Cite as: 538 U. S. 135 (2003)
Syllabus
actor is answerable in damages under the common law for emotional disturbance resulting from that harm or from the conduct which causes it. Given the acknowledgment by Norfolk's expert that asbestosis puts a worker in a heightened risk category for asbestos-related lung cancer, as well as the undisputed testimony of the asbestosis claimants' expert that some ten percent of asbestosis sufferers have died of mesothelioma, the claimants would have good cause for increased apprehension about their vulnerability to cancer. Although Metro-North stressed that holding employers liable to workers merely exposed to asbestos would risk "unlimited and unpredictable liability," 521 U. S., at 435, that decision sharply distinguished exposure-only plaintiffs from those who suffer from a disease, and stated, unambiguously, that the common law permits emotional distress recovery for the latter category, e. g., id., at 436. The categorical exclusion of exposure-only claimants reduces the universe of potential claimants to numbers neither "unlimited" nor "un-predictable," for, of those exposed to asbestos, only a small fraction will develop asbestosis. Pp. 148-157.
(c) The Court affirms the qualification of an asbestosis sufferer to seek compensation for fear of cancer as an element of his asbestosis-related pain and suffering damages, but with an important reservation. It is incumbent upon the complainant to prove that his alleged fear is genuine and serious. In this case, proof directed to that matter was notably thin, and might well have succumbed to a straightforward sufficiency-of-the-evidence objection, had Norfolk so targeted its attack. But Norfolk, instead, sought categorical exclusion of cancer-fear damages for asbestosis claimants. This Court, moreover, did not grant review to judge the sufficiency of the evidence or the reasonableness of the damages awards. Pp. 157-159.
2. The FELA's express terms, reinforced by consistent judicial applications of the Act, allow a worker to recover his entire damages from a railroad whose negligence jointly caused an injury, thus placing on the railroad the burden of seeking contribution from other potential tortfeasors. Pp. 159-166.
(a) The statutory language supports the trial court's understanding that the FELA does not provide for apportionment of damages between railroad and nonrailroad causes. Section 1 of the Act makes common carrier railroads "liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such carrier in such commerce . . . for such injury . . . resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of such carrier." 45 U. S. C. § 51. The claimants here suffer from asbestosis (an "injury"), which is linked to their employment with Norfolk and "result[ed] in whole or in part from . . . negligence" by Norfolk. Norfolk is therefore "liable in damages . . . for such injury." Nothing in the statutory text
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