In Steamboat Company v. Chase (1872) 83 U.S. 522, a steamboat owned by the company ran over a sail boat containing the plaintiff's intestate, and killed him. His administrator brought suit against the company in a state court of Rhode Island, under an act making common carriers responsible for deaths occasioned by their negligence, and providing that the damages be recovered in an action on the case. Defendant took the position that the saving clause must be limited to such causes of action as were known to the common law at the time of the passage of the judiciary act, and as the common law gave no remedy for negligence resulting in death, an action subsequently given by the statute was not a common law remedy. The contention was held to be unsound.