## Facts

- Rogers worked on a Missouri Pacific section gang along a double-track line near Garner, Arkansas, with narrow paths beside ballast and sloped embankments covered by chemically killed vegetation.
- The foreman assigned Rogers, for the first time, to burn weeds and vegetation using a crude hand torch along the west path and partway down the west slope.
- The gang was instructed that when trains passed, they must stop work, move clear of the tracks and ties, and watch the train for hotboxes (overheated journals).
- As Rogers worked near a culvert, a train approached; Rogers moved to comply with the hotbox-watching instruction, stepping onto or near the culvert area on sloped, vegetation-covered ground.
- Rogers fell from the culvert down an embankment about 8–10 feet and sustained serious back injuries.
- Rogers sued under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA), alleging the railroad’s negligence in the manner and location of the assignment contributed to the fall.
- A Missouri jury returned a verdict for Rogers; the Missouri Supreme Court reversed for insufficient evidence of employer liability.

## Issues

1. Under FELA, what standard governs whether the evidence is sufficient to submit causation and negligence to the jury.
2. Whether the state court improperly displaced the jury’s role by setting aside the verdict where reasonable jurors could find the railroad’s negligence contributed to the injury.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the Missouri Supreme Court and reinstated the propriety of the jury verdict for Rogers.
- The Court held that a FELA case must go to the jury if the evidence reasonably supports that the employer’s negligence played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury.
- Applying that standard, the Court found sufficient evidence for the jury to infer negligence from the work assignment, the conditions near the culvert and embankment, and the operational instruction to watch the passing train while positioned in a hazardous area.

## Legal Principles

- Under FELA, the causation standard for jury submission is satisfied if the proofs reasonably justify the conclusion that employer negligence played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury.
- Judicial removal of a FELA case from the jury is permitted only in the infrequent instance where fair-minded jurors cannot honestly differ that employer fault played no part in the injury.
- Courts reviewing sufficiency may not reweigh competing inferences where the record provides a reasonable basis for the jury’s finding of employer contribution to the harm.

## Conclusion

The Court held that FELA strongly protects the jury’s role on causation and liability, requiring submission to the jury whenever the evidence permits a reasonable finding that the railroad’s negligence contributed in any degree to the employee’s injury, and it reversed the state court for overturning the jury’s verdict on sufficiency grounds.


Rogers v. Mo. Pac. R.R. Co., 352 U.S. 500 (1957)