UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
WASHINGTON RY. & ELEC. CO. V. SCALA, 244 U. S. 630 (1917)
244 U. S. 630U.S. Supreme Court
Washington Ry. & Elec. Co. v. Scala, 244 U.S. 630 (1917)
Washington Railway & Electric Company v. Scala
No. 826
Argued May 8, 1917
Decided June 11, 1917
244 U.S. 630
Syllabus
The court has jurisdiction by writ of error to review this judgment of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia in a case arising under the Federal Employers' Liability Act of April 22, 1908, 35 Stat. 65, as amended April 5, 90, 36 Stat. 291.
Defendant was incorporated as an ordinary railway company (as distinguished from a street railway company), with full powers of eminent domain, and owned a line of electric railway built largely on a private right of way from a terminus in the District of Columbia to a terminus in Maryland, which it operated as a common carrier of passengers for hire between those termini. Held that it came within the Federal Employers' Liability Act.
If the declaration alleges that the injuries charged to defendant's negligence caused plaintiff's intestate to "suffer intense pain," an amendment at trial adding that deceased endured "conscious pain and suffering" is but an elaboration of the existing statement, and is not open to the objection that it introduces a new cause of action barred by the two-year limitation of the Federal Employers' liability Act.
Maintaining a trolley pole closer to the track than others on the line, and so close that a conductor cannot safely discharge his duties affords ample ground for a finding of negligence by the jury.
45 App.D.C. 484 affirmed.
The case is stated in the opinion. clubjuris