Callen v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co. (332 U.S. 625)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 12, 1948 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 332 U.S. 625 · 68 S. Ct. 296
- Decided
- January 12, 1948
- Term
- October Term 1947
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. Plaintiff, a railroad brakeman, brought this action under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, 35 Stat. 65; 53 Stat. 1404; 45 U. S. C. § 51. He recovered a jury verdict of $24,990, but the Circuit Court of Appeals reversed because of errors in the charge by the District Judge and ordered a new trial. The plaintiff’s claim as submitted to the jury was negligence on the part of an engineer in effecting a coupling operation at a speed which plaintiff thought would jolt him off the stirrup of the car he was riding. In jumping for safety, he claimed to have received a severe and permanent back injury. The defendant denied the occurrence, offered testimony that plaintiff did not work at the time in question and also evidence of his admission that he did not work on that day but instead shoveled snow to get his car out of the garage. It also was testified that he had told his conductor he hurt his back on a different occasion. But if the injury was sustained at the time and place alleged, the defendant denied negligence, claimed contributory negligence and pleaded a general release. The controversy here concerns the release. It was proved and not denied that for a consideration of $250 the plaintiff executed a general release of “all claims and demands which I have or can or may have against the said Pennsylvania Railroad…
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