Byrd v. Blue Ridge Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc./Dissent Harlan

by John Marshall Harlan II

United States Supreme Court

356 U.S. 525

Byrd  v.  Blue Ridge Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc.

 Argued: April 28, 29, 1958. --- Decided: May 19, 1958

Mr. Justice HARLAN, dissenting.

I join in Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER'S dissenting opinion, but desire to add two further reasons why I believe the judgment of the Court of Appeals should be affirmed. As I read that court's opinion, it held that under South Carolina law the construction of facilities needed to transmit electric power was necessarily a part of the business of furnishing power, whether such construction was performed by the respondent itself or let out to others, and that in either case respondent would be liable to petitioner for compensation as his statutory employer. Since there is no dispute that respondent at the time of the accident was engaged in the business of furnishing power and that petitioner was injured while engaged in construction in furtherance of that business, I do not perceive how any further evidence which might be adduced by petitioner could change the result reached by the Court of Appeals. In any event, in the circumstances disclosed by the record before us, we should at the very least require petitioner to make some showing here of the character of the further evidence he expects to introduce before we disturb the judgment below.

Notes