New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad v. Harris

Citations

• 247 U.S. 367
• 38 S. Ct. 535
• 62 L. Ed. 1167
• 1918 U.S. LEXIS 1919

Syllabus

<p>In actions against a railroad for injuries to employees resulting from its negligence, it has long been the rule of the federal courts that the negligence is to be established affirmatively by the plaintiff. • •</p> <p>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 by the federal courts; and negligence: is essential to recovery.</p> <p>Hence it is erroneous in such a proceeding to apply a state statute (Mississippi Cpde,- 1906, § 1985, and Laws 1912, c. 215, p. 290), making proof of injury by an engine propelled by steam prima fade evidence of a railroad’s negligence in an action against it for dámages.</p> <p>Under the federal act, there is no cause of action for pain and suffering if the employee die of his injuries without regaining conseious-ness.</p> <p>Under that act, no cause of action accrues for the benefit of a dependent mother where the deceased employee leaves a widow who, although she lived apart from him at the time of his death, was neither remarried nor divorced and where the rights and liabilities consequent upon their marriage had not ceased under the local law.</p> <p>Reversed.</p>