554
Opinion of the Court
Finally, the Third Circuit in Carlisle erred in upholding "a claim under the FELA for negligent infliction of emotional distress arising from work-related stress." 990 F. 2d, at 97- 98. We find no support in the common law for this unprecedented holding, which would impose a duty to avoid creating a stressful work environment, and thereby dramatically expand employers' FELA liability to cover the stresses and strains of everyday employment. Indeed, the Third Circuit's ruling would tend to make railroads the insurers of the emotional well-being and mental health of their employees. We have made clear, however, that FELA is not an insurance statute. See, e. g., Ellis, 329 U. S., at 653. For the foregoing reasons, we reject the Third Circuit's approach.
C
Conrail suggests that we adopt the common-law zone of danger test as delimiting the proper scope of an employer's duty under FELA to avoid subjecting its employees to negligently inflicted emotional injury. We agree that the zone of danger test best reconciles the concerns of the common law with the principles underlying our FELA jurisprudence.
As we did in Monessen, we begin with the state of the common law in 1908, when FELA was enacted. In determining in Monessen whether prejudgment interest was available under FELA, we recognized that the common law in 1908 did not allow such interest in personal injury and wrongful-death suits. Because in enacting FELA, "Congress expressly dispensed with other common-law doctrines of that era, such as the defense of contributory negligence," but "did not deal at all with the equally well established doctrine barring the recovery of prejudgment interest," we concluded that Congress intended to leave the common-law rule intact. 486 U. S., at 337-338. In contrast, the right to recover for negligently inflicted emotional distress was well established in many jurisdictions in 1908. Although at that time, "the weight of American authority" favored the physi-
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