Court Opinion

ID: 9810239
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 21:44:19.94205+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:39:30.544779
License: Public Domain

Clark, C. J.,
concurring: The line between the acts of an employee done in interstate commerce and those which are done in intrastate commerce is not always easy to define. But that line has never been “run, marked, and chopped” more definitely probably than in the opinion of Mr. Justice Hoke in this case.
The distinction seems to be this, that when the act of the employee is in the aid of operating in interstate commerce, then the employee is in interstate service; but when he is doing an act which is not in the direct aid of the operation of interstate traffic, then it is not. Otherwise, if a railroad company should build a warehouse, or a station, or other building, or do other work for the general use of the- road, then the employee would be engaged in interstate commerce, which would take in all the employees of these corporations.
The cases cited in the opinion of Judge Hoke seems to bear out this -distinction. The case of Pendersen v. R. R., 229 U. S., 146, where the ■employee, when injured, was engaged in carrying bolts to be used in the repair of a bridge seems to be in conflict with the others cited, unless it •can be explained upon the ground that the bridge on a railroad operating-in two States is constantly being used in transj)ortation, and, therefore, keeping it in! repair is necessarily in aid of the operation of interstate commerce; whereas, removing coal from storage tracks, or burning coal for use of engines in interstate commerce, or putting up fixtures in the roundhouse where engines used in interstate commerce are being repaired, are not acts in the direct operation of interstate commerce, and hence employees injured in doing such acts cannot sue under the “Federal Employer’s Liability Act.”
In the Pendersen case, supra, three judges dissented, and the majority opinion held that the ruling would not apply if the bridge was being-constructed, instead of being repaired.