Southern Pacific Company v. Hubbard

This is a suit by an employee against a railroad under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act to recover damages for personal injuries. The only issue on appeal concerns improper argument to the trial jury made by the attorney for the employee.

Price M. Hubbard respondent, was a mechanic boilermaker employed by the Southern Pacific Company, petitioner, in its maintenance department at El Paso, Texas. He had worked as a boilermaker for the railroad company for sixteen years. In 1941 he sustained a back injury which caused him severe pain until he submitted to an operation in 1943 to fuse the last…