Louisville & Nashville RR v. Atkins

This is an appeal by the defendant, Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, from the grant of a new trial in an action brought against it by one of its employees under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA). We remand with directions.

The facts surrounding the injury are straightforward and require little amplification. Plaintiff was a head brakeman working on a switching crew and, while standing on a switch tie, made a misstep, lost his footing, and fell into an adjacent drainage ditch. The gist of his negligence claim against the railroad was that it had failed to provide him with a…