Sorrell, the respondent in this case, was injured while working for Norfolk Southern Railroad Company. Sorrell sued in the Missouri state courts, citing the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA) which makes the railroad liable for any employee injuries incurred due to the railroad's negligence. FELA does reduce the railroad's liability if the employee's own negligence contributed to the injuries. Missouri's jury instructions define the employee's liability in terms of whether his negligence was a direct contributing factor, while the railroad's negligence is a question of whether their actions contributed in whole or in part to the injury incurred. The Missouri jury awarded Sorrell 1.5 million dollars and the appeals court affirmed this decision.
While the FELA standards already require that the standards for employee negligence be the same as the standards for employer negligence, the U.S. Supreme Court found that Missouri's jury instructions were counter to the intention of FELA. The Court did not attempt to define what the negligence standards for FELA should be, but simply to reiterate that the same standard should be applied to the employee and the employer when considering the reduction of employer damages due to negligence. The specifics of FELA cases are typically determined by common law, as opposed to statute. While each state may mandate its own specifics of application of FELA, the decisions of negligence and contributory negligence must be equally matched. The case has been remanded to the lower courts to decide whether the error in jury instructions merits a new trial in the Missouri Court of Appeals.
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