Byrd v. Blue Ridge Rural Electric Cooperative
United States Supreme Court
356 U.S. 525 (1958)
Byrd (plaintiff), an independent contractor injured on the job for Blue Ridge Rural Electric Cooperative (defendant), sued for negligence; Blue Ridge argued Byrd actually qualified as a "statutory employee" under the South Carolina Workmen's Compensation Act, which would bar his lawsuit and limit him to statutory compensation benefits instead. Under South Carolina practice, a judge alone would decide whether Byrd qualified as a statutory employee, while federal practice would send that factual question to the jury; the trial court followed the state practice and let the judge decide, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Whether, in a federal diversity case, the federal policy of having a jury resolve disputed questions of fact prevails over a conflicting state rule that would assign that same factual question to the judge instead.