Jacobs v. Southern Railway Co.

Citations

• 241 U.S. 229
• 36 S. Ct. 588
• 60 L. Ed. 970
• 1916 U.S. LEXIS 1746

Syllabus

<p>Under § 4 of the Employers’ Liability Act assumption of risk as a defense is abolished only where the negligence of the carrier is in violation of some statute enacted for the safety of employees; in other cases therefore it is retained.</p> <p>An experienced employee,admittedly, knowing the material conditions and presence of a pile of cinders who attempts to board a moving engine with a vessel of water in his hand, must be considered as appreciating the danger and assuming the risk although at the time he may have forgotten the existence of the cinders; and this is so even if the employer was negligent in allowing the cinders to remain. There being no violation of any safety statute, the common-law defense of assumption of risk is not eliminated in such a case by the Employers’ Liability Act.</p>