Today in Supreme Court History: October 13

Moore v. Terminal Railroad Ass’n of St. Louis, 358 U.S. 31 (decided October 13, 1958): Court, without opinion, reverses Missouri Supreme Court and upholds jury verdict that railroad company had share of negligence in accident where plaintiff, a baggage handler operating a “hand cart” (remember those in old movies?), was crushed against a train when another train backed into the cart; Frankfurter dissents on “sole cause” doctrine; Whittaker (a nervous wreck who didn’t last long on the Court) holds himself together long enough to write a longer dissent, noting that collision happened only because plaintiff turned his cart the wrong way (no mention of whether the cart was damaged, which means plaintiff was white -- remember the quicksand scene in “Blazing Saddles”?)

Ziang Sung Wan v. United States, 266 U.S. 1 (decided October 13, 1924): confession to murder was not made voluntarily and should have been excluded; rejects presumption that a confession is voluntary so long as not “induced by promise or threat” (this is of course pre-Miranda); defendant, already in ill health due to earlier bout with “Spanish flu”, had been held incommunicado and interrogated for 13 straight days and when prison doctor saw him had to be removed to “the Red Cross room”