Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/247/367.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 09:11:39+00:00

Document:
[247 U.S. 367, 368] Messrs. J. Blanc Monroe, of New Orleans, La., and Robert H. Thompson, of Jackson, Miss., for plaintiffs in error.
Mr. Thomas G. Fewell, of Meridian, Miss., for defendant in error.
It further charged that the dead son had been his mother's sole support but contained no reference to his widow.
'No. 1. The court charges the jury for the plaintiff in this case that under the rule of evidence in the state of Mississippi all that is required of the plaintiff in this case is to prove that injury was inflicted by the movement of the defendant's train or engine and then the law presumes negligence and then the burden of proof shifts to the [247 U.S. 367, 370] defendant to prove all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the injury and from those facts so shown exonerate itself from all negligence.
'No. 2. The court charges the jury for the plaintiff that under the rule of evidence under the Mississippi statutes known as the prima facie statute all that the plaintiff need prove to entitle her to a judgment or verdict is that the defendant's engine or train caused the injury complained of and then the plaintiff is entitled to a verdict at the hands of the jury unless the defendant has shown all of the facts surrounding the injury and from such facts has shown by a preponderance of the evidence that its servants were not guilty of negligence.
The so-called 'Prima Facie Act' of Mississippi, set [247 U.S. 367, 371] out below,1 provides that in actions against railroads for damages proof of injury inflicted by an engine propelled by steam shall be prima facie evidence of negligence. Relying upon and undertaking to apply this statute, the trial court gave the quoted instructions, and in so doing, we think committed error.
The federal courts have long held that where suit is brought against a railroad for injuries to an employe resulting from its negligence, such negligence is an affirmative fact which plaintiff must establish. The Nitro-Glycerine Case, 15 Wall. 524, 537; Patton v. Texas & Pacific Railway Co., 179 U.S. 658, 663 , 21 S. Sup. Ct. 275; Looney v. Metropolitan Railroad Co., 200 U.S. 480, 487 , 26 S. Sup. Ct. 303; Southern Ry. Co. v. Bennett, 233 U.S. 80, 85 , 34 S. Sup. Ct. 566. In proceedings brought under the federal Employers' Liability Act rights and obligations depend upon it and applicable principles of common law as interpreted and applied in federal courts; and negligence is essential to recovery. Seaboard Air Line v. Horton, 233 U.S. 492, 501 , 502 S., 34 Sup. Ct. 635, L. R. A. 1915C, 1, Ann. Cas. 1915B. 475; Southern Ry. v. Gray, 241 U.S. 333, 339 , 36 S. Sup. Ct. 558; New York Central R. R. Co. v. Winfield, 244 U.S. 147, 150 , 37 S. Sup. Ct. 546, Ann. Cas. 1917D, 1139; Erie R. R. Co. v. Winfield, 244 [247 U.S. 367, 372] U. S. 170, 172, 37 Sup. Ct. 556. These established principles and our holding in Central Vermont Ry. v. White, 238 U.S. 507, 511 , 512 S., 35 Sup. Ct. 865, Ann. Cas. 1916B, 252, we think make it clear that the question of burden of proof is a matter of substance and not subject to control by laws of the several states.
It was also error to give quoted instruction number eight. Since the deceased endured no conscious suffering he had no right of action; and possible recovery was limited to pecuniary loss sustained by the designated beneficiary. Garrett v. Louisville & Nashville R. R., 235 U.S. 308, 312 , 35 S. Sup. Ct. 32; Ches. & Ohio Ry. v. Kelly, 241 U.S. 485, 489 , 36 S. Sup. Ct. 630, L. R. A. 1917F, 367.
The act makes the widow sole beneficiary when there is no child and only in the absence of both may parents be considered. The deceased left a widow and although they had lived apart no claim is made that rights and liabilities consequent upon marriage had disappeared under local law. Of course, we do not go beyond the particular facts here disclosed. In the circumstances, proof of the mother's pecuniary loss could not support a recovery.

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