10-235 CSX Transportation, Inc., v. McBride

Listen to this article

Torts
FELA; negligence

In an action under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, a defendant ‘caused or contributed to’ Plaintiff’s injury if the defendant’s negligence played a part, no matter how small, in bringing about the injury.
FELA’s “in whole or in part” language is straightforward. “[R]easonable foreseeability of harm is an essential ingredient of [FELA] negligence,” Gallick v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 372 U. S. 108, 117 (emphasis added). If negligence is proved, however, and is shown to have “played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury,” Rogers, 352 U. S., at 506, then the carrier is answerable in damages even if “ ‘the extent of the [injury] or the manner in which it occurred’ ” was not “[p]robable” or “foreseeable.” Gallick, 372 U. S., at 120–121, and n. 8. Properly instructed on negligence and causation, and told, as is standard practice in FELA cases, to use their “common sense” in reviewing the evidence, juries would have no warrant to award damages in far out “but for” scenarios, and judges would have no warrant to submit such cases to the jury.
598 F.3d 388, affirmed.

10-235 CSX Transportation, Inc., v. McBride

Ginsburg, J.; Roberts, C.J., dissenting.

Full Text