## Facts

- Alfred Robinson worked for Pennsylvania Railroad as a carpenter-foreman supervising bridge and related maintenance crews.
- The railroad was an interstate carrier whose single track beneath the Wyoming Avenue bridge in Philadelphia carried interstate rail movements.
- Robinson’s crew resurfaced the Wyoming Avenue bridge, which carried vehicular and pedestrian traffic over the railroad track.
- Robinson began the bridge assignment on October 17, 1949, and remained on it until December 5, 1949 (about seven weeks).
- Robinson was injured when he fell from the bridge to the ground below while performing this work.
- There was no proof that vehicular traffic on the bridge itself was interstate; it was treated as intrastate.
- Robinson sued under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) and obtained a jury verdict and judgment.
- The railroad moved post-trial for judgment in its favor, arguing lack of FELA coverage and thus lack of federal jurisdiction; the district court denied the motion, and the railroad appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether Robinson was “employed by such carrier in such commerce” under FELA when injured while working on an intrastate vehicular bridge that crossed over interstate railroad traffic.
2. Whether, after the 1939 FELA amendment, an employee’s regular mixed interstate and intrastate duties can support FELA coverage despite a temporary intrastate assignment of several weeks.

## Decision

- The Third Circuit affirmed the judgment for Robinson.
- The court held Robinson was covered by FELA as amended, so federal subject-matter jurisdiction existed.
- The court rejected the railroad’s reliance on pre-amendment authority that applied a narrower, task-specific test for interstate commerce employment.
- The court accepted that a seven-week intrastate assignment did not make Robinson exclusively an intrastate employee where his regular employment included work connected to interstate rail operations.

## Legal Principles

- Under FELA as amended in 1939, coverage is not limited to employees engaged in interstate transportation at the moment of injury; coverage may turn on whether the employee’s duties, viewed in the course of employment, include work that furthers interstate commerce.
- An employee whose regular work includes substantial duties connected to an interstate rail carrier’s operations does not lose FELA coverage solely because of a temporary assignment to intrastate work.
- Pre-1939, narrow “moment-of-injury” commerce tests have reduced force after the 1939 expansion of FELA coverage.

## Conclusion

The Third Circuit upheld a FELA verdict where a railroad carpenter-foreman was injured during a temporary intrastate bridge assignment, concluding that his regular duties sufficiently furthered interstate rail commerce to bring him within FELA and to support federal jurisdiction.


Robinson v. Pennsylvania R.R. Co., 214 F.2d 798 (3d Cir. 1954)