(December 2020)
The Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA) was enacted by legislation in 1908. Its goal was to guarantee railroad employees a safe workplace and to give them and their families the right to recover compensation if the employee was injured in a railroad-related accident.
The Act applies to railroads and their employees because railroads had failed to develop safety initiatives and measures to protect their employees on their own. The essence of FELA is as the following extract from the Act states:
“Every common carrier by railroad while
engaging in commerce…shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury
while he is employed by such carrier in such commerce, or, in case of death of
such employee…for such injury or death resulting 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 cars, engines,
appliances, machinery, track roadbed…or other equipment.”
FELA imposed standards of duty that interstate railroads owe to their employees. The following are some examples of duties or obligations railroads owe their employees but such duties are not limited to just these:
Note: The term “reasonable” in this and other applications is the basis of many disputed claims and much of the litigation.
Under FELA, injured employees can seek compensation for the following:
The survivors of an employee killed on the job are entitled to recover unlimited damages sustained as a result of the death. However, in case of personal injury, only the injured employee (or the employee's appointed representative if the employee is incapacitated) may recover damages.
The protection FELA offers to railroad workers is similar to workers compensation insurance offered to other industries. However, workers compensation is essentially a strict liability or “no-fault” system, while FELA is a negligence or “fault-based” system. Negligence by the railroad must be proven. The injured employee can show negligence by proving any of the following:
As stated above, railroad employees who sustain workplace injuries are not eligible for the limited benefits available under state workers compensation laws. However, they can seek substantial damages for their injuries in lawsuits they bring against their employers under FELA. Although they must, instead of depending on the strict liability of the workers compensation laws, automatically impose the available damage amounts are usually considerably higher.
FELA imposes broad liability on railroads to compensate their employees who are injured on the job. However, it applies to only railroads that operate as interstate common carriers. Under FELA, every interstate common carrier railroad is liable in damages to any employee for injury or death that results entirely (or in part) from negligence on the part of railroad officers, agents, or employees.
Note: Many smaller railroads operate in one state only. These are not subject to FELA.
The United States Congress enacted FELA before any states enacted workers compensation laws. It never intended that awards be automatic. Injured employees who seek to recover damages under this Act must do all of the following:
The amount of compensation an injured railroad employee can recover is based on the following two factors:
Recovery in death cases is based on proving dependency. Simple testimony that alleges dependency is sufficient to create a matter for jury deliberation, even if there is no evidence of dependency. In death cases, the employee's personal representative can recover for the benefit of the surviving spouse and any dependent children. If there are none, the personal representative can recover for the benefit of the next relative who depends on the deceased employee's income. A spouse separated from the deceased employee may recover. A spouse the deceased employee divorced cannot. All children of the dead employee are eligible except that a married daughter supported by her husband cannot recover for the death of a parent. A parent cannot recover if the deceased employee's spouse is still alive.
Recoverable damages include pain and suffering between the time of injury and the time of death. It also includes funeral expenses. Dependents can recover only the part of the deceased's earnings that actually contributed to their support.
Lawsuits are usually brought in the federal judicial district or in the state court in the state where the accident occurred. The proper legal jurisdiction is the one where the plaintiff and most witnesses (including both factual witnesses and medical witnesses) live. For example, a lawsuit should be filed in Indiana if an accident that involves an Indiana resident occurred in Indiana, and all the witnesses live in Indiana. If it were filed in Ohio, legal rules would probably grant the railroad's motion to transfer the case to Indiana.
Suits brought in another federal judicial district, or state court, usually lead a defendant or the court to move to remove it to the proper jurisdiction. When suits are filed in state courts, state law governs procedural matters, but federal laws govern matters of substance.
Lawsuits for personal injury must be filed within three years of the date of injury. In death cases, the suit must be filed within three years of the date of death, not the date of the injury that resulted in death. In occupational disease or cumulative trauma cases, the period is three years from the date that the disease or condition was discovered and must include how it relates to the occupation. If the defendant is other than a railroad company, the statute of limitations is usually one year. However, this time period is different in each state.
FELA uses the doctrine of comparative negligence that allows workers partially at fault for their injuries to recover only a portion of the damages from the railroad. For example, if a jury determines damages of $500,000 but also finds the worker 50% negligent, the worker gets only 50% of the damages, or $250,000.
The plaintiff may pursue FELA claims in either federal or state courts and be granted a jury trial. The jury must determine if the railroad was negligent, if the plaintiff was negligent and contributed to the injury (including the degree of contribution), and the amount of damages the plaintiff sustained as a result of the accident.
The purpose of FELA is to make interstate railroad common carriers liable for bodily injury that their employees sustain. FELA was designed to apply to only interstate railroads and not to intrastate lines, but that distinction does not always hold up. In Hilton v. South Carolina Public Railways Commission, 502 U.S. 197, 112 S. Ct. 560, 116 L.Ed.2d 560 (1991), the United States Supreme Court ruled that FELA could apply to an injured worker for an intrastate railroad. In this case, the worker injured on the job was an employee of a state-run, intrastate common carrier railroad. The claim he filed in that state’s court system was denied. The case then went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. It noted that many states exclude railroad employees in their workers compensation laws and assume that FELA responds. As a result, it held that coverage under FELA should apply if an employee relied on this line of reasoning and had reasonable expectations that FELA would compensate for the employer's negligence. The case was sent back to the state court for trial.
FELA has improved working conditions and made them safer for thousands of freight, commuter, and passenger rail workers subject to the Act. However, it is controversial and constantly under fire because employees must sue their employers to obtain compensation. The time lag can be considerable and burdensome. Some parties suggest replacing the existing process with a “no-fault” based system similar to most state workers compensation programs. Railroads originally fought against adopting a workers compensation system for railroad employees while railroad unions favored such a system. Over time, their positions on this subject have reversed, where labor unions now favor retaining FELA while the railroads would prefer to have a type of workers compensation system.
"The Federal Employers Liability Act
was designed to put on the railroad industry some of the costs of the legs,
arms, eyes, and lives which it consumed in its operation. Not all these costs
were imposed, for the Act did not make the employer an insurer. The liability
which it imposed was the liability for negligence."
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States William O. Douglas
WC 00 01 04 A–Federal Employers' Liability Act Coverage Endorsement must be attached to WC 00 00 00 C–Workers Compensation and Employers Liability Insurance Policy to provide FELA coverage.
The endorsement makes two changes to Part Two of the policy:
If a state listed in Item 2. on the endorsement schedule is not already listed in Item 3.A on the Information Page, this coverage applies in that state just like any state listed in Item 3.A. on the Information Page. However, Part One–Workers Compensation Insurance does not apply to that listed state.
This endorsement has provisions for two limits of liability. One is for bodily injury by accident and applies to each accident. The other is for bodily injury by disease and applies on an aggregate basis.