Anderson, Administratrix, v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. (333 U.S. 821)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 26, 1948 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 333 U.S. 821 · 68 S. Ct. 854
- Docket
- No. 620
- Decided
- April 26, 1948
- Term
- October Term 1947
- Vote
- 9–0
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed, Justice Black, Justice Rutledge, Justice Murphy
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. Petitioner, as administratrix, filed a complaint in a California state court under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, 45 U. S. C. § 51, to recover damages for the alleged wrongful death of one L. C. Bristow. The trial court held that the allegations of the complaint, even if true, were totally insufficient to support a judgment for plaintiff, and entered judgment for the defendant. The State Supreme Court, two judges dissenting, affirmed on the same ground. 31 Cal. 2d 117, 187 P. 2d 729, The complaint’s allegations and the inferences fairly drawn from them in summary are as follows: November 24, 1942, the deceased was a conductor on respondent’s passenger train westbound from Amarillo, Texas, to Belen, New Mexico. At about 5:30 a. m., while the train was moving approximately opposite defendant’s station at Gallaher, New Mexico, decedent fell from the train’s rear vestibule where it was necessary for him to be in order properly to perform the duty in which he was then engaged, “checking a certain train order signal at said station” of Gallaher. Decedent’s fall resulted in injuries which made it impossible for him to secure help by his own efforts. At the next station where the train stopped, St. Vrain, respondent’s employees “made note of the absence of decedent,” but passed by it and three other station stops, Melrose, Taiban, and Fort Sumner, without taking…
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