Consolidated Rail Corporation v. Gottshall, 512 U.S. 532, 39 (1994)

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570

CONSOLIDATED RAIL CORPORATION v. GOTTSHALL

Ginsburg, J., dissenting

tells us that the "zone" test never held sway in a majority of States.

Moreover, the Court never decides firmly on the point of reference, present or historical, from which to evaluate the relative support the different common-law rules have enjoyed. If the Court regarded as decisive the degree of support a rule currently enjoys among state courts, the Court would allow bystander recovery, permitted in some form in "nearly half the States." Ante, at 549. But cf. ante, at 556 (bystander rule "was not developed until 60 years after FELA's enactment, and therefore lacks historical support"). If, on the other hand, the Court decided that historical support carried the day, then the impact rule, preferred by most jurisdictions in 1908, would be the Court's choice. But cf. ibid. (preferring the zone of danger test to the impact rule, because, inter alia, the latter "has considerably less support in the current state of the common law" than the former).

The Court further maintains that the zone of danger test is preferable because it is "consistent with FELA's central focus on physical perils." Ante, at 555. But, as already underscored, see supra, at 561, the FELA's language "is as broad as could be framed . . . . On its face, every injury suffered [on the job] by any employee . . . by reason of the carrier's negligence was made compensable." Urie, 337 U. S., at 181. And the FELA's strikingly broad language, characteristically, "has been construed even more broadly," in line with Congress' dominant remedial objective. Buell, 480 U. S., at 562; Urie, supra, at 181 ("[N]othing in either the language or the legislative history discloses expressly any intent to exclude from the Act's coverage any injury resulting 'in whole or in part from the negligence' of the carrier").

The Court's principal reason for restricting the FELA's coverage of emotional distress claims is its fear of "infinite liability" to an "infinite number of persons." See ante, at 552; see also ante, at 557 (referring to "the specter of unlimited and unpredictable liability," and stating that "the fear of unlimited liability . . . [is] well founded"). The universe

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