Opinion ID: 603814
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Third Circuit FELA Precedent

Text: 20 In two recent cases, this circuit has also declined to decide definitively whether the FELA permits recovery for injuries without physical contact or fear of contact, deciding such cases instead on a fact-specific basis. See Holliday v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 914 F.2d 421 (3d Cir.1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1090, 111 S.Ct. 970, 112 L.Ed.2d 1057 (1991); Outten v. National R.R. Passenger Corp., 928 F.2d 74 (3d Cir.1991). However, in our most recent case in this field, Gottshall v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 988 F.2d 355 (3d Cir.1993), this Court for the first time upheld recovery under the FELA for negligent infliction of emotional distress without proof of any physical impact, under circumstances where the emotional distress was accompanied by physical manifestations. Moreover, because the district courts of this circuit have rendered conflicting opinions on this topic, we see a heightened need for clear direction from this circuit and, ultimately, the Supreme Court. 8 21 Appellant claims that in order to sustain a cause of action under the FELA for negligent infliction of emotional distress, plaintiff was required to prove that there was an accident, physical impact or injury to someone.... [A]n employee, like Carlisle, who allegedly suffers from stress-related injuries or illnesses caused by his general working conditions, fails to state a claim under the F.E.L.A. Appellant's Brief at 11-12. Appellant relies heavily on a district court decision which rejected similar work-related stress claims filed by Carlisle's co-workers. See Kraus v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 723 F.Supp. 1073, 1090 (E.D.Pa.1989), appeal dismissed on procedural grounds, 899 F.2d 1360 (3d Cir.1990). In Kraus, four Conrail train dispatchers alleged emotional and physical injuries, including heart attacks, ulcers and nervous breakdowns, arising from their stressful work environment. Noting that the common law in this area is less than clearly defined and in a stage of rapid evolution, the Kraus court concluded that most state and federal cases have required allegations of specific physical impact on the plaintiff or third parties, and thus held that [j]ob-related stress is simply not the type of problem intended to be dealt with by the FELA. Id. at 1089-90 (relying on Marlowe, Comment, 33 Vill.L.Rev. 781 (1988)). 22 We disagree. The Supreme Court has held that [t]he wording [of the FELA] was not restrictive as to ... the particular kind of injury resulting. Urie v. Thompson, 337 U.S. 163, 69 S.Ct. 1018, 93 L.Ed. 1282 (1949). Under this explication of the FELA, it is becoming more and more apparent that emotional and physical injuries that are the foreseeable result of requiring workers to remain in unreasonably dangerous and stressful work conditions for significant periods of time can present a claim under the statute. 23 Moreover, this conclusion, that a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress arising from work-related stress is cognizable under the FELA, is not inconsistent with our prior FELA case law. In Holliday and Outten, this court on a case-by-case basis rejected FELA claims alleging negligent infliction of emotional distress, while refusing to foreclose the possibility of such recovery. In Holliday, a railroad worker allegedly suffered emotional and physical injuries because of his brief assignment to a job that he felt unqualified to perform. This Court affirmed the district court's summary judgment in favor of the railroad while stating: 24 We emphasize that our opinion is narrow. We are not holding that there can never be a recovery under FELA for emotional conditions unless the employee suffers an immediate physical injury from the railroad's negligent conduct, or unless there is an accident of some kind, as we need not and do not reach that issue. Thus, our holding does not draw a bright line requiring a direct impact traceable to the employer's negligence before there can be a FELA recovery. We are not called upon to decide whether an employee exposed to dangerous conditions for a protracted time, though not in an accident, could recover. 25 914 F.2d at 426-27. 26 In Outten, we refused to permit recovery for negligent infliction of emotional distress resulting from the employee's reaction to an accident which occurred a mile from where the employee was located. The ground for our holding was that this result was not foreseeable: 27 [I]t is hardly foreseeable to the railroad that one of its employees might suffer serious psychological injuries as a result of the fear of injury from a train collision over a mile away. There is a perceived unfairness of imposing heavy and disproportionate financial burdens upon a defendant, whose conduct was only negligent, for consequences which appear remote from the 'wrongful' act. 28 928 F.2d at 79 (quoting W. Page Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts 361 (5th ed.1984)). 29 More recently in Gottshall, in reversing a district court's grant of summary judgment in Conrail's favor, we held that the FELA does permit recovery for claims for emotional and physical injury arising from negligent infliction of emotional distress under some circumstances. 30 Thus, we now have before us the issue which was defined but not faced in Holliday, Outten, and Gottshall: Can protracted exposure to work-related, stressfully injurious conditions lead to liability under the FELA? Under the circumstances of this case, where the injurious result was reasonably foreseeable, we conclude that it can. 31 The facts of record in this case demonstrate that Conrail had ample notice of the stressful and dangerous conditions under which Carlisle was forced to work. Carlisle passed on to his supervisors the complaints of his co-workers and subordinates about outdated equipment, long hours and the high level of job-related stress. He also communicated to them his own concerns about excessive hours and the stress of his job. At trial, he introduced into evidence a series of depositions, originally taken in the Kraus case, in which fellow workers in the Philadelphia Conrail offices testified that their jobs as dispatchers and supervisors had caused them to suffer cardiac arrests, nervous breakdowns, and a variety of emotional problems such as depression, paranoia and insomnia. 9 He also introduced two reports from the Federal Railway Administration (F.R.A.) which documented the stressful nature of a train dispatcher's job and the outdated equipment and hazardous working conditions at Conrail's Philadelphia dispatching office. 10 32 We conclude therefore that, when it is reasonably foreseeable that extended exposure to dangerous and stressful working conditions will cause injury to the worker, the employer may be held to be liable under the FELA for the employee's resulting injuries. 11 Specifically, under the facts of this case, we find that Carlisle presented sufficient evidence concerning (1) Conrail's duty to provide him with a safe workplace; (2) prior notice to Conrail, through the FRA reports and stress-related injuries to Carlisle's co-workers, making Carlisle's injury foreseeable to Conrail; (3) Conrail's breach of that duty through the hazardous conditions and demands of Carlisle's job; and, (4) causation of Carlisle's injuries by the demands of an unreasonably unsafe and stressful work environment.