John R. Carney v. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company, a Corporation

Essential to the majority decision is the conclusion that a Young Men’s Christian Association, in furnishing lodging to employees of the defendant railroad, acted as an “agent” of the railroad within the meaning of section 1 of the F.E.L.A.1 Otherwise, the railroad could not be held liable for negligence of the Y.M.C.A. in improperly making up the bed from which plaintiff fell in his sleep.2 I am unable to agree that the Y.M.C.A. was the railroad’s “agent”, as that term is used in the controlling statute.

The leading case is Sinkler v. Missouri Pacific R. R. Co., 1958, 356 U.S. 326, 78 S.Ct.…