St Louis, Iron Mountain Southern Railway Company v. Craft

• Decision Date: 01 June 1915
• Docket Number: No. 776,776
• Citation: 59 L.Ed. 1160,237 U.S. 648,35 S.Ct. 704
• Parties: ST LOUIS, IRON MOUNTAIN, & SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. J. T. CRAFT, Administrator, etc
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

237 U.S. 648

35 S.Ct. 704

59 L.Ed. 1160

ST LOUIS, IRON MOUNTAIN, & SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v J. T. CRAFT, Administrator, etc.

No. 776.

Argued May 12, 1915.

Decided June 1, 1915.

[Syllabus from pages 648-650 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Troy Pace, Edward J. White, and E. B. Kinsworthy for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 650-652 intentionally omitted] Messrs. William E. Richardson, Jackson H. Ralston, Gustave Jones, and Lon L. Campbell for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 652 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Van Devanter delivered the opinion of the court:

This was an action under the employers' liability act of April 22, 1908, 35 Stat. at L. 65, chap. 149, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 8657, and the amendment of April 5, 1910, 36 Stat. at L. 291, chap. 143, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 8662, by an administrator to recover for injuries to and the death of his intestate. The action was for the benefit of the father, there being no surviving widow, child, or mother, and the damages sought were for (a) pecuniary loss to the father by reason of the death and (b) conscious pain and suffering of the decedent before the injuries proved fatal. In the trial court the plaintiff had a verdict and judgment awarding $1,000 for the pecuniary loss to the father and $11,000 for the pain and suffering of the decedent, and the supreme court of the state, after reducing the latter sum to $5,000, affirmed the judgment. L.R.A. ——, 171 S. W. 1185.

Without questioning that the evidence justified an assessment of damages for the father's pecuniary loss, the defendant insists, as it did in both state courts, that the recovery could not include anything for pain and suffering of the decedent, first, because there was no evidence that he endured any conscious pain or suffering, and second, because the statute requires that the recovery in such cases be restricted to either the pecuniary loss to the designated beneficiaries or the damage sustained by the injured person while he lived, and does not permit a recovery for both.

The first objection must, as we think, be overruled. The record discloses that the decedent survived his injuries more than a half hour, and that they were such as were calculated to cause him extreme pain and suffering, if he remained conscious. A car passed partly over his body, breaking some of the bones, lacerating the flesh and opening the abdomen, and then held him fast under the wheels with a brake rod pressing his face to the ground. It took fifteen minutes to lift the car and release his body, and fifteen minutes more to start him to the hospital in an ambulance. It was after this that he died, the time not being more definitely stated. As to whether he was conscious and capable of suffering pain the evidence was conflicting. Some of the witnesses testified that he was 'groaning every once in a while,' and that when they were endeavoring to pull him from under the car 'he would raise his arm' and 'try to pull himself,' while others testified that they did not notice these indications of consciousness, and that he seemed to be unconscious from the beginning. The jury found that he was conscious, and both state courts accepted that solution of the dispute. Of course, the question here is not which way the evidence preponderated, but whether there was evidence from which the jury reasonably could find that while he lived he endured conscious pain and suffering as a result of his injuries. That question, we are persuaded, must be answered in the affirmative. But to avoid any misapprehension it is well to observe that the case is close to the border line, for such pain and suffering as are substantially contemporaneous with death or mere incidents to it, as also the short periods of insensibility which sometimes intervene between fatal injuries and death, afford no basis for a separate estimation or award of damages under statutes like that which is controlling here. The Corsair (Barton v. Brown), 145 U. S. 335, 348, 36 L. ed. 727, 731, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 949; Kearney v. Boston & W. R. Corp. 9 Cush. 108; Kennedy v. Standard Sugar Refinery, 125 Mass. 90, 28 Am. Rep. 214; Tully v. Fitchburg R. Co. 134 Mass. 499, 504; Mulchahey v. Washburn Car Wheel Co. 145 Mass. 281, 1 Am. St. Rep. 458, 14 N. E. 106; St. Louis, I. M. & S. R. Co. v. Dawson, 68 Ark. 1, 4, 56 S. W. 46; Burch v. St. Louis, I. M. & S. R. Co. 108 Ark. 396, 408, 158 S. W. 139.

By the common law the death of a human being, although wrongfully caused, affords no basis for a recovery of damages, and a right of action for personal injuries dies with the person injured. Mobile L. Ins. Co. v. Brame, 95 U. S. 754, 756, 24 L. ed. 580, 582; The Harrisburg, 119 U. S. 199, 204, 213, 30 L. ed. 358, 359, 362, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 140; Martin v. Baltimore & O. R. Co. (Gerling v. Baltimore & O. R. Co.), 151 U. S. 673, 697, 38 L. ed. 311, 320, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 533; Michigan C. R. Co. v. Vreeland, 227 U. S. 59, 67, 68, 57 L. ed. 417, 420, 421, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 192. Therefore in cases like this the right of recovery depends entirely upon statute law. Here the state statute is not applicable because superseded, as respects the class of cases to which this one belongs, by the Federal employers' liability act. Second Employers' Liability Cases (Mondou v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co.) 223 U. S. 1, 53-55, 56 L. ed. 327, 347, 348, 38 L.R.A.(N.S.) 44, 32 Sup. Ct. Rep. 169, 1 N. C. C. A. 875; Michigan C. R. Co. v. Vreeland, 227 U. S. 59, 67, 68, 57 L. ed. 417, 420, 421, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 192; St. Louis, S. F. & T. R. Co v. Seale, 229 U. S. 156, 158, 57 L. ed. 1129, 1133, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 651, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 156; Taylor v. Taylor, 232 U. S. 363, 58 L. ed. 638, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 350, 6 N. C. C. A. 436. So, it is by that act that we must test the objection that the recovery could not include damages for the decedent's conscious pain and suffering along with damages for the father's pecuniary loss.

The original act was adopted by Congress April 22, 1908. In its 1st section it provides for two distinct rights of action based upon altogether different principles, although primarily resting upon the same wrongful act or neglect. It invests the injured employee with a right to such damages as will compensate him for his personal loss and suffering,—a right which arises only where his injuries are not immediately fatal. And where his injuries prove fatal, either immediately or subsequently (Michigan C. R. Co. v. Vreeland, 227 U. S. 68, 57 L. ed. 421, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 192; Louisville, E. & St. L. R. Co. v. Clarke, 152 U. S. 230, 238, 38 L. ed. 422, 424, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 579), it invests his personal representative, as a trustee for designated relatives, with a right to such damages as will compensate the latter for any pecuniary loss which they sustain by the death. At first there was no provision for a survival of the right given to the injured person, and so, under the operation of the rule of the common law, it would die with him.

Of the right given to the personal representative we said in the Vreeland Case, p. 68: 'This cause of action is independent of any cause of action which the decedent had, and includes no damages which he might have recovered for his injury if he had survived. It is one beyond that which the decedent had,—one proceeding upon altogether different principles. It is a liability for the loss and damage sustained by relatives dependent upon the decedent. It is therefore a liability for the pecuniary damage resulting to them, and for that only.' And in American R. Co. v. Didricksen, 227 U. S. 145, 149, 57 L. ed. 456, 457, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 224, we said, referring to the original act: 'The cause of action which was created in behalf of the injured employee did not sur- vive his death, nor pass to his representatives. But the act, in case of the death of such an employee from his injury, creates a new and distinct right of action for the benefit of the dependent relatives named in the statute. The damages recoverable are limited to such loss as results to them because they have been deprived of a reasonable expectation of pecuniary benefits by the wrongful death of the injured employee. The damage is limited strictly to the financial loss thus sustained.'

If the matter turned upon the original act alone it is plain that the recovery here could not include damages for the decedent's pain and suffering, for only through a provision for a survival of his right could such damages be recovered after his death. But the original act is not alone to be considered. On April 5, 1910, prior to the decedent's injuries, the act was 'amended by adding the following section:'

'Sec. 9. That any right of action given by this act to a person suffering injury shall survive to his or her perosnal representative, for the benefit of the surviving widow or husband and children of such employee, and if none, then of such employee's parents; and if none, then of the next of kin dependent upon such employee, but in such cases there shall be only one recovery for the same injury.'

No change was made in § 1. Taylor v. Taylor, 232 U. S. 363, 370, 58 L. ed. 638, 641, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 350, 6 N. C. C. A. 436. It continues, as before, to provide for two distinct rights of action: one in the injured person for his personal loss and suffering where the injuries are not immediately fatal, and the other in his personal representative for the pecuniary loss sustained by designated relatives where the injuries immediately or ultimately result in death....