Harlan F. Stone

“ The statute relates not only to causes of action for wrongful death but to causes of action for other injuries. Where the cause of action for personal injury survives to personal representatives of an injured employee who dies after the injury from other causes, the language of the statute seems peremptorily to require the action to be brought within two years from the time of injury, without regard to any intervening period after death when there is no executor or administrator. ”

“ Whatever effect may be given to the assertion often made in judicial opinion that in the ordinary case where a cause of action arises in favor of the estate of a decedent there is no person who can enforce it if there is no executor or administrator, [1] that statement cannot be applied strictly to causes of action for death arising under the federal Employers' Liability Act. For while it is true that the executor or administrator is the person authorized to bring the suit, he nevertheless acts only for the benefit of persons specifically designated in the statute. ”

“ It cannot be supposed that Congress, in enacting the statute intended to impose a fixed limitation of two years within which all actions for personal injury must be begun, regardless of death and of the time of appointment of an administrator of the injured employee, and at the same time intended to allow an indefinite period within which application may be made for the appointment of an administrator as the prerequisite to an action to recover for wrongful death. ”