Commercial Insurance v. Superior Court

Petitioners seek a writ of prohibition to restrain respondent superior court from further proceedings in this action on the ground that the superior court has no jurisdiction of the subject matter, the employee’s remedy being exclusively federal.

*322 It appears from the complaint filed in the lower court and the exhibits attached thereto that petitioners insured the liability of the employer, Morrison-Knudsen Company, Inc., for compensation arising under 42 U.S.C., sections 1651-1654 , the Defense Bases Act, 1 for an illness of the employee, William Bahner, contracted in the course of employment on a defense base of the United States at Teheran, Iran. The employee was totally disabled as the result of post infectious myelitis from a systemic virus infection. On June 23, 1964, he received an award under the said compensation act which required petitioners to pay to the employee the sum of $70 a week as long as he remained disabled, the sum of $300 a month to his wife for her services as an attendant as long as such services were necessary, and “that the defendants shall provide the claimant with such treatment as is necessary to alleviate the illness from which he is suffering. ’…