## Facts

- John Baugh worked as a fireman for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company on a “helper” locomotive operated by engineer Hite.
- The helper assisted freight trains over grades, then returned alone to Bellaire, Ohio.
- Company rules allowed the helper to return either (1) under special orders from the dispatcher or (2) by “flagging back” behind a regular scheduled train using signals.
- The helper returned without special orders and not behind any scheduled train.
- The helper collided with a regular local train, injuring Baugh.
- Baugh had worked for the railroad about a year, served as a fireman about six months, and had run this helper route for about two months; he knew the helper had to keep out of the way of trains and was familiar with flagging back.
- Baugh alleged the collision resulted from Hite’s negligence in disobeying the return rules.

## Issues

1. Whether the fellow-servant question in this employee-injury suit was governed by state (local) law or by general law applied in federal courts.
2. Whether an engineer and fireman operating a locomotive running alone (without any train attached) are fellow servants, barring the fireman’s recovery from the railroad for the engineer’s negligence.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court held the fellow-servant question was one of general law, not controlled by Ohio decisions.
- The Court held the engineer and fireman, under these circumstances, were fellow servants.
- Because Baugh’s injury was attributed to a fellow servant’s negligence, the railroad was not liable.
- The Court reversed the judgment for Baugh, concluding the railroad’s motion for a nonsuit should have been granted.

## Legal Principles

- In federal courts of that era, the liability of a railroad for employee injuries and the classification of employees as fellow servants were treated as questions of general law, to be decided by general common-law principles rather than state decisional law.
- Employees engaged together in operating the same locomotive in the course of transportation, without a relation of corporate management or delegated “master” authority, are fellow servants.
- A railroad is not liable to one employee for injuries caused solely by the negligence of another employee who is a fellow servant in the same common employment.
- A prior rule treating certain supervisory personnel as representing the company (and thus not fellow servants) was limited; an engineer’s operational control of a locomotive does not, by itself, make the engineer a vice-principal as to a fireman.

## Conclusion

The Court ruled that an engineer and fireman operating a lone locomotive are fellow servants under general law, so the railroad could not be held liable for the fireman’s injuries caused by the engineer’s alleged operational negligence, requiring reversal of the employee’s verdict.


Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Co. v. Baugh, 149 U.S. 368 (1893)