## Facts

- A death occurred in Alabama allegedly due to negligence attributable to the Supreme Lodge of the World, Loyal Order of Moose.
- The decedent’s administrator, Kenney, sued under Alabama’s wrongful-death statute and obtained a wrongful-death judgment in Alabama.
- Kenney then filed an action of debt in Illinois to enforce the Alabama judgment.
- The defendant pleaded to the jurisdiction, asserting the judgment rested on an out-of-state wrongful-death claim.
- Illinois had a statute providing that no action could be brought in Illinois for damages for a death occurring in another state due to wrongful conduct.
- Illinois courts applied that statute to refuse to entertain the enforcement action on the Alabama judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether Illinois may refuse to entertain an action to enforce a valid Alabama wrongful-death judgment because Illinois law bars original wrongful-death actions for deaths occurring outside Illinois, consistent with the Full Faith and Credit Clause.
2. Whether Alabama can limit enforcement of its judgment in another state through a statutory declaration that such wrongful-death actions may not be maintained outside Alabama.
3. Whether a state supreme court decision construing a state statute in a way that conflicts with the federal Constitution is reviewable in the U.S. Supreme Court by writ of error.

## Decision

- The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Illinois.
- Illinois could not apply its statutory jurisdictional bar to deny an action to enforce a valid sister-state judgment without violating the Full Faith and Credit Clause.
- Alabama’s declaration limiting where wrongful-death actions may be maintained could not prevent enforcement in another state of a judgment validly obtained in Alabama.
- The case was properly reviewable by writ of error because the state court construction of the Illinois statute brought it into conflict with the federal Constitution.
- The writ of certiorari was dismissed as unnecessary.

## Legal Principles

- Full Faith and Credit requires a forum state to give effect to a valid sister-state judgment; a forum state may not avoid that duty by examining the underlying cause of action and invoking local statutory or public-policy bars applicable to original suits.
- A state statute that restricts bringing certain original causes of action in the forum cannot be applied to bar an action to enforce a sister-state judgment based on such a claim.
- A rendering state’s statutory limitation that its wrongful-death actions may not be maintained elsewhere cannot impair the right to enforce, in another state, a judgment obtained in the rendering state with proper jurisdiction.
- A state supreme court judgment that construes a state statute so as to conflict with the U.S. Constitution is reviewable in the U.S. Supreme Court by writ of error.

## Conclusion

The Court held that Illinois was constitutionally required to entertain an action to enforce a valid Alabama wrongful-death judgment despite an Illinois statute barring original suits for out-of-state deaths, and that neither Illinois’s jurisdictional statute nor Alabama’s attempted extraterritorial limitation could defeat enforcement of the judgment.


Kenney v. Supreme Lodge of the World, Loyal Ord. of Moose, 252 U.S. 411 (1920)