Louis Brandeis

“ Whether the provision be interpreted as making the commencement of a suit within the year a condition precedent to the existence of a cause of action, or as making failure to sue within the year a breach of a condition subsequent which extinguishes the cause of action, is not of legal significance here. [4] Nor are we concerned with the question whether the provision is properly described as relating to remedy or to substance. However characterized, it is an express term in the contract of the parties by which the right of the insurer and the correlative obligation of the insurer are defined. ”

“ Dick, a citizen of Texas, brought this action in a court of that state against Compania General Anglo-Mexicana de Seguros S. A., a Mexican corporation, to recover on a policy of fire insurance for the total loss of a tug. Jurisdiction was asserted in rem through garnishment, by ancillary writs issued against the Home Insurance Company and Franklin Fire Insurance Company, which reinsured, by contracts with the Mexican corporation, parts of the risk which it had assumed. The garnishees are New York corporations. ”

“ Its protection extends to aliens. Moreover, the parties in interest here are American companies. The defense asserted is based on the provision of the policy and on their contracts of reinsurance. The courts of the state confused this defense with that based on the Mexican Code. They held that, even if the effect of the foreign statute was to extinguish the right, Dick's removal to Texas prior to the bar of the foreign statute removed the cause of action from Mexico, and subjected it to the Texas statute of limitation. And they applied the same rule to the provision in the policy. ”

“ And, in the absence of a contractual provision, the local statute of limitation may be applied to a right created in another jurisdiction even where the remedy in the latter is barred. [7] In such cases, the rights and obligations of the parties are not varied. When, however, the parties have expressly agreed upon a time limit on their obligation, a statute which invalidates the agreement and directs enforcement of the contract after the time has expired increases their obligation and imposes a burden not contracted for. ”

“ Dick's claim is that, since the obligation of a reinsurer to pay the original insurer arises upon the happening of the loss, and is not conditional upon prior payment of the loss by the insurer, Allemannia Fire Insurance Co. v. Firemen's Insurance Co., 209 U.S. 326, 28 S.C.t. 544, 52 L. Ed. 815, 14 Ann. Cas. 948; Hicks v. Poe, 269 U.S. 118, 46 S.C.t. 29, 70 L. Ed. 187, the New York companies are indebted to the Mexican company, and these debts are subject to garnishment in a proceeding against the latter quasi in rem, even though it is not suable in personam. ”

“ It may not abrogate the rights of parties beyond its borders having no relation to anything done or to be done within them.
Fourth. Finally, it is urged that the Federal Constitution does not require the states to recognize and protect rights derived from the laws of foreign countries-that as to them the full faith and credit clause has no application. See AEtna Life Ins. Co. v. Tremblay, 223 U.S. 185, 32 S.C.t. 309, 56 L. Ed. 398. The claims here asserted are not based upon the full faith and credit clause. ”