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Just over one century ago, in 1908, the United States Congress passed an exclusive federal statute to cover railroad workers injured on the job while working at the railroad. This law is called the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, and is commonly referred to as FELA. It is cited in the United States Code as 45 USC §51-60.

Even though some modifications were made to the FELA during the last century, including portions of the FELA that embrace the Federal Safety Appliance Act (SAA) and the Federal Boiler Inspection Act (BIA), the FELA law today is essentially the same as it was yesterday, because as recently as June 23, 2011, the United States Supreme Court in the case of CSX TRANSPORTATION INC. v. McBRIDE , 564 U.S. ___ (2011) rendered a 5-4 decision upholding without change the rights of railroaders to fully recover for on the job injuries they sustain in the line of duty.

In McBride the court found that the railroad at which a man or woman is working when they are hurt, is liable to their employee for the injuries sustained, that are due “in whole or in part” from the railroad’s negligence.

The FELA has been applied by all of our courts, both state and federal, within every state of the United States as well as the District of Columbia. The FELA law was specifically designed by Congress to give railroad workers, regardless of whether they are engineers, conductors, brakemen, trainmen, switchmen, trackmen, carmen, mechanics, electricians, or any other type of rail laborer, the right to obtain full, fair, and complete compensation for all injuries sustained on-the-job. The FELA has provisions to pay for all losses sustained, including physical pain and suffering, mental pain and anguish, permanent disability, past loss of income, future loss of income, loss of earning capacity, together with any other harm that can be attributed to the railroad employer under the FELA.

In order to bind the railroad, as the FELA employer, the carrier, regardless of whether it is a freight or passenger railroad, must be engaged in interstate commerce. Under the FELA the employing railroad will be held monetarily responsible to the hurt railroader if it did not provide a safe place to work, proper tools or equipment, proper supervision or warnings about dangers in the workplace.

Railroad workers should understand that the FELA is their exclusive remedy and they do not have a right to bring a workman’s compensation case in the state where they are injured, nor can they bring a suit in tort under the state negligence laws of any state. The FELA is a railroad worker’s sole and exclusive remedy to recover for losses due to an on-the-job injury against the employing railroad.

It is also imperative that railroad workers fully understand that as a railroader making a claim under the FELA, any fault on his or her part will reduce the value of their case for injury by the percentage of fault that a judge or jury finds attributable to the employee. So, if a railroad worker is hurt under the FELA and he or she is found to be 10% at fault, while the railroad is found to be 90% at fault, the total value of the case is reduced by 10%.

Railroad workers also enjoy the option of choosing whether to bring their cases under the FELA, in either State or Federal court, and the railroad employer does not have the right to remove the case to another court of its choice under the provisions of FELA.