Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/352/521/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 14:59:28+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 352 › Ferguson v. Moore-McCormack Lines, Inc.
Petitioner, an employee on a passenger ship of respondent, was injured in the course of his employment while using a sharp butcher knife to remove ice cream from a container in which it was frozen hard. In an action under the Jones Act, under which the standard of liability is that of the Federal Employers' Liability Act, the Federal District Court entered judgment on a jury verdict awarding damages to petitioner. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that a motion for a directed verdict for respondent should have been granted. This Court granted certiorari.
Held: there was sufficient evidence to take to the jury the question whether respondent was negligent in failing to furnish petitioner an adequate tool with which to perform his task, and the judgment is reversed. Pp. 352 U. S. 521-524.
filling these orders, the ice cream was so hard that it could not be removed with the hemispherical scoop with which he had been furnished. Petitioner undertook to remove the ice cream with a sharp butcher knife kept nearby, grasping the handle and chipping at the hard ice cream. The knife struck a spot in the ice cream which was so hard that his hand slipped down onto the blade of the knife, resulting in the loss of two fingers of his right hand.
Petitioner brought this suit under the Jones Act, 41 Stat. 1007, 46 U.S.C. § 688, to recover for his injuries, which were alleged to be the result of respondent's negligence. At the close of petitioner's case, respondent's motion for a directed verdict was denied. Respondent offered no evidence. After the jury returned a verdict of $17,500 for the petitioner, respondent moved to set aside the verdict. This motion was also denied, and judgment entered for the petitioner in accordance with the jury verdict. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that it was "not within the realm of reasonable foreseeability" that petitioner would use the knife to chip the frozen ice cream. 228 F.2d 891, 892. We granted certiorari. 351 U.S. 936.
to transfer it from the deep freeze to a tempering chest in sufficient time to allow all of it to become disposable by means of the scoop when the time came for it to be served. There was no showing that any device was close at hand which would have safely performed the task. Finally, there was evidence that petitioner had been instructed to give the waiters prompt service.
"Under this statute, the test of a jury case is simply whether the proofs justify with reason the conclusion that employer negligence played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury or death for which damages are sought."
Because the jury could have so concluded, the Court of Appeals erred in holding that respondent's motion for a directed verdict should have been granted.
should not assume that, in determining these questions of negligence, juries will fall short of a fair performance of their constitutional function."
Wilkerson v. McCarthy, 336 U. S. 53, 336 U. S. 62.
"The Federal Employers' Liability Act gives to railroad employees a somewhat liberalized right of recovery for injuries on the job. A great number of cases under the Act have been brought to the Supreme Court, many of them cases in which the court of appeals had set aside, on the evidence, verdicts for the employees. Despite the human appeal of these cases, Brandeis never allowed himself to regard them as the proper business of the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court."
formulated by the Court in carrying out the mandate of Congress regarding this Court's appellate jurisdiction in cases arising under the Federal Employers' Liability Act. For he began his work on the Court [Footnote 1] just after Congress had passed the Act of September 6, 1916, 39 Stat. 726, relieving the Court of its obligatory jurisdiction over Federal Employers' Liability Act decisions by the highest state courts and the Circuit Courts of Appeals. Mr. Justice Brandeis' general outlook on the formulation by the Supreme Court of the public law appropriate for an evolving society has more and more prevailed; his concept of the role of the Supreme Court in our judicial system, and his consequent regard for the bearing on the judicial product of what business comes to the Court and how the Court deals with it, have often been neglected in the name of "doing justice" in individual cases. To him these, were not technicalities, in the derogatory sense, for the conduct of judicial business. He deemed wise decisions on substantive law within the indispensable area of the Court's jurisdiction dependent on a limited volume of business and on a truly deliberative process.
surface to warrant a writ of certiorari does not warrant it, see Layne & Bowler Corp. v. Western Well Works, Inc., 261 U. S. 387, [Footnote 5] or may reveal more clearly that the only thing in controversy is an appraisal of facts on which this Court is being asked to make a second guess, to substitute its assessment of the testimony for that of the court below.
But there is a more basic reason why the "integrity of the certiorari process" does not require me to vote on the merits of these cases. The right of a Justice to dissent from an action of the Court is historic. Of course, self-restraint should guide the expression of dissent. But dissent is essential to an effective judiciary in a democratic society, and especially for a tribunal exercising the powers of this Court. Not four, not eight, Justices can require another to decide a case that he regards as not properly before the Court. The failure of a Justice to persuade his colleagues does not require him to yield to their views, if he has a deep conviction that the issue is sufficiently important. Moreover, the Court operates ultimately by majority. Even though a minority may bring a case here for oral argument, that does not mean that the majority has given up its right to vote on the ultimate disposition of the case as conscience directs. This is not a novel doctrine. As a matter of practice, members of the Court have at various times exercised this right of refusing to pass on the merits of cases that in their view should not have been granted review.
This does not make the "rule of four" a hollow rule. I would not change the practice. No Justice is likely to vote to dismiss a writ of certiorari as improvidently granted after argument has been heard, even though he has not been convinced that the case is within the rules of the Court governing the granting of certiorari.
In the usual instance, a doubting Justice respects the judgment of his brethren that the case does concern issues important enough for the Court's consideration and adjudication. But a different situation is presented when a class of cases is systematically taken for review. Then a Justice who believes that such cases raise insignificant and unimportant questions -- insignificant and unimportant from the point of view of the Court's duties -- and that an increasing amount of the Court's time is unduly drained by adjudication of these cases cannot forego his duty to voice his dissent to the Court's action.
The "rule of four" is not a command of Congress. It is a working rule devised by the Court as a practical mode of determining that a case is deserving of review, the theory being that if four Justices find that a legal question of general importance is raised, that is ample proof that the question has such importance. This is a fair enough rule of thumb on the assumption that four Justices find such importance on an individualized screening of the cases sought to be reviewed. The reason for deference to a minority view no longer holds when a class of litigation is given a special and privileged position.
under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, whether coming from the state or federal courts, were reviewable in the Supreme Court by writ of error, that is, as a matter of right. After the constitutionality of the Act had been sustained, cases began to flow to the Supreme Court, and, within a few years, the Court was threatened with an avalanche of litigation under the Act. In the 1915 Term, the Court delivered opinions in 19 cases involving an assessment of the evidence to determine whether submission to the jury was warranted. See Appendices A and B, and starred footnote to Appendix A. 352 U. S. 548.
also to applications for certiorari to review judgments and decrees of the highest courts of states."
this court, or has decided it in a way probably not in accord with applicable decisions of this court."
"(b) Where a court of appeals has rendered a decision in conflict with the decision of another court of appeals on the same matter; or has decided an important state or territorial question in a way in conflict with applicable state or territorial law; or has decided an important question of federal law which has not been, but should be, settled by this court; or has decided a federal question in a way in conflict with applicable decisions of this court; or has so far departed from the accepted and usual course of judicial proceedings, or so far sanctioned such a departure by a lower court, as to call for an exercise of this court's power of supervision."
Of course, cases raising questions that are not evidentiary, questions that fairly involve the construction or scope of the statute are appropriate for review here. See, e.g., Minneapolis & St. L. R. Co. v. Bombolis, 241 U. S. 211; Southern Pacific Co. v. Gileo, 351 U. S. 493; Reed v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 351 U. S. 502. But the ordinary negligence case under the Federal Employers' Liability Act does not satisfy the criteria that define the "special and important reasons" when a writ of certiorari will be granted, and this may perhaps best be appreciated by summarizing the course of proceedings in each of the four cases now before us.
for doing his work. Petitioner was engaged in burning weeds on respondent's right of way with a hand torch. He heard a whistle indicating an approaching train. He ran thirty to thirty-five yards along the track from the fire and, thinking himself far enough from the fire danger, stood near a drainage culvert watching the passing train for "hotboxes." The train caused the fire to come "right up in [his] face." Petitioner backed away with his arm over his face and fell down the incline of the culvert. There was considerable testimony concerning the circumstances of the accident, the methods of burning weeds, the duties of railroad workers, the condition of the right of way, in particular the condition of the culvert, and petitioner's knowledge of those conditions. Respondent's motions for a directed verdict at the close of petitioner's case and at the close of all the evidence were denied. The case was submitted to the jury, which returned a verdict for petitioner.
On appeal, the Missouri Supreme Court reversed. Rogers v. Thompson, 284 S.W.2d 467. Considering the evidence from a standpoint most favorable to the petitioner, it held that there was insufficient evidence of negligence on the part of respondent, and that, even if there were sufficient evidence of negligence, there was no evidence to show that such negligence contributed to petitioner's injury.
freight run between the cities of East St. Louis and Clinton, Illinois. During the course of his duties, in a switching operation at Mount Olive, he noticed that a wheat car in the train was leaking. While the other crew members continued with the task of picking up cars to be incorporated into the train, he started back to the caboose to get some waste to plug the hole in the leaking car. He turned and, on the first step he took, tripped and fell with his left leg buckled under him. He thereby sustained a serious injury to his left kneecap. The accident occurred on the roadbed of defendant's 'house track' at a point about one foot from the end of the ties. After plaintiff fell, he looked to see what had caused him to fall and saw a clinker 'about the size of my fist' which was partly out of the ground, and a hole beside the clinker. . . . Plaintiff stated that he looked 'at the ground' before he stepped, but did not see the clinker. He stated further that the footing on the roadbed looked level, but was a little soft."
"defendant placed the clinker in its roadbed as a part of the ballast used in the repair operation is merely one of several possibilities present. A finding that it did so can rest on nothing but speculation."
The Court of Appeals also stated that "there is a total want of evidence as to what constitutes reasonable prudence under the proved circumstances," and that the record "is equally lacking in evidence to prove that defendant had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition." Id. at 259, 260.
railroad. He gave the only testimony with respect to the accident and testified that, while the train was proceeding slowly, it made a sudden stop which threw him to the floor of the caboose where he was riding. The official report of the accident, which he signed, stated that the stop was made to avoid striking an automobile at a grade crossing. Petitioner gave some further testimony about the operation of air brakes, the frequency of emergency braking in his experience, and other methods of slowing down the train than by emergency braking. On this record, the Court of Appeals found a complete absence of probative facts to warrant submission of the case to the jury, and it affirmed the judgment of the District Court. 228 F.2d 902.
away when his hand slipped and he was badly cut, resulting later in the loss of two fingers of his right hand."
". . . The negligence [of defendant] is supposed to stem from a failure to provide a safe place to work and safe tools and appliances. Reliance is also placed upon the fact that plaintiff had been directed to fill the orders brought into the galley by the waiters and it is said that there must have been something wrong with the refrigeration system, or the ice cream would not have been so hard."
"But no one in authority told plaintiff to use the butcher knife, which was customarily used in cutting French bread. The knife was properly in the galley, and there was nothing defective about it. But it was never designed for or intended to be used as a dagger or ice pick for chipping frozen ice cream. And that it would be put to such use was not within the realm of reasonable foreseeability. . . ."
"There being no proof of fault on the part of the shipowner, defendant's motion for a directed verdict should have been granted."
show that unscheduled and sudden stops of trains are unusual or extraordinary occurrences." In No. 46, the Court therefore affirms the judgment of the Court of Appeals, which had affirmed the direction of a verdict for defendant.
In any event, the Court in these four cases has merely reviewed evidence that has already been reviewed by two lower courts, and, in so doing, it ignores its own strictures to the bar that "We do not grant a certiorari to review evidence and discuss specific facts." United States v. Johnston, 268 U. S. 220, 268 U. S. 227. See also Houston Oil Co. v. Goodrich, 245 U. S. 440; Southern Power Co. v. North Carolina Public Service Co., 263 U. S. 508; General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Western Electric Co., 304 U. S. 175, 304 U. S. 178. Constant complaints have been made by successive Chief Justices about the large number of frivolous petitions that are filed each Term, "frivolous" meaning that the issues are not deserving of consideration for review when judged by the Court's instructions to the bar. See the remarks of Chief Justice Taft, in 35 Yale L.J. 1, 3, 4; Chief Justice Hughes, in 20 A.B.A.J. 341; Chief Justice Vinson, in 69 S.Ct. v, vi-vii. If the Court does not abide by its Rules, how can it expect the bar to do so? Standards must be enforced to be respected. If they are merely left as something on paper, they might as well be written on water.
cause of action is concerned, this is the historic cause of action for negligence as it has developed from the common law. It involves the same general concept on which is based every "negligence case" in the state courts and in the multitudinous cases in the federal courts on diversity of citizenship in which the question is merely one of common law negligence -- that is, it is the familiar type of litigation that is part of the day-to-day business of state and federal trial judges.
essential injustice can hardly be alleviated by the occasional "correction" in this Court of ill success.
"Considering the volume and complexity of the cases which obviously call for decision by this Court, and considering the time and thought that the proper disposition of such cases demands, I do not think we should take cases merely to review facts already canvassed by two and sometimes three courts even though those facts may have been erroneously appraised. The division in this Court would seem to demonstrate beyond peradventure that nothing is involved in this case except the drawing of allowable inferences from a necessarily unique set of circumstances. For this Court to take a case which turns merely on such an appraisal of evidence, however much hardship in the fallible application of an archaic system of compensation for injuries to railroad employees [Footnote 9] may touch our private sympathy, is to deny due regard to the considerations which led the Court to ask and Congress to give the power to control the Court's docket. Such power carries with it the responsibility of granting review only in cases that demand adjudication on the basis of importance to the operation of our federal system; importance of the outcome merely to the parties is not enough. . . ."
See also Carter v. Atlanta & St. A.B. R. Co., 338 U. S. 430, 338 U. S. 437; McAllister v. United States, 348 U. S. 19, 348 U. S. 23.
of this Court. All that can fairly be said is that these courts found that there was not evidence to bring these cases within the recognized rules for submitting a case to the jury. In none of them is there any intimation or atmospheric indication of unwillingness to enforce the governing rules of the Act as laid down by this Court. These rules are well known. That there should be differences of opinion in their application is almost inevitable. [Footnote 10] But once Congress in 1916 commanded that the ordinary Federal Employers' Liability Act case, like other essentially private Litigation, should reach a final decision in the Courts of Appeals or the state appellate tribunals, this Court should never have granted certiorari to assess the evidence in any of them. [Footnote 11] I would not continue a bad practice to aid a few plaintiffs because there was once a bad practice that aided a few defendants. One still does not commit two wrongs to "do right."
Court's practice in taking these Federal Employers' Liability Act cases discriminates against other personal injury cases, for example those in the federal courts on diversity jurisdiction. Similar questions of negligence are involved there, and the opportunity for swallowing up more of the Supreme Court's energy is very great indeed. While 1,332 cases were commenced under the Federal Employers' Liability Act in the Federal District Courts in the fiscal year 1956 and 2,392 cases under the Jones Act, 11,427 personal injury cases were begun under the diversity jurisdiction in the District Courts. Annual Report of the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts-1956, pp. 52-53. The Court may well have had this discrimination in mind when it granted certiorari in the diversity cases of Gibson v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 352 U. S. 874, and decided it on the merits. A few more such decisions and a flood of petitions from this source may confidently be expected. Whether or not it be true that we are a litigious people, it is a matter of experience that clients, if not lawyers, have a strong urge to exhaust all possibility of further appeal, particularly when judicially encouraged to do so. Disappointed litigants and losing lawyers like to have another go at it, and why should they not try when certiorari was granted in cases like these?
a judgment for the plaintiff was reversed for evidentiary reasons in only three cases and a judgment for the defendant railroad upheld in only seven. In the other 32 cases, judgments for plaintiffs were affirmed or judgments for defendants reversed.
cases. In all the others, the Court reversed a judgment of a lower court that either had reversed a jury verdict for a plaintiff or had affirmed a judgment for a railroad.
In the following four Terms, business again slackened, and only two cases concerning sufficiency of the evidence were decided under the Act. We now seem to have entered again on a period of renewed activity by the Court in this field. Two decisions were rendered in the 1954 Term, three in the 1955 Term, four thus far this Term, and two additional petitions for certiorari have already been granted this Term.
A further indication of the tendency in recent Court decisions is provided by a study of petitioners for certiorari in FELA cases from the 1938 through the 1954 Terms. This study disclosed that of the 260 petitions filed, sufficiency of the evidence of negligence or of causation for submission to the jury was the predominant question in 149. Seventy-eight of these petitions were filed by the employee and all of the 37 granted petitions were from this group, except one in which the writ was later dismissed as improvidently granted. McCarthy v. Bruner, cert. granted, 322 U.S. 718, cert. dismissed, 323 U.S. 673. Certiorari Policy in FELA Cases, 69 Harv.L.Rev. 1441, 1445-1446.
one or two cases that present a compassionate appeal on this ground and one or two that present a compassionate appeal on that ground and one or two that present a compassionate appeal on a third ground inevitably makes that drain upon the available energy of the Court that is so inimical to the fullest investigation of, the amplest deliberation on, the most effective opinion-writing and the most critical examination of draft opinions in, the cases that have unquestioned claims upon the Court.
that at one time the chief concern may be lively regard for what are conceived to be unfair inroads upon the railroads' exchequer, [Footnote 12] while, at another period, the preoccupation may be with protection of employees and their families, so far as money damages can do so, against the inherent hazards of their indispensable labor. Be that as it may, the desire to engraft a philosophy, either philosophy, upon an outmoded, unfair system of liability should not lead the Court to bend the rules by which it is governed in other cases in the exercise of its discretionary jurisdiction.
general welfare only if it restricts its reviewing power to the adjudication of constitutional issues or other questions of national importance, including therein settlement of conflict among the circuits. Surely it was this conviction, born of experience, that led the Court to ask of Congress that, of the great mass of litigation in the state and federal courts, only those cases should be allowed to be brought here that this Court deemed fit for review. Such was the jurisdictional policy accepted by Congress when it yielded to the Court's realization of the conditions necessary for its proper functioning.
For one thing, as the current United States Reports compared with those of even a generation ago amply prove, the types of cases now calling for decision, to a considerable extent, require investigation of voluminous literature far beyond the law reports and other legal writings. If it is to yield its proper significance, this vast mass of materials, often confused and conflicting, must be passed though the sieve of reflection. Judicial reflection is a process that requires time and freedom from the pressure of having more work to do than can be well done. It is not a bit of quixotism to believe that, of the 63 cases scheduled for argument during the remaining months of this Term, there are a half dozen that could alone easily absorb the entire thought of the Court for the rest of the Term.
cases, it will inevitably face an accumulation of arrears or will dispose of its essential business in too hurried, and therefore too shallow, a way.
Throughout this opinion, I have dealt with the issue of granting certiorari in this type of case almost entirely in terms of the Federal Employers' Liability Act because the greatest abuse of the certiorari policy has occurred in that field. The problem is not confined to that Act, however, since the same or similar issues arise under other Acts, such as the Jones Act, 41 Stat. 1007, the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b), 2671-2680, the Safety Appliance Act, 27 Stat. 531, the Boiler Inspection Act, 45 U.S.C. § 22 et seq., the Suits in Admiralty Act, 46 U.S.C. § 741 et seq., and the Lucas Act, 60 Stat. 902 (see Buffalo Faultless Pants Co. v. United States, 142 F.Supp. 594). Indeed, one of the decisions to which this dissent is written, No. 59, arises under the Jones Act.
Hill v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 336 U.S. 911; Carter v. Atlanta & St. A.B. R. Co., 338 U. S. 430, 338 U. S. 437; Affolder v. New York C. & St. L. R. Co., 339 U. S. 96, 339 U. S. 101; Moore v. Chesapeake & O. R. Co., 340 U. S. 573, 340 U. S. 578; Anderson v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 350 U.S. 807. See McAllister v. United States, 348 U. S. 19, 348 U. S. 23; (Suits in Admiralty Act); Schulz v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 350 U. S. 523, 350 U. S. 527 (Jones Act). See also Wilkerson v. McCarthy, 336 U. S. 53, 336 U. S. 64; Reynolds v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 336 U. S. 207, 336 U. S. 209; Stone v. New York, C. & St. L. R. Co., 344 U. S. 407, 344 U. S. 410.
"Improvidently granted" is a term of art simply meaning that, on full consideration, it becomes manifest that the case is not the type of case that should have been brought here. The term is the counterpart of the phrase "improvidently taken," as used by Congress in 28 U.S.C. § 2103, governing appeals from state courts that are improvidently taken.
See discussion of this point in Rice v. Sioux City Memorial Park Cemetery, 349 U. S. 70, and cases there collected at p. 349 U. S. 78, note 2.
See, e.g., Wilkerson v. McCarthy, 336 U. S. 53, 336 U. S. 69: "The basis of liability under the Act is and remains negligence." (Concurring opinion of Douglas, J.) To be sure, on the question of casualty, the statute has tried to avoid issues about "sole proximate cause," meeting the requirement of a causal relation with the language that the injury must result "in whole or in part" from the employer's negligence. See, e.g., Illinois Central R. Co. v. Skaggs, 240 U. S. 66, 240 U. S. 69-70.
"Lawyers are essentially conservative. They do not take kindly to change. They are not naturally reformers. Their time is occupied mainly in thinking and arguing about what the law of the particular case is; about what the facts of the case are. The most successful lawyers are, as a rule, continually engrossed in their own cases, and they have little time and little respect for the speculative and hypothetical. The lawyers who have authority as leaders of opinion are men, as a rule, who have succeeded in their profession, and men naturally tend to be satisfied with the conditions under which they are succeeding."
Root, Addresses on Government and Citizenship, 479, 484. See also Gibson, The Venue Clause and Transportation of Lawsuits, 18 Law and Contemporary Problems 367, for some statistics bearing on the interest of lawyers in the continuance of the present system. The author cites the example of one specialist in personal injury litigation whose administrator collected a minimum of $1,111,935 in fees from 150 lawsuits pending at the date of the lawyer's death.
"If there were a bright line dividing negligence from non-negligence, there would be no problem. Only an incompetent or a willful judge would take a case from the jury when the issue should be left to the jury. But since questions of negligence are questions of degree, often very nice differences of degree, judges of competence and conscience have in the past, and will in the future, disagree as to whether proof in a case is sufficient to demand submission to the jury. The fact that a third court thinks there was enough to leave the case to the jury does not indicate that the other two courts were unmindful of the jury's function. The easy but timid way out for a trial judge is to leave all cases tried to a jury for jury determination, but, in so doing, he fails in his duty to take a case from the jury when the evidence would not warrant a verdict by it. A timid judge, like a biased judge, is intrinsically a lawless judge."
Wilkerson v. McCarthy, 336 U. S. 53, 336 U. S. 65 (concurring).
Any notion that the practice of directing verdicts offends the Seventh Amendment was laid to rest in Galloway v. United States, 319 U. S. 372.
"The cause is one of a peculiar class where we have frequently been obliged to give special consideration to the facts in order to protect interstate carriers against unwarranted judgments and enforce observance of the Liability Act as here interpreted."
Atchison, T. & S.F. R. Co. v. Saxon, 284 U. S. 458, 284 U. S. 459.
* This table restricts itself to decisions on the sufficiency of the evidence relating to the substantive cause of action for submission to the jury. It does not take into account other "sufficiency of the evidence" cases, e.g., was an employee engaged in interstate commerce, that raise somewhat different problems but are all too often also outside the appropriate bounds of certiorari jurisdiction.
In some of the cases resulting in an affirmance of a judgment for an employee, sufficiency of the evidence was only one of the questions considered. It is impossible to ascertain why certiorari was granted, but these cases are included in the table because the Court did not restrict its grant of certiorari to the other issues, as it frequently does, and did consider the "sufficiency of the evidence" question.
** These figures include 1 summary per curiam disposition on the merits in the 1923 Term, 1 in the 1928 Term, 1 in the 1939 Term, 1 in the 1940 Term, 1 in the 1941 Term, 2 in the 1945 Term, 1 in the 1946 Term, 4 in the 1947 Term, 2 in the 1948 Term, 2 in the 1954 Term, and 3 in the 1955 Term. See 69 Harv.L.Rev. 1441, 1446, n. 30. The Reports have not been examined for summary dispositions on the merits prior to 1938. That practice did not become established in these cases until then, and, prior to that time, was, at most, desultory.
Texas & P. R. Co. v. Howell, 224 U. S. 577; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Troxell v. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co., 227 U. S. 434; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Norfolk & W. R. Co. v. Earnest, 229 U. S. 114; judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Young v. Central R. Co. of N.J., 232 U. S. 602; remand for entry of judgment n.o.v. for defendant modified and affirmed.
Grand Trunk Western R. Co. v. Lindsay, 233 U. S. 42; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Southern Railway-Carolina Division v. Bennett, 233 U. S. 80; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Southern R. Co. v. Gadd, 233 U. S. 572; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Yazoo & M.V. R. Co. v. Wright, 235 U. S. 376; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
McGovern v. Philadelphia & R.R. Co., 235 U. S. 389; directed verdict for defendant reversed.
Seaboard Air Line R. Co. v. Padgett, 236 U. S. 668; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Central Vermont R. Co. v. White, 238 U. S. 507; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Chicago, R.I. & P. R. Co. v. Devine, 239 U. S. 52; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Seaboard Air Line R. Co. v. Koennecke, 239 U. S. 352; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Reese v. Philadelphia & R.R. Co., 239 U. S. 463; affirmance of nonsuit affirmed.
Chicago, R.I. & P. R. Co. v. Wright, 239 U. S. 548; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Kanawha & M. R. Co. v. Kerse, 239 U. S. 576; judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Seaboard Air Line R. Co. v. Horton, 239 U. S. 595; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Illinois Central R. Co. v. Skaggs, 240 U. S. 66; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Great Northern R. Co. v. Wiles, 240 U. S. 444; reversal of judgment n.o.v. for defendant reversed.
Great Northern R. Co. v. Knapp, 240 U. S. 464; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Jacobs v. Southern R. Co., 241 U. S. 229; affirmance of judgment for defendant affirmed.
Baughan v. New York, P. & N. R. Co., 241 U. S. 237; affirmance of judgment for defendant affirmed.
Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Stewart, 241 U. S. 261; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Seaboard Air Line R. Co. v. Renn, 241 U. S. 290,; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Chesapeake & O. R. Co. v. De Atley, 241 U. S. 310; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Southern R. Co. v. Gray, 241 U. S. 333; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Chesapeake & O. R. Co. v. Proffitt, 241 U. S. 462; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Chicago & N.W. R. Co. v. Bower, 241 U. S. 470; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
San Antonio & A.P. R. Co. v. Wagner, 241 U. S. 476; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Spokane & I.E. R. Co. v. Campbell, 241 U. S. 497; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Atlantic City R. Co. v. Parker, 242 U. S. 56; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Baltimore & O. R. Co. v. Whitacre, 242 U. S. 169; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
St. Joseph & G.I. R. Co. v. Moore, 243 U. S. 311; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
New York Central & H. R. Co. v. Tonsellito, 244 U. S. 360; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Southern R. Co. v. Puckett, 244 U. S. 571; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Washington R. & Elec. Co. v. Scala, 244 U. S. 630; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Boldt v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 245 U. S. 441; affirmance of judgment for defendant affirmed.
Union Pacific R. Co. v. Huxoll, 245 U. S. 535; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Great Northern R. Co. v. Donaldson, 246 U. S. 121; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Nelson v. Southern R. Co., 246 U. S. 253; reversal of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Union Pacific R. Co. v. Hadley, 246 U. S. 330; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Gillis v. New York, N.H. & H. R. Co., 249 U. S. 515; affirmance of directed verdict for defendant affirmed.
Chicago, R.I. & P. R. Co. v. Ward, 252 U. S. 18; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Boehmer v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 252 U. S. 496; affirmance of directed verdict for defendant affirmed.
Southern Pacific Co. v. Berkshire, 254 U. S. 415; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Frese v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co., 263 U. S. 1; reversal of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Davis v. Wolfe, 263 U. S. 239; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Davis v. Matthews, 263 U.S. 686;* affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Davis v. Kennedy, 266 U. S. 147; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Baltimore & O. R. Co. v. Groeger, 266 U. S. 521; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed for new trial; evidence found sufficient for submission to jury.
Minneapolis, St. P. & S.S.M. R. Co. v. Goneau, 269 U. S. 406; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Chesapeake & O. R. Co. v. Nixon, 271 U. S. 218; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
St. Louis-San Francisco R. Co. v. Mills, 271 U. S. 344; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Chicago, M. & St. P. R. Co. v. Coogan, 271 U. S. 472; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Southwell, 275 U. S. 64; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Aeby, 275 U. S. 426; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Gulf, M. & N. R. Co. v. Wells, 275 U. S. 455; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Toledo, St. L. & W. R. Co. v. Allen, 276 U. S. 165; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Kansas City Southern R. Co. v. Jones, 276 U. S. 303; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Chesapeake & O. R. Co. v. Leitch, 276 U. S. 429; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Unadilla Valley R. Co. v. Caldine, 278 U. S. 139; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Western & A. R. Co. v. Hughes, 278 U. S. 496; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Tyner, 278 U.S. 565;* affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Delaware, L. & W. R. Co. v. Koske, 279 U. S. 7; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Davis, 279 U. S. 34; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Driggers, 279 U. S. 787; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Chesapeake & O. R. Co. v. Mihas, 280 U. S. 102; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
New York Central R. Co. v. Ambrose, 280 U. S. 486; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
New York Central R. Co. v. Marcone, 281 U. S. 345; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Atchison, T. & S.F. R. Co. v. Toops, 281 U. S. 351; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Powe, 283 U. S. 401; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Chesapeake & O. R. Co. v. Kuhn, 284 U. S. 44; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Atchison, T. & S.F. R. Co. v. Saxon, 284 U. S. 458; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. David, 284 U. S. 460; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Temple, 285 U. S. 143; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Southern R. Co. v. Youngblood, 286 U. S. 313; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Southern R. Co. v. Dantzler, 286 U. S. 318; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
St. Louis S.W. R. Co. v. Simpson, 286 U. S. 346; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Rocco v. Lehigh Valley R. Co., 288 U. S. 275; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Pennsylvania R. Co. v. Chamberlain, 288 U. S. 333; reversal of directed verdict for defendant reversed.
Northwestern Pacific R. Co. v. Robo, 290 U. S. 499; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Swinson v. Chicago, St. P., M. & O. R. Co., 294 U. S. 529; directed verdict for defendant reversed.
Chicago G.W. R. Co. v. Rambo, 298 U. S. 99; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Great Northern R. Co. v. Leonidas, 305 U. S. 1; affirmance of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Keys v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 308 U.S. 529;* reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Jenkins v. Kurn, 313 U. S. 256; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Steeley v. Kurn, 313 U.S. 545;* reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Seago v. New York Central R. Co., 315 U.S. 781;* affirmance of judgment for defendant reversed.
Tiller v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 318 U. S. 54; affirmance of directed verdict for defendant reversed.
Bailey v. Central Vermont R. Co., 319 U. S. 350; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Owens v. Union Pacific R. Co., 319 U. S. 715; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Brady v. Southern R. Co., 320 U. S. 476; reversal of judgment for plaintiff affirmed.
Tennant v. Peoria & P.U. R. Co., 321 U. S. 29; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Tiller v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 323 U. S. 574; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Blair v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., 323 U. S. 600; reversal of entry of judgment for defendant reversed; sufficient evidence to support jury verdict for plaintiff.
Keeton v. Thompson, 326 U.S. 689;* reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Lavender v. Kurn, 327 U. S. 645; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Cogswell v. Chicago & E.I. R. Co., 328 U.S. 820;* reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Jesionowski v. Boston & M. R. Co., 329 U. S. 452; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Ellis v. Union Pacific R. Co., 329 U. S. 649; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Pauly v. McCarthy, 330 U.S. 802;* reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Myers v. Reading Co., 331 U. S. 477; affirmance of judgment n.o.v. for defendant reversed.
Lillie v. Thompson, 332 U. S. 459;* affirmance of dismissal of complaint reversed.
Hunter v. Texas Electric R. Co., 332 U.S. 827;* affirmance of judgment for defendant affirmed.
Anderson v. Atchison, T. & S.F. R. Co., 333 U. S. 821;* affirmance of judgment for defendant reversed.
Eubanks v. Thompson, 334 U.S. 854;* reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Eckenrode v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 335 U. S. 329; affirmance of judgment n.o.v. for defendant affirmed.
Coray v. Southern Pacific Co., 335 U. S. 520; affirmance of directed verdict for defendant reversed.
Penn v. Chicago & N.W. R. Co., 335 U.S. 849;* reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Wilkerson v. McCarthy, 336 U. S. 53; affirmance of directed verdict for defendant reversed.
Reynolds v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 336 U. S. 207;* affirmance of judgment for defendant on demurrer affirmed.
Hill v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 336 U.S. 911;* affirmance of nonsuit reversed.
Carter v. Atlanta & St. A.B. R. Co., 338 U. S. 430; affirmance of judgment for defendant reversed.
Affolder v. New York, C. & St. L. R. Co., 339 U. S. 96; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Moore v. Chesapeake & O. R. Co., 340 U. S. 573; affirmance of judgment for defendant n.o.v. affirmed.
Stone v. New York, C. & St. L. R. Co., 344 U. S. 407; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Smalls v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 348 U.S. 946;* reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
O'Neill v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., 348 U.S. 956; * reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Anderson v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 350 U.S. 807;* reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Strickland v. Seaboard Air Line R. Co., 350 U.S. 893;* reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
Cahill v. New York, N.H. & H. R. Co., 350 U.S. 898;* 351 U. S. 183; reversal of judgment for plaintiff reversed.
I am in full agreement with what my Brother FRANKFURTER has written in criticism of the Court's recurring willingness to grant certiorari in cases of this type. For the reasons he has given, I think the Court should not have heard any of these four cases. Nevertheless, the cases having been taken, I have conceived it to be my duty to consider them on their merits, because I cannot reconcile voting to dismiss the writs as "improvidently granted" with the Court's "rule of four." In my opinion, due adherence to that rule requires that, once certiorari has been granted, a case should be disposed of on the premise that it is properly here, in the absence of considerations appearing which were not manifest or fully apprehended at the time certiorari was granted. In these instances, I am unable to say that such considerations exist, even though I do think that the arguments on the merits underscored the views of those of us who originally felt that the cases should not be taken because they involved only issues of fact, and presented nothing of sufficient general importance to warrant this substantial expenditure of the Court's time.
"rule of four" at the time the Court's certiorari jurisdiction was enlarged by the Judiciary Act of 1925. [Footnote 2/2] In effect, the "rule of four" would, by indirection, become a "rule of five." Third, such a practice would, in my opinion, be inconsistent with the longstanding and desirable custom of not announcing the Conference vote on petitions for certiorari. For, in the absence of the intervening circumstances which may cause a Justice to vote to dismiss a writ as improvidently granted, such a disposition of the case on his part is almost bound to be taken as reflecting his original Conference vote on the petition. And if such a practice is permissible, then, by the same token, I do not see how those who voted in favor of the petition can reasonably be expected to refrain from announcing their Conference votes at the time the petition is acted on.
involve an alignment of four Justices who favor granting certiorari in such cases and five who do not. If, in such situations, it becomes the duty of one Justice among the disagreeing five not to "forego" his right to dissent, then I do not see why it is not equally the duty of the remaining four, resulting in the "rule of four" being set at naught. I thus see no basis in the circumstance that a case is an "individual" one, rather than one of a "class," for distinctions in what may be done by an individual Justice who disapproves of the Court's action in granting certiorari.
Although I feel strongly that cases of this kind do not belong in this Court, I can see no other course, consistent with the "rule of four," but to continue our Conference debates with the hope that persuasion or the mounting calendars of the Court will eventually bring our differing brethren to another point of view.
"Were we called upon to pass on the Board's conclusions in the first instance or to make an independent review of the review by the Court of Appeals, we might well support the Board's conclusion and reject that of the court below. But Congress has charged the Courts of Appeals, and not this Court, with [that] normal and primary responsibility. . . . The same considerations that should lead us to leave undisturbed, by denying certiorari, decisions of Courts of Appeals involving solely a fair assessment of a record on the issue of unsubstantiality ought to lead us to do no more than decide that there was such a fair assessment when the case is here. . . ."
"This is not the place to review a conflict of evidence nor to reverse a Court of Appeals because, were we in its place, we would find the record tilting one way, rather than the other, though fair-minded judges could find it tilting either way."
For my part, to overturn the judgments below simply involves second-guessing the Missouri Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, on questions of fact on which they brought to bear judgments neither capricious nor unreasonable, and on which they made "fair assessment of a record."
reasoning man to infer both negligence and causation by reasoning from the evidence. Moore v. Chesapeake & O. R. Co., 340 U. S. 573. And it has always been the function of the court to see to it that jury verdicts stay within that boundary, that they be arrived at by reason, and not by will or sheer speculation. Neither the Seventh Amendment nor the Federal Employers' Liability Act lifted that duty from the courts. However, in judging these cases, the Court appears to me to have departed from these long established standards, for, as I read these opinions, the implication seems to be that the question, at least as to the element of causation, is not whether the evidence is sufficient to convince a reasoning man, but whether there is any scintilla of evidence at all to justify the jury verdicts. I cannot agree with such a standard, for I consider it a departure from a wise rule of law, not justified either by the provision of the FELA making employers liable for injuries resulting "in whole or in part" from their negligence or by anything else in the Act or its history, which evinces no purpose to depart in these respects from common law rules.
In some instances where the Court has granted certiorari and simultaneously summarily disposed of the case on the merits, individual Justices (including the writer) have merely noted their dissent to the grant without reaching the merits. See, e.g., Anderson v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 350 U.S. 807; Cahill v. New York, N.H. & H. R. Co., 350 U.S. 898. Even here, I am bound to say, it would probably be better practice for a Justice, who has unsuccessfully opposed certiorari, to face the merits, and to dissent from the summary disposition rather than from the grant of certiorari if he is not prepared to reach the merits without full-dress argument.
See Burton, Judging Is Also Administration, 21 Temple Law Quarterly 77, 84-85 and n. 23 (1947).

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