Court : US Supreme Court
..... , by appointment of the county court, stewart county, tennessee; defendant is a kentucky railroad corporation engaged in interstate commerce; in september, 1909, the deceased was employed as a brakeman on one of its freight trains moving in such commerce; through negligence of its operatives and servants, a collision occurred; in an effort to save his life, he was caught under the engine and held ..... 308 error to the circuit court of appeals for the sixth circuit syllabus the employers' liability act of 1908, prior to the amendment of april 5, 1910, declared two distinct and independent liabilities resting upon the common foundation of a wrongful ..... in case of death, liability to his personal representative for the benefit of the surviving widow or husband and children, and if none, then of the parents, but only for pecuniary loss and damage resulting to them by reason ..... the facts, which involve the construction of the employers' liability act of 1908, and the right of parents to recover for death of an adult son, are stated ..... it is now definitely settled that the act declared two distinct and independent liabilities resting upon the common foundation of a wrongful injury: (1) liability to the injured employee for which he alone can recover, and (2), in case of death, liability to his personal representative "for the benefit of the surviving widow or husband and children," and if none, then of the parents, which extends only to the pecuniary loss and damage resulting to them by reason .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... section 1 of the act of congress provides that every common carrier by railroad, while engaged in interstate commerce, "shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such carrier in such commerce, or, in case of the death of such employee, to his or her personal representative for the benefit of the surviving widow or husband and children of such employee, and if none, then of such employee's parents . . . ..... the facts, which involve the construction of the federal employers' liability acts of 1908 and 1910 and the right of nonresident aliens to maintain actions thereunder, and also questions involving rights under the favored nation clause of the treaty with great britain, are stated in the opinion. ..... 400 the policy of the employers' liability act accords with and finds expression in the universality of its language. ..... action in trespass under the railroad employers' liability act of congress of april 22, 1908, 35 stat. 65, c. ..... aliens, nonresident in the united states, to maintain actions in the courts of the united states and of the states, a citizen of great britain has a treaty right to maintain an action for the death of a relation under the federal employers' liability acts of 1908 and 1910. ..... aliens to maintain actions for death of relatives under statutes giving the right, held that the weight of authority in this country and in england is that alienage is not a condition affecting right of recovery under the federal employers' liability act. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... that the amount recovered should be measured by the pecuniary injury suffered, the court added: "however, the court instructs you that, where the persons suffering injury are the dependent widow and infant children of a deceased husband or father, the pecuniary injury suffered would be much greater than where the beneficiaries were all adults or dependents who were mere next of kin, so that the relation existing ..... bearing the above principles in mind, the jury should assess such damages, not exceeding $40,000, the amount claimed in the declaration, as shall fully compensate the widow and children for all pecuniary loss, as hereinafter explained, suffered by them as the direct result of the death of the husband and father, and in doing so the jury should consider:" "(1) what the earning capacity of ..... while it is proper for the trial court to instruct the jury to take into consideration the care, attention, instruction, guidance and advice which a father may give his children and to include the pecuniary value thereof in the damages assessed, it is not proper to give the jury occasion for indefinite speculation by comparing the rights of the actual beneficiaries with those of the ..... 625 error to the circuit court of appeals for the fourth circuit syllabus under the employers' liability act, where death is instantaneous, the beneficiaries can recover their pecuniary loss and nothing more; but the relationship between them and the deceased is a proper circumstance for consideration in .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... a provision brought into a federal statute by way of amendment, expressing the deliberate will of congress, must be given effect, and, construing 1 and 9 of the employers' liability act, as amended, together, the personal representative of a deceased employee is to recover, on the part of the designated beneficiaries, not only such damages as will compensate them ..... for the district of massachusetts -- the right of the injured employee would have survived if the local statutes were applicable, and the ruling in both was that the federal act was exclusive, and superseded the local statutes, that it made no provision for a survival, and therefore that the recovery should be confined to damages for the pecuniary ..... that any right of action given by this act to a person suffering injury shall survive to his or her personal representative, for the benefit of the surviving widow or husband and children of such employee, and if none, then of such employee's parents, and if none, then of the next of kin dependent upon such employee, ..... injured person, and the right as at common law died with him, but under the act as amended in 1910 that right of action survives to the personal representatives of the decedent for the benefit of the widow, husband, children, parents or dependent next of kin, as specified in 9 of the act as amended. ..... supplemental petition, damages were sought for the suffering of the deceased while he lived and also for the pecuniary loss to his widow and children by his death. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... the principal question in the case is whether, at the time he was injured, the deceased was within the class of persons for whose benefit the safety appliance acts required that the car be equipped with automatic couplers and drawbars of standard height; or, putting it in another way, whether his injury was within the evil against which the provisions for such appliances are ..... the facts, which involve the construction and application of the safety appliance act in an action for injuries based upon the employers' liability act, are stated in the opinion. ..... this was an action for personal injuries ultimately resulting in death, the right of recovery being based upon the employers' liability act. ..... the car was loaded with freight moving from one state to another, the railroad company was engaged in interstate commerce, and the deceased was employed therein at the time. ..... the evil against which the coupler provision of the safety appliance act are directed are those which attended the old-fashioned link and pin coupling where it was necessary for men to go between the ends of the cars to couple and uncouple them; it was not enacted to ..... the only negligence charged in the complaint was a failure to have the car equipped, at the end struck by the engine, with an automatic coupler and a drawbar of standard height as required by the safety appliance acts, and there was no attempt to prove any other negligence. ..... he died from his injuries six days later, leaving a widow and three minor children. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... upon the law of the place where the suit is brought, matters of substance in regard to an action based on a federal statute depend upon the statute, and in an action under the employers' liability act, the burden of proof as to whether the employee was guilty of contributory negligence is a matter of substance, and not of mere state procedure. ..... there was a departure from the language of the exception, and error is assigned "because the judgment, being in solido, is void under the federal employers' liability law for the reason that damages must be apportioned by the jury in accordance with the dependency of the relatives entitled to recover for his ..... regard to admission of evidence in regard to delivery and content of written papers and as to inspection of engines which involve no construction of the employers' liability act cannot, under 237, judicial code, be renewed on writ of error to the state court. 87 vt. ..... writ of error to review a judgment of the state court in an action under the federal employers' liability act, this court considers only assignments relating to matters of practice, pleading, and evidence involving the construction ..... was or could have been raised in the present case, since, as matter of law, the wife and minor children were all to be treated as entitled to share in the amount recovered for the death of the husband and ..... the benefit of the widow and next of kin, minor children. ..... in a vermont court, for "the benefit of the widow and next of kin, minor children. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... supreme court of the state of arkansas syllabus under the employers' liability act as amended in 1910 and 28, judicial code, a cause brought in a state court of competent jurisdiction under the employers' liability act cannot be removed to a federal court upon the sole ground ..... under the employers' liability act as amended in 1910, there can be a recovery for pecuniary loss to the widow and children of decedent and also for conscious pain and suffering endured by decedent in the period, even though brief -- in this case about ..... and independent liabilities springing from one wrong -- as for the suffering endured before death and the death itself -- in an action under the employers' liability act in the state court, the jury need not, if it is in accord page 238 u. s. ..... 1913, 1010], specifies causes removable from state courts by nonresident defendants, and concludes: " provided, that no case arising under an act entitled 'an act relating to the liability of common carriers by railroad to their employees in certain cases,' approved april twenty-second, nineteen hundred and eight, or any amendment thereto, and brought in any ..... verdict and judgment for damages for personal injuries obtained in an action under the federal employers' liability act, are stated in the opinion. ..... under the employers' liability act, the recovery of pecuniary damages by the personal representative of the deceased is in trust for the beneficiaries designated by the act, and ..... federal employers' liability act (35 .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... court of the state of south carolina syllabus the allowance by the trial court after the testimony was in, and over defendant's objection, of an amendment to bring the case specifically under the employers' liability act, held not to have exceeded the discretionary power of the court, or to have been so arbitrary as to amount to denial of due process of law. ..... the declaration alleged reckless negligence, and set out that the wife and four children named were the only heirs and distributees of the deceased, that they were dependent upon him for support, and that they had suffered damage to ..... the facts, which involve the construction of the employers' liability act and the validity of a verdict of the state court in a suit for death of an employee, are stated ..... so as specifically to bring the case under the employers' liability act of congress, of april 22, 1908, c. ..... might, before arrival at final destination, where the accident occurred, have dropped all interstate cars and taken up only local cars is too remote to warrant withdrawal of a case under the employers' liability act from the jury. ..... in actions under the employers' liability act, when questions of negligence and the like are brought here only because arising in actions under the statute and involving no new principles, this court confines itself to ..... alleged concerned the sufficiency of the evidence said to bring the case within the act of congress and also the evidence touching the questions of negligence and assumption of .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... of all causes of action that may have theretofore existed, irrespective of the persons in favor of whom or against whom such right might have existed, is equally clear from the language of 5 of the act, containing a schedule of awards, and providing that each workman injured in the course of his employment should receive certain compensation, and 'such payment shall be in lieu of any and all rights of action whatsoever against any person whomsoever.' . . . ..... the conclusion is evident that, in the enactment of this new law, the legislature declared it to be the policy of this state that every hazardous industry within the purview of the act should bear the burden arising out of injuries to its employees, and that it was the further policy of the state to do away with the recognized evils attaching to the remedies under existing forms of ..... 620 appellant that the intent of the act is limited to the abolishment of negligence as a ground of action against an employer only is to overlook and read out of the act and its declaration of principles the economic thought sought to be crystallized into law -- that the industry itself was the primal cause of the injury, and, as such, should be made to bear its burdens ..... death resulted from the negligence of the petitioner railway company, his wife and children brought this action for damages in the district court of the united states. ..... may be prosecuted, or commenced and prosecuted, in favor of such wife or in favor of the wife and children. . . . .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... 439 error to the supreme court of the state of texas syllabus if an employ of an interstate carrier is employed in interstate commerce when killed, the right of recovery against the carrier depends upon the federal employers' liability act, which only permits suits by a personal representative for the benefit of the sruviving widow or husband and children if there be such, and, in view of the pleading and testimony in this case, held that it was error for the trial court to refuse an instruction to the ..... effect that, if the employ was at the time of his death engaged in interstate commerce, the widow ..... of deceased could not maintain an action against the employer for the benefit of herself, as next .....
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