U.S Supreme Court knocks down CSX’s assault on the Jones Act

Late last month, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an attempt by CSX Corp. to do away with the Jones Act standard of causation.

On June 24^th, the Court ruled in CSX Transportation, Inc. v. McBride to uphold a 1957 interpretation of the issue of causation in both the Federal Employer’s Liability Act (“FELA”) and the Jones Act whereby an employer is liable for damages if that employer’s negligence contributed in any way to an injury to a railroad worker or seaman. This standard is more liberal than the common law rule of “proximate causation” and prevents companies from avoiding liability by claiming that employer negligence was not an immediate of direct cause of the injury.

This case was a victory for seamen who have relied on Jones Act protection to hold ship owners accountable for their negligence.

View the case in our article library here.