Carter v. Atlanta & ST. Andrews Bay Railway Co. (338 U.S. 430)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 19, 1949 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 338 U.S. 430 · 70 S. Ct. 226
- Docket
- No. 23
- Argued
- October 14, 1949
- Decided
- December 19, 1949
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 6–2
- Majority author
- Justice Clark
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Black, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Burton, Justice Clark (wrote), Justice Minton
- Dissenting
- Justice Reed (wrote), Justice Frankfurter (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Clark delivered the opinion of the Court. The Federal Safety Appliance Acts require railroad cars used in interstate commerce to be equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact. This case brings before us for review another action for damages by a railroad employee under the Safety Appliance Acts and the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. The trial court instructed the jury that there could be no liability based on any “defect” in the “automatic coupling system,” but submitted the case on issues of negligence. There was a verdict against the plaintiff upon which judgment for the railroad was entered. The Court of Appeals affirmed. 170 F. 2d 719. We granted certiorari because of the confusion which has developed in the application of the two statutes. 336 U. S. 935. Our duty to review certain cases of this nature is settled. Wilkerson v. McCarthy, 336 U. S. 53 (1949); Keeton v. Thompson, 326 U. S. 689 (1945); Ellis v. Union Pacific R. Co., 329 U. S. 649 (1947). On February 2, 1946, the petitioner was injured while acting as “swing man” of a switching crew on the respondent railroad. The crew of five men were engaged at night in switching operations at and near the International Paper Company plant in Panama City, Florida. The conductor of the crew had laid out a plan for coupling together a number of cars, some of which were on storage tracks and one on…
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