Monessen Southwestern Railway Co. v. Morgan (486 U.S. 330)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 6, 1988 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 486 U.S. 330 · 108 S. Ct. 1837
- Decided
- June 6, 1988
- Term
- October Term 1987
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice White
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns the application of state-law rules affecting the measure of damages in an action brought in state court under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA), 35 Stat. 65, as amended, 45 U. S. C. § 51 et seq. H Appellee was employed by appellant as a railroad brakeman and conductor. In August 1977, appellee fell while alighting from a railroad car and suffered a permanent injury to his back. He returned to work in February 1979 in the less physically demanding position of radio and supply clerk. Appellee brought an FELA action in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, alleging that his fall was attributable to appellant’s negligence. He claimed that his future earning power had been impaired as a result of his injury because he could not obtain certain incentive and shift differential payments in his new position. The trial judge refused to instruct the jury that any damages award for loss of future earnings would have to be reduced to present value. Instead, she informed the jury that “[t]he law now provides that there need not be such a reduction.” App. 61. The judge apparently was referring to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in Kaczkowski v. Bolubasz, 491 Pa. 561, 583, 421 A. 2d 1027, 1038-1039 (1980), which had instructed state courts to cease discounting future lost earnings…
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