560
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
concern should not control in the context of the FELA, as I see it, for the class of potential plaintiffs under the FELA is not the public at large; the Act covers only railroad workers who sustain injuries on the job. In view of the broad language of the Act,1 and this Court's repeated reminders that the FELA is to be liberally construed, I cannot regard as faithful to the legislation and our case law under it the restrictive test announced in the Court's opinion.
I
The FELA was designed to provide a federal "statutory negligence action . . . significantly different from the ordinary common-law negligence action." Rogers v. Missouri Pacific R. Co., 352 U. S. 500, 509-510 (1957). An "avowed departure" from prevailing common-law rules, Sinkler v. Missouri Pacific R. Co., 356 U. S. 326, 329 (1958), the Act advanced twin purposes: "to eliminate a number of traditional defenses to tort liability and to facilitate recovery in meritorious cases." Buell, supra, at 561.2 "Congress intended the creation of no static remedy, but one which would be developed and enlarged to meet changing conditions and changing concepts of industry's duty toward its workers." Kernan v. American Dredging Co., 355 U. S. 426, 432 (1958). Relying upon "the breadth of the statutory language, [and] the Act's humanitarian purposes," this Court has accorded the FELA a notably "liberal construction in order to accom-1 Section 1 of the FELA provides, in relevant part, that "[e]very common carrier by railroad . . . shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such carrier . . . [when such injury results] in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier." 45 U. S. C. § 51.
2 The FELA, as enacted in 1908, abolished the employer's "fellow servant" defense and provided that an employee's negligence would not bar, but only reduce, recovery; the Act further prohibited employers from exempting themselves contractually from statutory liability. §§ 51, 53, 55. As amended in 1939, the Act also abolished the employer's assumption of risk defense. § 54.
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