absolute duty
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 331 U.S. 477 - Myers v. Reading Co. · 1947Most cited · 374 citing opinions
Safety Appliance Acts · construing 49 U.S.C. § 20301 · Safety Appliance Act
The statutory liability is not based upon the carrier's negligence. The duty imposed is an absolute one, and the carrier is not excused by any showing of care, however assiduous.
How the Supreme Court has restated “absolute duty”
Each Supreme Court definition of “absolute duty,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “absolute duty”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “absolute duty” — 841 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1934–1947
- ORIGINAL
Sections 1 and 9 of the safety Appliance Act converts this qualified duty imposed by the common law into an absolute duty, from the violation of which there arises a liability for an injury resulting therefrom to any person falling within the terms and intent of the act.
The statutory liability is not based upon the carrier's negligence. The duty imposed is an absolute one, and the carrier is not excused by any showing of care, however assiduous.