568
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
This conclusion, "an easy one" for the Court, ante, at 550, is informed by prior decisions giving full scope to the FELA's term "injury." The Court had explained in Urie that an occupational disease incurred in the course of employment— silicosis in that particular case—is as much "injury . . . as scalding from a boiler's explosion." 337 U. S., at 187. Rejecting a reading of the statute that would confine coverage to "accidental injury" of the kind that particularly prompted the 1908 Congress to enact the FELA, the Court said of the occupational disease at issue:
"[W]hen the employer's negligence impairs or destroys an employee's health by requiring him to work under conditions likely to bring about such harmful consequences, the injury to the employee is just as great when it follows, often inevitably, from a carrier's negligent course pursued over an extended period of time as when it comes with the suddenness of lightning." Id., at 186-187.
Similarly, as the Court recognizes today, " 'severe emotional injuries can be just as debilitating as physical injuries,' " hence there is "no reason why emotional injury should not be held to be encompassed within th[e] term ['injury']." Ante, at 550, quoting Gottshall, 988 F. 2d, at 361.
In my view, the Court of Appeals correctly determined that Gottshall's submissions should survive Conrail's motion for summary judgment, and that the jury's verdict in favor of Carlisle should stand. Both workers suffered severe injury on the job, and plausibly tied their afflictions to Conrail's negligence. Both experienced not just emotional, but also physical, distress: Gottshall lost 40 pounds and suffered from insomnia, physical weakness, and cold sweats, while Carlisle experienced "insomnia, fatigue, headaches, . . . sleepwalking and substantial weight-loss." Id., at 374; 990 F. 2d, at 92, 97, n. 11. The Court emphasizes the "significant role" that "common-law principles must play." Ante, at 544. Notably
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