410
Opinion of the Court
sylvania car had not been properly opened,' the railroad had a good defense." 339 U. S., at 99.13
In Carter, we similarly conditioned the duty on the coupler's being "properly set." 338 U. S., at 434; see O'Donnell, supra, at 394, n. 7 (declining to consider "a situation where an adequate coupler failed to hold because it was improperly set").
In Affolder, we predicated failure-to-perform liability on placing the coupler "in a position to operate on impact." 339 U. S., at 99. We implicitly recognized that certain preliminary steps, such as ensuring that the knuckle is open, are necessary to proper performance of the coupler and that a failure to couple will not constitute an SAA violation if the railroad can show that the coupler had not been placed in a position to automatically couple. Though Affolder involved a claimed closed knuckle, its language was not so limited and, as a matter of common sense, could not have been. Hiles could not reasonably complain that an otherwise working electrical appliance failed to perform if he had neglected to plug in the power cord. Similarly, a court cannot reasonably find as a matter of law that an otherwise nondefective coupler has failed to perform when the drawbar has not been placed "in a position to operate on impact." We think Affolder's restriction on failure-to-perform liability logically extends to every step necessary to prepare a nondefective coupler for coupling, see supra, at 404-405 (describing the ordinary process of preparing for an automatic coupling), including ensuring proper alignment of the drawbar.14
13 Justice Jackson, dissenting on other grounds, agreed: "Before a failure to couple establishes a defective coupler, it must be found that it was properly set so it could couple. If it was not adjusted as such automatic couplers must be, of course the failure is not that of the device." Affolder, 339 U. S., at 101.
14 Our holding that Affolder's restriction on liability extends to mis-aligned drawbars suggests that, at least in this case, the absence of a failed coupling attempt is of no consequence. On this record, Hiles would not
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007