St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. McWhirter

Citations

• 229 U.S. 265
• 33 S. Ct. 858
• 57 L. Ed. 1179
• 1913 U.S. LEXIS 2443

Syllabus

<p>Where the ease was decided on the Federal question, the fact that it might have been decided from a non-Federal point of view does not afford a basis for holding that it was decided on the latter ground and that this court has no jurisdiction under § 709, Rev. Stat.</p> <p>While the power of this court to review the judgment of a state court is controlled by § 709, Rev. Stat., § 237, Judicial Code, yet where in a controversy of a purely Federal character the claim is made and denied that there was no evidence tending to show liability under the Federal statute, such ruling, when duly excepted to, is reviewable, because inherently involving the operation and effect of the Federal law.</p> <p>It was not the' intent of Congress in enacting the Hours of Service Act of 1907 to subject carriers to the extreme liability of insurers of the safety of their employés. by rendering them liable for all accidents occurring during the period of over-time whether attributable to the fact of working over-time or not.</p> <p>In order to render the carrier liable under the Hours of Service Act there must be proof tending 'to show connection between permitting the over-time work and the happening of the accident.</p> <p>In this ease the evidence , does not reasonably tend to connect the working over-time with the accident which occurred about seven minutes after the‘expiration of the permitted period.</p>