Thiel v. Southern Pacific Co.

Thiel (plaintiff) jumped from a moving passenger train operated by Southern Pacific Company (defendant) and sued, alleging he was mentally incompetent to board the train and that Southern Pacific should not have let him board or should have guarded him once aboard. When the jury was empaneled, Thiel moved to strike it entirely, arguing the jurors were all business executives or business-sympathetic, several affiliated with Southern Pacific, and thus unable to be impartial; the court denied the motion, and after the jury found for Southern Pacific and post-trial motions were denied, the court of appeals affirmed, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari on whether the motion to strike was properly denied.