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    Atchison, T. & SFR Co. v. Saxon, 284 U.S. 458 (1932)

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    The Supreme Court reviewed a case where a railway employee was fatally injured on the job in New Mexico. A Texas court awarded damages to the employee's representative under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, but an appeals court reversed, finding no evidence of negligence by the railway company. The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court, finding that the evidence did not adequately establish that the employee's death was the result of negligence by the railway company, as is required to recover under the Act. The judgment was reversed and remanded.

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    Atchison, T. & SFR Co. v. Saxon, 284 U.S. 458 (1932)

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    The Supreme Court reviewed a case where a railway employee was fatally injured on the job in New Mexico. A Texas court awarded damages to the employee's representative under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, but an appeals court reversed, finding no evidence of negligence by the railway company. The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court, finding that the evidence did not adequately establish that the employee's death was the result of negligence by the railway company, as is required to recover under the Act. The judgment was reversed and remanded.

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    Filed: 1932-02-15 Precedential Status: Precedential Citations: 284 U.S. 458 Docket: 291

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    The Supreme Court reviewed a case where a railway employee was fatally injured on the job in New Mexico. A Texas court awarded damages to the employee's representative under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, but an appeals court reversed, finding no evidence of negligence by the railway company. The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court, finding that the evidence did not adequately establish that the employee's death was the result of negligence by the railway company, as is required to recover under the Act. The judgment was reversed and remanded.

    Copyright:

    Public Domain
    Download as COURT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as court, pdf, or txt
    14 views3 pages

    Atchison, T. & SFR Co. v. Saxon, 284 U.S. 458 (1932)

    Uploaded by

    Scribd Government Docs
    The Supreme Court reviewed a case where a railway employee was fatally injured on the job in New Mexico. A Texas court awarded damages to the employee's representative under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, but an appeals court reversed, finding no evidence of negligence by the railway company. The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court, finding that the evidence did not adequately establish that the employee's death was the result of negligence by the railway company, as is required to recover under the Act. The judgment was reversed and remanded.

    Copyright:

    Public Domain
    Download as COURT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as court, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    284 U.S.

    458
    52 S.Ct. 229
    76 L.Ed. 397

    ATCHISON, T. & S. F. RY. CO.


    v.
    SAXON.*
    No. 291.
    Argued Jan. 8, 1932.
    Decided Feb. 15, 1932.

    Messrs. A. H. Culwell, of El Paso, Tex., and E. E. McInnis, of Chicago,


    Ill., for petitioner.
    Mr. Winbourn Pearce, of Temple, Tex., for respondent.
    Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS, delivered the opinion of the Court.

    While employed as head brakeman by petitioner railway company and engaged


    in interstate commerce, J. W. Moore sustained fatal injuries at a New Mexico
    station. His personal representative obtained a judgment for damages, under the
    Federal Employers' Liability Act (45 USCA 51-59), in a Texas court.

    The Court of Civil Appeals at El Paso reversed this, holding that the evidence
    failed to show the accident resulted from the carrier's negligence. The Supreme
    Court granted a writ of error, reversed the Court of Civil Appeals and affirmed
    the original judgment. It concluded that, viewing all the evidence, there was
    enough to show negligence and causal connection between this and the death.

    The matter is here by certiorari. The railway sets up a claim under the federal
    statute which it has not heretofore had opportunity to submit for adjudication to
    any federal tribunal. The cause is one of a peculiar class where we have
    frequently been obliged to give special consideration to the facts in order to
    protect interstate carriers against unwarranted judgments and enforce
    observance of the Liability Act as here interpreted.

    Examination of the record convinces us that the Court of Civil Appeals reached

    Examination of the record convinces us that the Court of Civil Appeals reached
    the proper conclusion. We can find no evidence from which it may be properly
    concluded that Moore's tragic death was the result of negligence by the railway
    company. As often pointed out, one who claims under the Federal Act must in
    some adequate way establish negligence and causal connection between this
    and the injury. New York Central Railroad Co. v. Ambrose, 280 U. S. 486, 50
    S. Ct. 198, 74 L. Ed. 562; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. v. Toops, 281 U.
    S. 354, 50 S. Ct. 281, 74 L. Ed. 896.

    In the language of the Supreme Court, the respondent 'recovered in the trial
    court on the theory that the deceased, while in the discharge of his duties as a
    brakeman, was running along by the side of the track of the Railway Company
    and while doing so with the purpose and intent of boarding one of the cars in
    the train, he stepped on or upon some soft area or hole in his pathway, and was
    thereby caused to fall and be run over and killed.'

    Nobody saw the accident; no one can say with fair certainty how it occurred.
    Consistently with the facts disclosed, it might have happened in one of several
    ways and without causal negligence by the petitioner. When last seen, the
    deceased was running westwardly by the side of the train then moving in that
    direction. Across the pathway commonly used by trainmen, there was a slight
    depression-estimated to be four or five, or possibly six or eight, feet long and
    three feet wide-filed with small rock screenings. It was softer than other
    portions of the way-yielded to the foot. Eight or ten feet west of this witnesses
    found blood upon the rail.

    Two hours after the accident a fourteen year old boy discovered the mark of a
    shoe in the screenings. He said it 'was deeper then the footprint that I made, it
    looked as though somebody that was heavy or running had stepped in it. The
    front part of the foot was deepest.' There is no evidence-nothing but conjectureto show that the deceased made this impression; and, even if he did, we cannot
    assume that by stepping there he was made to stumble and fall under the
    moving train.

    What occasioned this distressing accident can only be surmised. It was


    necessary to show causal negligence in order to establish the respondent's right
    to recover. The evidence fails to meet this requirement.

    The judgment below must be reversed, and the cause remanded for further
    proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

    10

    Reversed.

    10
    *

    For conforming opinion in State Court, see 50 S.W.(2d) 1095.

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