Silver v. Silver, 280 U.S. 117 (1929)

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Silver v. Silver

No. 24

Argued October 25, 1929
Decided November 25, 1929
280 U.S. 117

APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF ERROR OF CONNECTICUT

Syllabus

1. Where the record does not disclose the federal grounds on which a state statute was challenged in the state court, review will be limited to those which were considered in the state court’s opinion. P. 122.

2. The Constitution doe not forbid the abolition of old rights recognized by the common law to attain a permissible legislative object. P. 122.

3. A state statute providing that no person carried gratuitously as a guest in an automobile may recover from the owner or operator for injuries caused by its negligent operation is not in conflict with the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because of the distinction it makes between passengers so carried in automobiles and those in other classes of vehicles. P. 122.

4. A statutory classification may not be declared forbidden as arbitrary unless grounds for the distinction are plainly absent. P. 123.

5. Conspicuous abuses, such as the multiplicity of suits growing out of the gratuitous carriage of passenger in automobiles, may be regulated by the legislature without regulating other like, but less conspicuous, examples. P. 123.

108 Conn. 371 affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut affirming a judgment for the defendant in an action to recover for injuries caused by negligence in the operation of an automobile.