Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/368/35/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:41:04+00:00

Document:
Still v. Norfolk & Western Railway Co.
1. Under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, a railroad cannot escape liability for personal injuries negligently inflicted upon an employee by proving that he had obtained his job by making false representations upon which the railroad rightfully relied in hiring him. Pp. 368 U. S. 35-46.
2. Minneapolis, St. P. & S. Ste. M. R. Co. v. Rock, 279 U. S. 410, must be limited to its precise facts, and, in each case not involving the precise kind of fraud there involved, the terms "employed" and "employee," as used in the Act, must be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning, even though the employee's misrepresentations may have contributed to the injury or even to the accident upon which his claim is based. Pp. 368 U. S. 37-46.
The Federal Employers' Liability Act [Footnote 1] requires railroads to pay damages for personal injuries negligently inflicted upon their employees. The question this case presents is whether a railroad can escape this statutory liability by proving that an employee so injured has obtained his job by making false representations upon which the railroad rightfully relied in hiring him.
the undisputed evidence showed that the railroad had been deceived into hiring petitioner by petitioner's fraudulent misrepresentations as to his health and that these misrepresentations had a "direct causal connection" with the injuries upon which petitioner's action is based.
herein at the most rendered the contract voidable. [Footnote 6]"
And when the Borum case came here, this Court, although urged to do so, itself refused to extend Rock in any such manner. [Footnote 7] The decision in Borum, considered in the light of the facts there involved, reflects clearly the contemporaneously understood limitations upon the Rock approach and the reluctance of this Court to extend the vague notions of public policy upon which that case rested to new factual situations.
"that the facts found, when taken in connection with those shown by uncontradicted evidence, are not sufficient to bring this case within the rule applied in Minneapolis, St. P. & S.S.M. Ry. Co. v. Rock, supra, or the reasons upon which that decision rests. [Footnote 8]"
rule limiting the time for discharge without cause could not, of course, have overridden that policy. The Court therefore, as shown above, based its decision upholding Borum's right to recover upon all of the factual distinctions between his case and that of Rock, and held merely that Rock would not be extended to cover these new facts.
The petitioner in this case was an employee under the Act, and is therefore entitled to recover if he suffered injuries due to the railroad's negligence. It was therefore error to direct a verdict against him on the railroad's plea of fraud. The case is reversed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
"Every common carrier by railroad while engaging in commerce between any of the several States or Territories, or between any of the States and Territories, or between the District of Columbia and any of the States or Territories, or between the District of Columbia or any of the States or Territories and any foreign nation or nations, 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; and, if none, then of the next of kin dependent upon such employee, for such injury or death resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier, or by reason of any defect or insufficiency, due to its negligence, in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed, works, boats, wharves, or other equipment."
279 U. S. 279 U.S. 410.
Id. at 279 U. S. 415.
"This case (Rock) may be reasonably distinguished from the case at bar. In the Rock case, the plaintiff was never really employed by the company. In the present case, the plaintiff was employed."
But cf. Fort Worth & Denver City R. Co. v. Griffith, Tex.Civ.App., 27 S.W.2d 351, 354.
286 U. S. 286 U.S. 447.
Id. at 286 U. S. 451.
"The general rule is that fraud of this character renders a contract voidable, rather than void, but that rule has been ignored in the Rock case by the Supreme Court upon the ground that the safety of the traveling public is involved in a contract of this character, and, for reasons of public policy, it is held that the contract is void and, in effect, that appellee never became an employee of the appellant."
Fort Worth & Denver City R. Co. v. Griffith, 27 S.W.2d 351, 354.
See, e.g., Qualls v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. Co., 112 Cal.App. 7, 17, 296 P. 645, 650 (misrepresentations as to past employment record held "immaterial"); Powers v. Michigan Central R. Co., 268 Ill.App. 493, 498 (misrepresentations as to age and past employment record held insufficient to justify application of Rock because Rock "involved an unusual state of facts"); Dawson v. Texas & Pacific R. Co., 123 Tex. 191, 196, 70 S.W.2d 392, 304 (misrepresentations as to past employment record and medical history held no bar because they were "in nowise connected with the cause of his injury and not related to his fitness or his ability to discharge the duties required of him"); Texas & New Orleans R. Co. v. Webster, 123 Tex. 197, 201, 70 S.W.2d 394, 396 (misrepresentations as to previous injury and litigation arising out of that injury held no bar because "it was not shown that his physical condition was such as to make his employment inconsistent with plaintiff in error's proper policy or its reasonable rules to insure discharge of its duty to select fit employees"); Carter v. Peoria & Pekin Union R. Co., 275 Ill.App. 298, 303-304 (misrepresentations as to medical history held no bar because there was no "evidence to the effect that this former injury in any way disqualified or prevented appellant from properly performing his duties as switchman"); Phillips v. Southern Pacific Co., 14 Cal.App.2d 454, 457, 58 P.2d 688, 690 (misrepresentations as to past employment record held no bar even though facilitated by the use of an assumed name because there was no showing of "a causal connection between the injury and the misstatements in the application for employment"); Laughter v. Powell, 219 N.C. 689, 698, 14 S.E.2d 826, 832 (misrepresentations as to age held no bar because there was, despite these misrepresentations, "a contract of employment, even though voidable, by which the relation of master and servant, or employer and employee, was created between defendants and plaintiff"); Newkirk v. Los Angeles Junction R. Co., 21 Cal.2d 308, 320, 131 P.2d 535, 543 (misrepresentations as to age held no bar because "[w]here employment is induced by fraudulent representations of the employee not going to the factum of the contract, the employment exists although there may be ground for rescinding the contract, and recovery may be had from the employer for negligent injury to the employee, at least where there is no causal connection between the injury and the misrepresentation"); Matthews v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. Co., 54 Cal.App.2d 549, 556, 129 P.2d 435, 441 (misrepresentations as to age and past employment record held no bar even though these misrepresentations were facilitated by the use of an assumed name and even though they may have contributed to the worker's injury because the rule requiring "a causal connection between the injury and the misstatements" refers to the happening of the injury, not to its effects"); Blanton v. Northern Pacific R. Co., 215 Minn. 442, 446, 10 N.W.2d 382, 384 (misrepresentations as to medical history and physical condition held no bar because "the jury could have found that there was no causal connection between the misrepresentation and plaintiff's hurt"); Casso v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 219 F.2d 303, 305 (misrepresentations as to medical history and physical condition held no bar because the misrepresentations were not "of such character that it "substantially affected the examining surgeon's conclusion that he was in good health and acceptable physical condition"); Eresafe v. New York, New Haven & Hartford R. Co., 250 F.2d 619, 621-622 (misrepresentations as to identity, medical history and physical condition held no bar because "[a] humane and realistic policy in such cases requires substantial proof of a direct causal connection between the misrepresentations made at the time of hiring and the subsequent injury to the employee"); White v. Thompson, 181 Kan. 485, 497-498, 312 P.2d 612, 621 (misrepresentations as to medical history and physical condition held no bar because "it is not alleged the misrepresentations had causal relation to plaintiff's fitness to perform his duties and to the injuries he sustained, or that they substantially affected the medical examiner's conclusion that plaintiff was in good health and acceptable physical condition, or that defendant remained unaware of the deception until after plaintiff's injuries").
"In deference to the holding of the Supreme Court of the United States, which we feel constrained to follow, the judgment is reversed and is here rendered for the appellant."
Id., at 354. The other three are: Clark v. Union Pacific R. Co., 70 Idaho 70, 211 P.2d 402 (judgment for plaintiff reversed for failure to instruct the jury with regard to the railroad's fraud defense); Southern Pac Co. v. Libbey, 199 F.2d 341 (judgment for plaintiff reversed for exclusion of evidence relating to railroad's fraud defense); and Talarowski v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 135 F.Supp. 503 (motion to strike the railroad's fraud defense denied). All four of these cases involved misrepresentations as to the worker's physical condition. Compare these cases with those cited in note 10 supra, especially with Blanton v. Northern Pacific R. Co., Casso v. Pennsylvania R. Co., Eresafe v. New York, New Haven & Hartford R. Co., and White v. Thompson.
For contemporaneous comment on the Rock decision, see Merrill, Misrepresentation to Secure Employment, 14 Minn.L.Rev. 646; Comment, 43 Harv.L.Rev. 141; Comment, 28 Mich.L.Rev. 357.
"A humane and realistic policy in such cases requires substantial proof of a direct causal connection between the misrepresentations made at the time of hiring and the subsequent injury to the employee, before any defense of fraud can be considered as a bar to a recovery."
Eresafe v. New York, New Haven & Hartford R. Co., 250 F.2d 619, 621-622. Mention of a requirement of direct causal connection between the misrepresentations and the injury can be found in cases prior to Rock, but there too the requirement was used to permit recovery despite fraud. See, e.g., St. Louis & San Francisco R. Co. v. Brantley, 168 Ala. 579, 588, 53 So. 305, 307; Lupher v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. Co., 81 Kan. 585, 589, 106 P. 284, 286; Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio R. Co. v. Harris, 48 Tex.Civ.App. 434, 437, 107 S.W. 108, 110; Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Lewis, 218 Ky. 197, 205, 291 S.W. 401, 404.
We do not, of course, mean to intimate that, in appropriate circumstances, evidence of a preexisting physical defect might not be relevant on the issue of whether the injury complained of was caused by the railroad's negligence "in whole or in part" by tending to show either that the worker was not injured by the railroad at all, that, if injured, the railroad was not responsible for the full extent of the injury, or that damages should be diminished by the jury because of contributory negligence.
Indeed, if the decisions of this Court can be said to point in either direction, it is toward the conclusion that a causal connection between the injury and the misrepresentations is totally irrelevant. For, as this Court expressly recognized, there was no such connection in Rock.
"While his [Rock's] physical condition was not a cause of his injuries, it did have direct relation to the propriety of admitting him to such employment."
279 U.S. at 279 U. S. 415.
The issue before the Court in this case is not the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a verdict for or against an employee claiming recovery for injuries under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 51-58.
It presents the question whether a misrepresentation by the petitioner regarding his health at the time the railroad hired him bars recovery as a matter of law in view of our decision in Minneapolis, St. P. & S. Ste. M. R. Co. v. Rock, 279 U. S. 410. That decision held the statutory remedies unavailable because, as its author pithily stated it on two occasions, Rock "was an impostor." 279 U.S. at 279 U. S. 412; Minneapolis, St. P. & S. Ste. M. R. Co. v. Borum, 286 U. S. 447, 286 U. S. 450.
The Court does not now overrule Rock, but says that it "must be limited to its precise facts." I take it this statement refers to the facts relevant to the result in that case; it does not mean that the plaintiff must be named Rock.
I would similarly dispose of this case; that is, upon a new trial, the issue should not be withdrawn from the jury, but submitted to it on the principle which governed the Borum case, supra.
Claiming to have suffered injuries to his back by the negligence of fellow servants in the course of his employment by the respondent railroad in interstate commerce, petitioner brought this action against the railroad in a West Virginia court under the beneficent provisions of the Federal Employers' Liability Act. 45 U.S.C. §§ 51-58.
But application of the provisions of that Act is, in terms, made to depend upon, among other things, the existence of an employee status. At the conclusion of the evidence offered on the trial of the case before a jury, the railroad moved for a directed verdict upon the ground, among others, that petitioner did not occupy an employee status with the railroad. Believing that the undisputed evidence so clearly established that petitioner had procured his putative employment relation with the railroad by materially fraudulent misrepresentations to, and concealments from, the railroad and its examining physician of his now admitted congenitally defective back condition that reasonable men could not differ about it, the trial court granted the motion and directed the jury to, and it did, return a verdict for the railroad. The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia declined to review, and we granted certiorari. 365 U.S. 877.
This Court now not only reverses that judgment, but it also -- I think quite gratuitously and erroneously -- restricts the case of Minneapolis, St. Paul & S. Ste. M. R. Co. v. Rock, 279 U. S. 410, "to its precise facts." While the undisputed evidence of petitioner's fraud upon the railroad in procuring the putative employment relationship seems fairly clear to me, as it did to the two state courts, I concede that reasonable men may differ about it, and therefore, if we must here deal with such fact issues, I am able to say that the issue should not have been determined by the court as a matter of law, but instead should have been submitted to the jury for resolution. But I am unable to agree to what I think is the Court's gratuitous and erroneous restriction of the Rock case "to its precise facts," and so I dissent.
conditions and defenses imposed by, the laws of the State in which the casualty occurred. Of course he may. His fraud, however flagrant, would not give the railroad a license to injure him. Rather, the question is whether, despite his flagrant fraud in procuring the employee status, he may have the special benefits, and freedom from the normal defenses, given by Congress in the Federal Employers' Liability Act to one who has honestly acquired the status of and is truly an employee of a railroad. I think Congress did not intend to give those special benefits to a person who has acquired a putative employment relationship with a railroad by flagrant fraud, whether that fraud falls within the "precise facts" of the Rock case or within any of the myriad variations thereof.
"whether, notwithstanding the means by which he got employment . . . (, petitioner) may maintain an action under the Federal Employers' Liability Act."
"[t]he carriers owe a duty to their patrons [and to the public] as well as to those engaged in the operation of their railroads to take care . . . to exclude the unfit from their service. The enforcement of the Act is calculated to stimulate them to proper performance of that duty."
279 U.S. at 279 U. S. 413-414. One who fraudulently obstructs the discharge of that duty surely cannot be permitted to profit from his own wrong. These are the underlying principles of the Rock case, and I submit that they are sound.
"[t]he deception by which [petitioner may have] secured employment [would] set at naught the carrier's reasonable rule and practice established to promote the safety of [the public, its patrons and its] employees and to protect commerce."
its duties and to defeat important purposes sought to be advanced by the Act."
279 U.S. at 279 U. S. 414.
Although the principles of the Rock case do not legally require a like result in this case, they properly do permit a jury, rightly instructed, to find, upon the aggravated evidence that so warrants, that the putative employment was induced by fraud. And if the jury should so find, it would follow that, in truth, the petitioner never did acquire and occupy an employee status within the meaning of the Act. This is but a simple application of the surely still valid principle that one may not profit from his own wrong. I think there is no call or reason here to tamper with the sound underlying principles of the Rock case.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.