Blair v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

delivered the opinion of the Court.

A jury in the Common Pleas Court of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, awarded the petitioner a verdict for $12,000 damages for personal injuries in his action against the respondent railroad under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, 46 U. S. C., § 61 et seq. That Act authorizes an employee to recover for such injuries if they result “in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier, or by reason of any defect or insufficiency, due to its negligence, in its . . . appliances ... or other equipment.” The complaint set out in great detail the events leading to the injury and alleged that the injury was the result of the defendant’s negligence in failing, under the circumstances narrated, to provide petitioner with reasonably suitable tools and appliances, a reasonably safe place in which to work, reasonably sufficient and competent help to do the work, and the negligence of the respondent’s employees who assisted him in doing the work. Respondent moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the ground

To deprive railroad “workers of the benefit of a jury trial in close or doubtful cases is to take away a goodly portion of the relief which Congress has afforded them.” Bailey v. Central Vermont R. Co., 319 U. S. 350 , 354. Because important rights under the Act were involved, we granted certiorari.

Despite conflicting evidence, there was sufficient evidence to justify the jury in finding that the injury was inflicted under these circumstances. Petitioner’s duties were to load and unload inbound and outbound freight. In unloading a car standing at the platform adjacent to respondent’s warehouse, petitioner came to three 10-inch seamless steel tubes, approximately 30 feet long and weighing slightly more than a thousand pounds each. The pipes were greased and slick. The petitioner went to his superior, informed him that the pipes were too heavy for him to move and suggested that it was not customary for the railroad to unload pipes of this kind at its warehouse, but to send the car directly to the consignee’s place of business where it had proper equipment for unloading heavy material. This suggestion was rejected and petitioner was then told to get Mr. Miller, the car inspector, and Mr. Fanno, the section man, to help him unload.

In the petitioner’s four-year service this was the first occasion that such heavy pipe had been moved at the warehouse. Fanno, aged 60, and Miller, aged 68, had never before assisted petitioner in such a movement; their duties were entirely different. The evidence indi

We think there was sufficient evidence to submit to the jury the question of negligence posed by the complaint. The duty of the employer “becomes ‘more imperative’ as the risk increases.” Bailey v. Central Vermont R. Co., 319 U. S. 350 , 352, 353. See also Tiller v. Atlantic Coast Line, 318 U. S. 54 , 67. The negligence of the employer may be determined by viewing its conduct as a whole. Union Pacific R. Co. v. Hadley, 246 U. S. 330 , 332, 333. And especially is this true in a case such as this, where the several elements from which negligence might be inferred are so closely interwoven as to form a single pattern, and where each imparts character to the others.

The nature of the duty which the petitioner was commanded to undertake, the dangers of moving a greased, 1000-pound steel tube, 30 feet in length, on a 5-foot truck, the area over which that truck was compelled to be moved, the suitableness of the tools used in an extraordinary manner to accomplish a novel purpose, the number of men assigned to assist him, their experience in such work and their ability to perform the duties and the manner in which they performed those duties — all of these raised questions appropriate for a jury to appraise in considering whether or not the injury was the result of negligence as alleged in the complaint. We cannot say as a matter of law that the railroad complied with its duties in a reasonably careful manner under the circumstances here, nor

The court below, however, thought that the plaintiff should not recover because he had assumed the risk of this danger. It is to be noted that at the time this case was tried Congress had passed an act which completely abolished the defense of assumption of risk. 53 Stat. 1404 . Tiller v. Atlantic Coast Line, supra. We need not consider whether this statute applies to this case, since we are of opinion that it cannot be held as a matter of law that the petitioner assumed the risks incident to moving the steel tubes.

It is true that the petitioner undertook to do the work after he had complained to the company that the pipe should not be moved in the manner it was. But he was commanded to> go ahead by his superior. Under these circumstances it cannot be held as a matter of law that he voluntarily assumed all the risks of injury. The court below cited by way of comparison its holding in a former decision, Guerierro v. Reading Co., 346 Pa. 187 , 29 A. 2d 510 . There it had announced the rule that an employee has a duty to quit his job rather than to do something which he knows, or ought to know, is dangerous. This Court does not apply the doctrine of assumption of risk so rigorously. In Great Northern R. Co. v. Leonidas, 305 U. S. 1 , we affirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Montana, 105 Mont. 302 , 72 P. 2d 1007 . In its opinion the Montana court stated: “We are not able to say that the hazard of carrying the [railroad] tie was so open and obvious that the plaintiff, as a matter of law, must be held to have assumed the risk of injury by yielding obedience to the command of the foreman.” So here, we do not think that this petitioner can be held to have assumed

Reversed.

The Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Roberts are of the opinion that the judgment should be affirmed.