Dale Ross v. Great Northern Railway Company, a Corporation

Appellant sued appellee in two causes of action for serious personal injuries. The first cause of action was based on the Federal Employers’ Liability Act ( 45 U.S.C. §§ 5 and 51 et seq.), herein sometimes referred to as “F.E.L.A.” The second cause of action was a common law action for negligence. Both were submitted to a jury, which found, in answers to special interrogatories: That Great Northern Railway was negligent; that such negligence was a proximate cause of appellant’s fall and injuries; that Spokane International Railroad was not negligent; that appellant himself was not negligent; that the appellant was not an employee of either defendant; that appellant sustained damages in the sum of $20,000.

The F.E.L.A. thus being out of the case, the trial judge (as he had strongly indicated he would do when he submitted the issue of employment to the jury) granted a judgment notwithstanding the verdict to the defendant Great Northern Railway Company.

The sole question on appeal is whether the jury verdict was properly set aside and whether the judgment notwithstanding the verdict was properly entered. This was a diversity case ( 28 U.S.C. § 1332 ), if not an F.E.L.A. case ( 28…