seventies, however, the States, abandoning the common law rule on
the subject, began passing laws which authorized the representatives of
a decedent whose death had resulted from injury to bring an action for
damages.[99] The question at once presented itself whether, if such an
action was brought in a State other than that in which the injury
occurred, it was governed by the statute under which it arose or by the
law of the forum State, which might be less favorable to the defendant.
Nor was it long before the same question presented itself with respect
to transitory action _ex contractu_, where the contract involved had
been made under laws peculiar to the State where made, and with those
laws in view.

ACTIONS UPON CONTRACT: WHEN GOVERNED BY LAW OF PLACE OF MAKING

In Chicago and Alton R.R. _v._ Wiggins,[100] referred to above, the
Court, confronted with the latter form of the question, indicated its
clear opinion that in such situations it was the law under which the
contract was made, not the law of the forum State, which should govern.
Its utterance on the point was, however, not merely _obiter_; it was
based on an error, namely, the false supposition that the Constitution
gives "acts" the same extraterritorial operation as the act of 1790 does
"judicial records and proceedings." Notwithstanding which, this dictum
is today the basis of "the settled rule" that the defendant in a
transitory action is entitled to all the benefits resulting from
whatever material restrictions the statute under which plaintiff's right
of action originated sets thereto, except that courts of sister States
cannot be thus prevented from taking jurisdiction in such cases.[101]
However, a State court does not violate the full faith and credit clause
by mere error in construing the law upon which a transitory action from
another state depends;[102] nor is a court of the forum State guilty of
a disregard thereof when it entertains a suit based on a statute of
another State, albeit the statute in terms limits actions thereunder to
courts of the enacting State.[103] Moreover, in actions on contracts
made in other States, a State constitutionally may decline to enforce in
its courts, as contrary to its own policy, the laws of such States
relating to the right to add interest to the recovery as an incidental
item of damages.[104]

STOCKHOLDER--CORPORATION RELATIONSHIP

Nor is it alone to defendants in transitory actions that the full faith