Court Opinion

ID: 9481433
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:18:48.455356+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:18.595703
License: Public Domain

MANSMANN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because I believe that the majority’s test is too narrowly drawn in light of the FELA’s purposes as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Atchison T. & S.F.R. Co. v. Buell, 480 U.S. 557, 107 S.Ct. 1410, 94 L.Ed.2d 563 (1987), and by us in Holliday v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 914 F.2d 421 (3d Cir.1990). Although I dissented in Holliday, I recognize its binding force and do not seek here to overturn it. See I.O.P. Chapter 9.1. I choose to dissent because I feel that the majority’s test, while consistent with Holliday, is unduly restrictive.
*80Because of the broad remedial purpose of the FELA, I would not feel constrained to apply the restrictive zone of danger test or the other narrow theories of recovery for negligent infliction of emotional distress available under Pennsylvania tort caselaw. Rather, I would employ an objective test based upon whether the plaintiff had a reasonable basis for believing that he was in danger of immediate personal injury, caused by the employer railroad, as the result of which he suffers emotional injury. In a nutshell, the test would be whether the plaintiff reasonably believed himself to be in the zone of danger. Employing such a test, I believe that Outten has alleged facts sufficient to create a genuine issue as to whether it was reasonable for Outten to believe that he was in the zone of danger created by the train collision. Accordingly, I would vacate the grant of summary judgment and allow the claim to be presented to the jury.
In Buell, the Supreme Court acknowledged that “the FELA is a broad remedial statute,” and that the Supreme Court has adopted a “ ‘standard of liberal construction in order to accomplish [Congress’] objects.’ ” 480 U.S. at 562, 107 S.Ct. at 1414. The Court also recognized that a “primary purpose of the Act was ... to facilitate recovery in meritorious eases.” 480 U.S. at 561, 107 S.Ct. at 1413. Indeed, as the majority notes, an employee can recover under the FELA as long as the employer’s negligence “played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury or death for which damages are sought.” Rogers v. Missouri Pac. R.R. Co., 352 U.S. 500, 506, 77 S.Ct. 443, 448, 1 L.Ed.2d 493 (1957); Pehowic v. Erie Lackawanna R.R. Co., 430 F.2d 697, 699 (3d Cir.1970). The Supreme Court in Buell discussed evenhandedly recent developments in the law of intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and recognized that “... some states consider the context and the relationship between the parties significant, placing special emphasis on the workplace.” 480 U.S. at 569, 107 S.Ct. at 1417.1
Indeed, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania does consider “the context and the relationship between the parties significant, placing special emphasis on the workplace.” 480 U.S. at 569, 107 S.Ct. at 1417. With regard to emotional injury, as well as physical injury incurred by an employee on the work site, the public policy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is evidenced in the Workmen’s Compensation Act, Act of June 2, 1915, P.L. 736, as amended, 77 P.S. § 1 et seq., which, like the FELA, is a remedial statute that is to be liberally construed. There, a less restrictive test than general tort law or than that proposed by the majority here, is used in cases involving psychic injury.2 A claimant must provide “objective evidence unequivocally establishing a causal connection between the claimant's injury and her employment” to recover for a psychic injury under the Workmen’s Compensation Act. Kemp v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Bd., 121 Pa. Cmwlth. 23, 549 A.2d 1365 (1988). The claimant is also required to establish that the injury was caused by abnormal working conditions. Martin v. Ketchum, Inc., 523 Pa. 509, 568 A.2d 159 (1990). This is the test that is most analogous to the one that I suggest should be used here for a claim of psychic injury under the FELA. The fact that the claim concerns an employer/employee relationship requires that the applicable test not be nearly so rigorous or restrictive as that which the majority requires here under the FELA.
Given the facts that Outten knew that the Amtrak train and the ballast regulator would collide and that, as far as he knew, the impact would be nearby, I would hold that Outten has presented sufficient facts *81to create a jury question of whether he reasonably believed that he was in the zone of danger. Accordingly, I would vacate the grant of summary judgment and permit the claim to be presented to the jury.

. Although this reference in Buell as to the significance of the workplace was made with respect to the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress, I believe that it applies with equal force to the tort of negligent infliction of emotional distress.

. I recognize that the quid pro quo exacted from an employee for obtaining benefits under the Workmen's Compensation Act without resort to time-consuming litigation is that he forgoes the opportunity of recovering tort damages. Nevertheless, I do not believe that such a statutory difference between the Act and the FELA is fatal to the analogy.