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Conflict of Laws Keyed to Brilmayer
Alabama Great Southern Railroad v. Carroll
Citation:
97 Ala. 126, 11 So. 803 (1892)Facts
Defendant, the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company (the Railroad), was an Alabama corporation that operated a railroad extending from Tennessee through Alabama to Mississippi. Plaintiff, W.D. Carroll, was an Alabama citizen and an employee of the Railroad, who worked as a brakeman on freight trains running from Birmingham, Alabama to Meridian, Mississippi. His employment contract was made in the state of Alabama.
Carroll was injured on a freight train that was running from Alabama to Mississippi when a link between two cars broke. Carroll was injured in Mississippi, but he argued that the cause of his injury occurred in Alabama. This is because evidence showed that the link was in defective condition when the train left Birmingham. It was the duty of certain train employees of the Railroad to inspect the links attached to train cars while the trains were at Chattanooga and Birmingham. It was the duty of the train conductor and the other trainmen to maintain such inspections as needed throughout the freight train’s trips. The defective link at issue was missed due to the negligent omission on the part of the Railroad’s employees who failed to perform their duty of inspecting the links.
Carroll brought suit against the Railroad in Alabama state court, arguing that Alabama law applied even if Carroll were working outside of the state of Alabama. If Mississippi law were applied, then the Railroad would not be liable for Carroll’s injury because of the Mississippi rule that a master is not liable for harm to a servant caused by a fellow servant. A jury decided in favor of Carroll, and the Railroad appealed.
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