CSX Transportation v. McBride (2010)
- Docket
- 10-235
- Decided
- 2010-01-01
Summary
Question: Does the Federal Employers' Liability Act require proof of proximate causation? Conclusion: No. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court order in an opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "The charge proper in FELA cases, we hold, simply tracks the language Congress employed, informing juries that a defendant railroad caused or contributed to a plaintiff employee's injury if the railroad's negligence played any part in bringing about the injury," Ginsburg wrote for the majority. Meanwhile, Chief Justice John Roberts dissented, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito. "The Court is wrong to dispense with that familiar element of an action seeking recovery for negligence, an element 'generally thought to be a necessary limitation on liability,'" Roberts wrote.