Phillips v. CSX Transportation

• Decision Date: 04 March 1999
• Docket Number: CA-95-2000-MJG,No. 97-2669,No. 97-2750,97-2669,97-2750
• Citation: 190 F.3d 285
• Parties: (4th Cir. 1999) JEFFREY D. PHILLIPS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CSX TRANSPORTATION, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee, and CSX TRANSPORTATION, INCORPORATED, Defendant & Third Party Plaintiff, and PROCOR ALBERTA, INCORPORATED; FALCONBRIDGE, LIMITED; UNION TANK CAR COMPANY, Third Party Defendants. JEFFREY D. PHILLIPS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CSX TRANSPORTATION, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellant, and CSX TRANSPORTATION, INCORPORATED, Defendant & Third Party Plaintiff, and PROCOR ALBERTA, INCORPORATED; FALCONBRIDGE, LIMITED; UNION TANK CAR COMPANY, Third Party Defendants. () Argued:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 285

190 F.3d 285 (4th Cir. 1999)

JEFFREY D. PHILLIPS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CSX TRANSPORTATION, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee, and CSX TRANSPORTATION, INCORPORATED, Defendant & Third Party Plaintiff, and PROCOR ALBERTA, INCORPORATED; FALCONBRIDGE, LIMITED; UNION TANK CAR COMPANY, Third Party Defendants.

JEFFREY D. PHILLIPS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CSX TRANSPORTATION, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellant, and CSX TRANSPORTATION, INCORPORATED, Defendant & Third Party Plaintiff, and PROCOR ALBERTA, INCORPORATED; FALCONBRIDGE, LIMITED; UNION TANK CAR COMPANY, Third Party Defendants.

No. 97-2669 No. 97-2750 (CA-95-2000-MJG)

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

Argued: March 4, 1999

Decided: September 3, 1999

Filed: September 8, 1999

Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore. Marvin J. Garbis, District Judge.

COUNSEL ARGUED: Earl Stanley Murphy, MOODY, STROPLE & KLOEPPEL, INC., Portsmouth, Virginia, for Appellant. Stephen Bennett Caplis, WHITEFORD, TAYLOR & PRESTON, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: William J. Moody, Jr., MOODY, STROPLE & KLOEPPEL, INC., Portsmouth, Virginia, for Appellant. Eric R. Harlan, WHITEFORD, TAYLOR & PRESTON, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.

Before NIEMEYER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, and SMITH, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

Reversed by published per curiam opinion.

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

This case involves a suit under the Federal Employer's Liability Act ("FELA"), 45 U.S.C. §§ 51-60, based on a violation of the Federal Safety Appliance Act ("FSAA"), 49 U.S.C. §§ 20301-06. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Jeffrey Phillips, holding that CSX Transportation violated the FSAA and was strictly liable for the injury that Phillips sustained as a result of the violation. In light of our decision in Deans v. CSX Transportation, Inc., 152 F.3d 326 (4th Cir. 1998), we find that the FSAA did not apply under the circumstances of Phillips's injury, and we reverse the district court's summary judgment order and grant summary judgment in favor of CSX.

I.

On July 20, 1994, Jeffrey Phillips was injured while performing his duties as a brakeman for CSX Transportation. At the time of his injury, Phillips was the foreman of a yard crew engaged in normal train switching operations at CSX's Cumberland Yard in Cumberland, Maryland. Such operations consist of taking arriving trains apart, and putting departing trains together.

The normal procedure when a train arrives at the yard is for the yard crew to disconnect all of the train's cars from one another, and to turn the cars over to the car department for a mechanical inspection. As part of its inspection, the car department checks the cars' safety appliances. If the car department discovers any defects during this inspection, it sets the defective cars aside for repair. Once the mechanical inspection is complete, the car department turns the cars back over to the yard crew. The yard crew then assembles the cars into new trains for departure. However, before a train may depart, it must undergo a pre-departure inspection, which the car department also conducts. The yard crew engages the handbrakes on the cars in an assembled train, detaches the engine, and then turns the train over to the car department for the pre-departure inspection. The car department inspects the train's air brakes, and again checks its safety appliances. Once the pre-departure inspection is complete, the car department turns the train over to the transportation crew, and the train departs.

Phillips was injured while he was engaging the handbrakes on a completed train, prior to turning the train over to the car department for its pre-departure inspection. The train upon which he was working was sitting on a yard track. Phillips had set the handbrakes on three of the cars in the train, and he was climbing onto a fourth car when the handrail he was using to pull himself up gave way, causing him to fall and injure his back.

Phillips filed suit against CSX on July 7, 1995. His complaint alleged two bases for CSX's liability under FELA: 1) negligence on the part of CSX for failing to maintain a safe workplace; and 2) strict liability for CSX's failure to comply with the FSAA. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment on the FSAA claim. On August 6, 1996, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of Phillips on the issue of CSX's liability for violating the FSAA. Following the court's summary judgment order, Phillips abandoned his negligence claim, and proceeded to trial only on the question of damages pursuant to his FSAA claim. On August 23, 1996, the jury awarded Phillips $444,650. However, on April 25, 1997, the district court granted CSX's motion to reduce the damage award as a matter of law because Phillips's evidence of future economic loss and future medical expenses was too speculative, and his award for past economic loss failed to take into account Medicare and railroad retirement payroll deductions. Phillips's award was reduced to $76,533.54.

Phillips appeals the district court's reduction of damages, and CSX appeals the court's summary judgment order on the FSAA claim. Since we find that the district court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of Phillips and not in favor of CSX, the reduction of damages issue is moot.

II.

A.

This court reviews de novo a district court's order granting summary judgment. Higgins v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., 863 F.2d 1162, 1167 (4th Cir. 1988). Summary judgment is appropriate only when the court, viewing the record as a whole and in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, finds that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c); see, e.g., Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-24 (1986); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248-50 (1986); Terry's Floor Fashions, Inc. v. Burlington Indus., 763 F.2d 604, 610 (4th Cir. 1985). A mere "scintilla of evidence" is not sufficient to withstand a motion for summary judgment. Rather, the evidence must be such that the jury reasonably could find for the nonmoving party. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 252. The court must draw all justifiable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party. Id. at 255.

B.

The FSAA imposes a number of safety requirements on railroads.¹ It is unlawful under the Act for a railroad to use railcars that are not equipped with certain mandated safety features, including automatic couplers, handbrakes, and secure steps, ladders, and running boards. 49 U.S.C. § 20302(a). In this case, the relevant requirement is that railcars be "equipped with secure grab irons or handholds on its ends and sides." Id. § 20302(a)(2).

The FSAA does not create an independent cause of action for those injured because of a violation of the Act. Crane v. Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Ry. Co., 395 U.S. 164, 166 (1969). However, for railroad employees injured because of a FSAA violation, FELA provides the cause of action. Id. Moreover, a FSAA violation is per se negligence in a FELA suit. In other words, the injured employee has to show only that the railroad violated the FSAA, and the railroad is strictly liable for any injury resulting from the violation. Id.; O'Donnell v. Elgin, Joliet & E. Ry. Co., 338 U.S. 384, 390-91 (1949); Deans v. CSX Transp., Inc., 152 F.3d 326, 328 (4th Cir. 1998). However, the FSAA's requirements apply to only railcars that are actually "in use." Brady v. Terminal R.R. Assn., 303 U.S. 10, 13 (1938); United States v. Northern Pac. Ry., 254 U.S. 251, 254-55 (1920); Deans, 152 F.3d at 328. As we have observed previously, the purpose of the "in use" limitation is to give railcar operators the opportunity to inspect for and correct safety appliance defects before the FSAA exposes the operators to strict liability for such defects. See Angell v. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co., 618 F.2d 260, 262 (4th Cir. 1980) ("[T]he intent of the statute is to exclude from its coverage only such functions as are necessary to detect and correct those defective conditions for which absolute liability will be imposed.").² Whether a train is "in use," for purposes of the FSAA, is a question of law for the court to decide. Deans, 152 F.3d at 329.

Since Congress enacted the FSAA, the federal courts have attempted to define the outer limits of its applicability. The Act applies more broadly than simply to trains en route from their origin to their destination on main line tracks. For example, a transfer train moving on a short connecting track from one train yard to another still must satisfy the FSAA's requirements. See, e.g., United States v. Seaboard Air Line R.R. Co., 361 U.S. 78, 81-83 (1959); Northern Pac. Ry., 254 U.S. at 254-55; Louisville & Jeffersonville Bridge Co. v. United States, 249 U.S. 534, 538-40 (1919); United States v. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R.R. Co., 237 U.S. 410, 412-13 (1915); United States v. Erie R.R. Co., 237 U.S. 402, 408-09 (1915). Moreover, a train that has reached its destination, but has not yet been turned over to the yard receiving it, is still "in use" under the FSAA. Brady, 303 U.S. at 13-14. However, the FSAA does not apply to train cars involved in switching operations. Seaboard Air Line R.R. Co., 361 U.S. at 80; Northern Pac. Ry., 254 U.S. at 254; Trinidad v. Southern Pac. Transp. Co., 949 F.2d 187, 188-89 (5th Cir. 1991).³ Determining the point at which switching operations end and a train becomes "in use" is the key issue in this case.

The Fifth Circuit addressed this exact issue in Trinidad v. Southern Pacific Transportation Co., 949 F.2d 187 (5th Cir. 1991). In Trinidad, the plaintiff was hurt while performing an air brake inspection immediately prior to the departure of a train. The court articulated a bright-line test to determine when a train...