Opinion · Supreme Court of the United States

Gilvary v. Cuyahoga Valley Railway Co.

Gilvary v. Cuyahoga Valley Ry. Co., 292 U.S. 57 (1934)

Type
Opinion
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction
Federal
Date
1934-04-02
Topic
general

How later courts describe this case

  • "So far as the safety equipment of such vehicles is concerned, these acts operate to exclude state regulation whether consistent, complementary, additional, or otherwise."
  • “So far as the safety equipment of [railroad] vehicles is-concerned, [the SAAs] operate to exclude state regulation whether consistent, complementary, additional, or otherwise.”
  • "[s]o far as the safety equipment of such [railroad] vehicles is concerned, [the FSAA] operate[s] to exclude state regulation whether consistent, complementary, additional, or otherwise”
  • D ue Process Clause prohibits United States from abrogating its own valid contractual undertakings

Citator

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Cited by
60 opinions

Headnotes

  1. Workers' Compensation & SSDI — Federal Preemption — Safety Appliance Acts Although the Federal Safety Appliance Acts impose on an interstate railroad the duty to equip all its cars with automatic couplers, including cars used exclusively in intrastate commerce, an employee injured while engaged exclusively in intrastate commerce who sues for breach of that duty derives his right to recover from state law, not from the federal Acts. 292 U.S. at 61
  2. Workers' Compensation & SSDI — Election of Remedies — Conflict with Federal Law Where a carrier and its employee have elected, under a state elective workmen's compensation law, to have their respective rights and liabilities governed by that Act for injuries sustained in intrastate commerce, the agreement bars the employee's damages action for an injury caused by the carrier's failure to equip cars with automatic couplers as the Federal Safety Appliance Acts require, because the federal Acts prescribe the duty but do not create or govern the liability for its breach and therefore do not occupy the field held by the state compensation Act. 292 U.S. at 59
  3. Constitutional Law — Commerce Clause Unless excluded by congressional enactment under the commerce clause, state law governs the respective liabilities and rights of railroad carriers and their employees arising from injuries suffered in either interstate or intrastate commerce; congressional intention to supersede state regulation of the same matter will not ordinarily be implied unless the federal measure is plainly inconsistent with the state regulation.
  4. Workers' Compensation & SSDI — Federal Safety Appliance Acts — Creation of Cause of Action The Federal Safety Appliance Acts do not create, prescribe the measure of, or govern the enforcement of the liability arising from a breach of the duty they impose; the absence of any provision comparable to the Federal Employers Liability Act's denunciation of contracts exempting carriers from liability strongly suggests that Congress did not intend to create a cause of action under the Safety Appliance Acts.
GILVARYv. CUYAHOGA VALLEY RY.,292 U.S. 57(1934)
54 S.Ct. 573
GILVARYv. CUYAHOGA VALLEY RAILWAY CO.
CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF OHIO.
No. 575.
Argued March 8, 1934.
Decided April 2, 1934.
1. Although the duty to supply all of its cars with automatic couplers laid upon an interstate railroad by the Federal Safety Appliance Acts extends to vehicles used exclusively in such carrier's intrastate commerce, nevertheless where a breach of this duty results in injuries to the carrier's employee while he is engaged exclusively in intrastate commerce, his right to collect damages from the carrier does not spring from these federal acts, but from the law of the State. P. 61. 2. Where a carrier and employee had elected, in case of any injury to the employee while engaged in intrastate commerce, to havePage 58their respective rights and liabilities governed by the provisions of the Ohio elective workmen's compensation law,heldthat the agreement was applicable, and consistent with the Federal Safety Appliance Acts, in a case of injury alleged to have been caused by the carrier's failure to equip cars with automatic couplers as those acts required. P. 59.127 Ohio St. 402, affirmed.
CERTIORARI,290 U.S. 622, to review the affirmance (by equal
division) of a judgment of the Court of Appeals of Ohio, which
had reversed a recovery of damages from the Railway Company in an
action based on personal injuries.
Mr. M.L. Bernsteen, with whomMr. Glen A. Boonewas on the brief, for petitioner.Mr. W.T. Kinderfor respondent.
MR. JUSTICE BUTLER delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an action brought by petitioner to recover for personal injuries sustained by him in April, 1929, while employed by respondent as a switchman at Cleveland, Ohio. Respondent is a common carrier by railroad wholly within that State engaged in intrastate and interstate commerce. And the Safety Appliance Acts make it unlawful for it to haul or permit to bee hauled or used on its line any car not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact.1In accordance with the Ohio workmen's compensation act,2petitioner and respondent hadPage 59theretofore notified the industrial commission that they elected, in case of any injury sustained by petitioner while engaged in intrastate commerce, to have their respective rights and liabilities governed by the provisions of that Act. The commission had approved the agreement, respondent paid the premiums necessary to keep it in force and in all respects complied with the law. Petitioner was injured while he and respondent were engaged in intrastate commerce.

The complaint alleges that his injuries were caused by respondent's failure to comply with the Safety Appliance Acts in that cars which he, with other members of his crew, was attempting to couple were not equipped with couplers that would couple automatically by impact, thereby making it necessary for him to go between the ends of the cars where he was caught and injured. In addition to a denial of the violation of the statutes, respondent's answer sets up the election to be bound by the state compensation act. The court held that the agreement was not sufficient to constitute a defense and struck out that part of the answer. The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for petitioner. The court of appeals reversed and gave final judgment in favor of the respondent "for the reason that the acceptance and notice of election by the employee contract approved by the Industrial Commission of Ohio is a complete bar to a rightPage 60of recovery in this action." In the state supreme court, the judges being equally divided in opinion, the judgment of the court of appeals was affirmed.

As the petitioner when injured was not engaged in interstate commerce, the Federal Employers Liability Act does not apply, and the question is whether the agreement of the parties, in pursuance of the Ohio statute, is repugnant to the Federal Safety Appliance Acts.

Unless excluded by congressional enactment under the commerce clause, state law governs the respective liabilities and rights of railroad carriers and their employees growing out of injuries suffered by the latter whether in interstate or intrastate commerce.Second Employers' Liability Cases,223 U.S. 1,54. The power conferred upon the Congress is such that when exerted it excludes and supersedes state legislation in respect of the same matter. But Congress may so circumscribe its regulation as to leave a part of the subject open to state action.AtlanticCoast Linev.Georgia,234 U.S. 280,290. Cf.Napierv.Atlantic Coast Line,272 U.S. 605. The purpose exclusively to regulate need not be specifically declared.New York Central R.Co. v.Winfield,244 U.S. 147. But, ordinarily such intention will not be implied unless, when fairly interpreted. the federal measure is plainly inconsistent with state regulation of the same matter.Illinois Cent. R. Co. v.Public Utilities Comm'n,245 U.S. 493,510.

The Safety Appliance Acts govern common carriers by railroad engaged in interstate commerce. The Act of 1893 applied only to vehicles used by them in moving interstate traffic. 45 U.S.C. § 2. Its requirements were by the Act of 1903 extended to all their vehicles.Id., § 8.Southern Ry. Co. v.United States,222 U.S. 20,26.Moorev.Chesapeake Ohio Ry. Co.,291 U.S. 205,213. So far as the safety equipment of such vehicles is concerned, these Acts operate to exclude state regulation whether consistent,Page 61complementary, additional or otherwise.Priggv.Pennsylvania, 16 Pet. 539, 617.Southern Ry. Co. v.RailroadComm'n,236 U.S. 439,446.Internal. Shoe Co. v.Pinkus,278 U.S. 261,265. The imposition of penalties (id., §6) and abrogation of assumption of risk (id., § 7) are measures for enforcement.

A violation of the Acts is a breach of duty owed to an employee, whether he is at the time engaged in interstate or in intrastate commerce. And by abolishing assumption of risk the Acts impliedly recognize the right to recover for injuries resulting therefrom. But the absence of a declaration similar to that in the Federal Employers Liability Act. which denounces contracts and other arrangements made for the purpose of exempting carriers from liability created by that Act (45 U.S.C. § 55), strongly suggests a lack of legislative purpose to create any cause of action therefor. Moreover, if there had been such purpose, Congress probably would have included provisions in respect of venue, jurisdiction of courts, limitations, measure of damages, and beneficiaries in case of death.

Petitioner cites language inTexas Pacific Ry. Co. v.Rigsby,241 U.S. 33,41. But that case is not in point on the question under consideration in this case. There we were called upon to decide whether a railroad employee engaged in intrastate commerce upon the line of an interstate carrier was within the protection of the Safety Appliance Acts. We held that he was. The opinion supports our recent construction of these Acts that, while they prescribe the duty, the right to recover damages sustained by the injured employee through the breach "sprang from the principle of the common law" and was left to be enforced accordingly, or in case of death "according to the applicable statute."Moorev.Chesapeake Ohio Ry. Co., supra, 215.Minneapolis, St. P. S.S.M. Ry. Co. v.Popplar,237 U.S. 369,372. These Acts do not create,Page 62prescribe the measure or govern the enforcement of, the liability arising from the breach. They do not extend to the field occupied by the state compensation Act. There is nothing in the agreement repugnant to them.Affirmed.

MR. JUSTICE STONE and MR. JUSTICE CARDOZO concur in the result.
  1. Page 58 § 2, Act of March 2, 1893,27 Stat. 531, 45 U.S.C. § 2. § 1, Act of March 2, 1903,32 Stat. 943, 45 U.S.C. § 8. ↩
  2. Page 58 "The provisions of this act shall apply to employers and their employee engaged in intrastate and also in interstate and foreign commerce, for whom a rule of liability or method of compensation has been or may be established by the congress of the United States, only to the extent that their mutual connection with intrastate work may and shall be clearly separable and distinguishable from interstate or foreign commerce, and then only when such employer and any Page 59 of his workmen working only in this state, with the approval of the state liability board of awards, and so far as not forbidden by any act of congress, voluntarily accept the provisions of this act by filing written acceptances, which, when filed with and approved by the board, shall subject the acceptors irrevocably to the provisions of this act to all intents and purposes as if they had been originally included in its terms, during the period or periods for which the premiums herein provided have been paid. Payment of premium shall be on the basis of the payroll of the workmen who accept as aforesaid." G.C., § 465-98. ↩