George Sutherland

“ As early as 1910, the Supreme Court of the Canal Zone declared that the courts of the Zone were 'in duty bound to follow the rules of statutory construction of the courts of common law and ascertain by them the meaning and spirit of the codes.' Kung Ching Chong v. ”

“ Without going into the reasons for the notion that an action (other than an appeal) does not lie for causing the death of a human being, it is enough to say that they have disappeared. The policy that forbade such an action, if it was more profound than the absence of a remedy when a man's body was hanged and his goods confiscated for the felony, has been shown not to be the policy of present law by statutes of the United States and of most if not all of the states. ”

“ But nevertheless, under the principles of the common law, it has required specific statutes to fix civil liability for death by wrongful act; and it is this requirement, rather than the construction put upon the statute in civil law countries, that the inhabitants of the Canal Zone are presumed to be familiar with, and which affords the rule by which the meaning and scope of the statute in question are to be determined. ”