subject to the provisions of this article are: . . . 3. every person who has in his employ three [3] or more workmen or operatives regularly employed .... For the purposes of this section ‘regularly employed’ includes all employments, whether continuous throughout the year, or for only a portion of the year, in the usual trade, business, profession, or occupation of an employer.”
What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine the bases on which the Supreme Court rested its decision with regard to the legal provision that the Court considered in the case. Consider "judicial review (national level)" if the majority determined the constitutionality of some action taken by some unit or official of the federal government, including an interstate compact. Consider "judicial review (state level)" if the majority determined the constitutionality of some action taken by some unit or official of a state or local government. Consider "statutory construction" for cases where the majority interpret a federal statute, treaty, or court rule; if the Court interprets a federal statute governing the powers or jurisdiction of a federal court; if the Court construes a state law as incompatible with a federal law; or if an administrative official interprets a federal statute. Do not consider "statutory construction" where an administrative agency or official acts "pursuant to" a statute, unless the Court interprets the statute to determine if administrative action is proper. Consider "interpretation of administrative regulation or rule, or executive order" if the majority treats federal administrative action in arriving at its decision.Consider "diversity jurisdiction" if the majority said in approximately so many words that under its diversity jurisdiction it is interpreting state law. Consider "federal common law" if the majority indicate that it used a judge-made "doctrine" or "rule; if the Court without more merely specifies the disposition the Court has made of the case and cites one or more of its own previously decided cases unless the citation is qualified by the word "see."; if the case concerns admiralty or maritime law, or some other aspect of the law of nations other than a treaty; if the case concerns the retroactive application of a constitutional provision or a previous decision of the Court; if the case concerns an exclusionary rule, the harmless error rule (though not the statute), the abstention doctrine, comity, res judicata, or collateral estoppel; or if the case concerns a "rule" or "doctrine" that is not specified as related to or connected with a constitutional or statutory provision. Consider "Supreme Court supervision of lower federal or state courts or original jurisdiction" otherwise (i.e., the residual code); for issues pertaining to non-statutorily based Judicial Power topics; for cases arising under the Court's original jurisdiction; in cases in which the Court denied or dismissed the petition for review or where the decision of a lower court is affirmed by a tie vote; or in workers' compensation litigation involving statutory interpretation and, in addition, a discussion of jury determination and/or the sufficiency of the evidence.