Byrne v. Pennsylvania Railroad

169 F. Supp. 655, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4262
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 4, 1958
DocketCiv. A. No. 16188
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 169 F. Supp. 655 (Byrne v. Pennsylvania Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Byrne v. Pennsylvania Railroad, 169 F. Supp. 655, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4262 (E.D. Pa. 1958).

Opinion

KIRKPATRICK, Chief Judge.

This is an action by the administratrix of Joe G. Irby to recover damages for his death. A critical issue in the case was whether at the time he was killed Irby was an employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad, so as to bring the case under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 51 et seq. A separate trial of that issue was had and the jury, answering a written interrogatory, found that he was. The remaining issues were then tried and the jury found upon sufficient evidence that Irby’s death was caused by the negligence of the defendant, and awarded damages in the amount of $250,000.

The defendant now moves for judgment under Fed.Rules Civ.Proc. rule 50, 28 U.S.C.A. and in the alternative for a new trial. The defendant concedes that if the jury’s finding that Irby was in its employ at the time of his death was proper, the evidence of negligence and damages was sufficient to support the verdict upon these issues. In that event, [657]*657it contends that a new trial should be ordered on account of various trial errors.

Irby, a graduate electrical engineer, had been employed by Westinghouse Electric Corporation for a number of years. At the time of his death and for some fourteen months prior thereto he had been working continuously, full time and overtime, on equipment belonging to the Pennsylvania Railroad, at its Wilmington shops, and on the road. It should be noted, however, that this is not the usual “loaned-servant” type of case, in which the employee temporarily passes completely out of the service of one employer into that of another. The plaintiff in this case does not dispute that Irby was at all relevant times in the employ of Westinghouse, but contends that he was also doing work for the Railroad and was in its employ, as well as that of Westinghouse, when he was killed, and the issue was submitted to the jury on the theory of dual employment1.

The principle is well established and was stated by the Court of Appeals for this Circuit in Dickerson v. American Sugar Refining Co., 211 F.2d 200, 203, as follows: “ * * * a person may be the servant of two masters, not joint employers, at the same time as to the same act, provided that service to one does not involve an abandonment of service to the other. Such is the case where the employee is transferred to carry on work which is of mutual interest to both of two employers and to effect their common purpose.”

The courts have pointed out a large number of factors, all of which are proper for consideration in making the ultimate inference as to who a man’s employer is. The defendant stresses eonti ol of the work and the manner of doing it as the all-important test, and this view is not without support in the language of some opinions of the courts of Pennsylvania and other states. However, upon the question of employment, in cases arising under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, federal, not state, decisions govern.

The question of control of the details of an employee’s work is, of course, a very important one, and in Shaw v. Monessen Southwestern Ry. Co., 3 Cir., 200 F.2d 841, Judge Goodrich suggested that perhaps it was the strongest consideration of all. But it is perfectly clear that Judge Goodrich did not mean that it was the solé and conclusive test of the relationship, and I find no decision of the federal courts which so holds.

The general rule is that “ordinarily no one feature of the relationship of employer and employee is determinative”, De Maree v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company, D.C., 147 F.Supp. 656, 659. Thus in the Shaw case, supra [200 F.2d 843], Judge Goodrich pointed out. in a footnote that “Whose work is being done seems to have been the most important factor in Supreme Court decisions in somewhat similar cases”, citing Linstead v. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co., 276 U.S. 28, 48 S.Ct. 241, 72 L.Ed. 453, and Hull v. Philadelphia & Reading Ry. Co., 252 U.S. 475, 40 S.Ct. 358, 64 L.Ed. 670. In the Linstead case [276 U.S. 28, 48 S.Ct. 243], the question being which of two railroads was liable for an injury to a conductor, the Court said, “Now the work which was being done here by Linstead and his crew was the work of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway * * * ” and the Court distinguished the case from the earlier Hull case entirely upon the answer to the question, Which company’s work was being done? Commenting upon the Hull and Linstead cases, the Court, in Robertson v. Yazoo & M. V. R. Co., 5 Cir., 159 F.2d 31, 34, pointed this out, saying “In Hull’s case and in Linstead’s case, both eases where a general servant of a particular employer claimed that he had become the special servant of another, [658]*658the evidence was searched out to discover whose work the servant was doing, and the rule was applied accordingly.” In the Robertson case the Court held that the plaintiff was not an employee of the defendant “because the evidence not only fails to show that at the time of his injury he was doing the work of the defendant, but, on the contrary, affirmatively shows that he was not.”2 The power of control of the manner in which the work is performed bears upon the ultimate question of whose.work is being done and is frequently determinative of it, but there are usually a number of other factors, all of which must be considered.

Possibly, what might appear to be a conflict of authority can be accounted for if one takes into consideration what kind of liability the relationship may impose upon an alleged employer. Where the question is which of two employers shall be responsible for some carelessness in doing his work on the part of the employee, which injures a third person, it would seem logical enough to make the right to control the manner in which the employee does the work a major consideration among the various factors to be considered. On the other hand, where the principle of respondeat superior is not involved, the question being, who shall bear the economic loss arising from an injury to or death of the employee, it would be consistent with social and economic policy to give a larger measure of weight to the question, in the course of whose work was the loss incurred.3

In the present ease, Westinghouse had sold and delivered to the Railroad Company, more than a year before Irby’s death, two electric locomotives provided with certain electrical installations of an entirely new type. Irby’s job at Wilmington was concerned with this equipment. Their performance had not been all that might be desired and Irby was engaged in ironing out difficulties and dealing with breakdowns so that the locomotives would operate satisfactorily in regular service. His job was described by the defendant’s assistant shop foreman as being to keep the locomotives moving and to keep them in condition. It also included instructing railroad employees in how to maintain the locomotives and training them in their operation and use.

Westinghouse’s business was making and selling locomotives.

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Bluebook (online)
169 F. Supp. 655, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4262, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/byrne-v-pennsylvania-railroad-paed-1958.