538 U.S. 135 (2003)

NORFOLK & WESTERN RAILWAY CO.
v.
AYERS ET AL.

No. 01-963.

Supreme Court of United States.

Argued November 6, 2002. Decided March 10, 2003. CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF KANAWHA COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA.

*136 *137 *138 *139 GINSBURG, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court with respect to Parts I, II, and IV, and the opinion of the Court with respect to Part III, in which STEVENS, SCALIA, SOUTER, and THOMAS, JJ., joined. KENNEDY, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which REHNQUIST, C. J., and O'CONNOR and BREYER, JJ., joined, post, p. 166. BREYER, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, post, p. 182.

Carter G. Phillips argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Stephen B. Kinnaird, Fred Adkins, Rodney L. Baker II, and Laura D. Hunt.

David B. Salmons argued the cause pro hac vice for the United States as amicus curiae urging reversal. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Olson, Assistant Attorney General McCallum, Deputy Solicitor General Clement, Anthony J. Steinmeyer, and Peter R. Maier.

Richard J. Lazarus argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were James A. McKowen, James H. Rion, Jr., and Lawrence M. Mann.^[*]

*140 JUSTICE GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA or Act), 35 Stat. 65, as amended, 45 U. S. C. §§ 51-60, makes common carrier railroads liable in damages to employees who suffer work-related injuries caused "in whole or in part" by the railroad's negligence. This case, brought against Norfolk & Western Railway Company (Norfolk) by six former employees now suffering from asbestosis (asbestosis claimants), presents two issues involving the FELA's application. The first issue concerns the damages recoverable by a railroad worker who suffers from the disease asbestosis: When the cause of that disease, in whole or in part, was exposure to asbestos while on the job, may the worker's recovery for his asbestosis-related "pain and suffering" include damages for fear of developing cancer?

The second issue concerns the extent of the railroad's liability when third parties not before the court — for example, prior or subsequent employers or asbestos manufacturers or suppliers — may have contributed to the worker's injury. Is the railroad answerable in full to the employee, so that pursuit of contribution or indemnity from other potentially liable enterprises is the railroad's sole damages-award-sharing recourse? Or is the railroad initially entitled to an apportionment among injury-causing tortfeasors, i. e., a division of *141 damages limiting the railroad's liability to the injured employee to a proportionate share?

In resolving the first issue, we follow the line drawn by Metro-North Commuter R. Co. v. Buckley, 521 U. S. 424 (1997), a decision that relied on and complemented Consolidated Rail Corporation v. Gottshall, 512 U. S. 532 (1994). In Metro-North, we held that emotional distress damages may not be recovered under the FELA by disease-free asbestos-exposed workers; in contrast, we observed, workers who "suffe[r] from a disease" (here, asbestosis) may "recover for related negligently caused emotional distress." 521 U. S., at 432. We decline to blur, blend, or reconfigure our FELA jurisprudence in the manner urged by the petitioner; instead, we adhere to the clear line our recent decisions delineate. Accordingly, we hold that mental anguish damages resulting from the fear of developing cancer may be recovered under the FELA by a railroad worker suffering from the actionable injury asbestosis caused by work-related exposure to asbestos.

As to the second issue, we similarly decline to write new law by requiring an initial apportionment of damages among potential tortfeasors. The FELA's express terms, reinforced by consistent judicial applications of the Act, allow a worker to recover his entire damages from a railroad whose negligence jointly caused an injury (here, the chronic disease asbestosis), thus placing on the railroad the burden of seeking contribution from other tortfeasors.

I

The asbestosis claimants (plaintiffs below, respondents here) brought this FELA action against their former employer, Norfolk, in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County, West Virginia.^[1] Norfolk, they alleged, negligently exposed them to asbestos, which caused them to contract the occupational *142 disease asbestosis. App. 17-20.^[2] As an element of their occupational disease damages, the asbestosis claimants sought recovery for mental anguish based on their fear of developing cancer. Id., at 21.

Before trial, Norfolk moved to exclude all evidence referring to cancer as irrelevant and prejudicial. Id., at 52-53. The trial court denied the motion, Tr. 251 (Apr. 14, 1998), and the asbestosis claimants placed before the jury extensive evidence relating to cancer, including expert testimony that asbestosis sufferers with smoking histories have a significantly increased risk of developing lung cancer.^[3] (Of the six asbestosis claimants, five had smoking histories, and two persisted in smoking even after their asbestosis diagnosis. App. 265, 336-337.) Asbestosis sufferers — workers whose exposure to asbestos has manifested itself in a chronic disease — the jury also heard, have a significant (one in ten) risk of dying of mesothelioma, a fatal cancer of the lining of the lung or abdominal cavity. Id., at 92-97 (asbestosis claimants' expert); id., at 472 (Norfolk's expert) (nine or ten percent).^[4]

*143 Concluding that no asbestosis claimant had shown he was reasonably certain to develop cancer, the trial court instructed the jury that damages could not be awarded to any claimant "for cancer or any increased risk of cancer." Id., at 573. The testimony about cancer, the court explained, was relevant "only to judge the genuineness of plaintiffs' claims of fear of developing cancer." Ibid. On that score, the court charged:

"[A]ny plaintiff who has demonstrated that he has developed a reasonable fear of cancer that is related to proven physical injury from asbestos is entitled to be compensated for that fear as a part of the damages you may award for pain and suffering." Ibid.

In so instructing the jury, the court rejected Norfolk's proposed instruction, which would have ruled out damages for an asbestosis sufferer's fear of cancer, unless the claimant proved both "an actual likelihood of developing cancer" and "physical manifestations" of the alleged fear. See id., at 548.

The trial court also refused Norfolk's request to instruct the jury to apportion damages between Norfolk and other employers alleged to have contributed to an asbestosis claimant's disease. Id., at 539.^[5] Two of the claimants had significant exposure to asbestos while working for other employers: Carl Butler, exposed to asbestos at Norfolk for only three months, worked with asbestos elsewhere as a pipefitter for 33 years, id., at 250, 252, 375; Freeman Ayers was exposed to asbestos for several years while working at auto-body *144 shops, id., at 274-275. In awarding damages, the trial court charged, the jury was "not to make a deduction for the contribution of non-railroad exposures," so long as it found that Norfolk was negligent and that "dust exposures at [Norfolk] contributed, however slightly, to the plaintiff's injuries." Id., at 570.^[6]

The jury returned total damages awards for each asbestosis claimant, ranging from $770,000 to $1.2 million. Id., at 578-589. After reduction for three claimants' comparative negligence from smoking and for settlements with non-FELA entities, the final judgments amounted to approximately $4.9 million. Id., at 590-613. It is impossible to look behind those judgments to determine the amount the jury awarded for any particular element of damages. Norfolk, although it could have done so, see W. Va. Rule Civ. Proc. 49 (1998), did not endeavor to clarify the jury's damages determinations; it did not seek a special verdict or interrogatory calling upon the jury to report, separately, its assessments, if any, for fear-of-cancer damages.

The trial court denied Norfolk's motion for a new trial, App. to Pet. for Cert. 4a, and the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia denied Norfolk's request for discretionary review, id., at 1a-2a. We granted certiorari, 535 U. S. 969 (2002), and now affirm.

II

Section 1 of the FELA renders common carrier railroads "liable in damages to any person suffering injury while ... employed by [the] carrier" if the "injury or death result[ed] in whole or in part from the [carrier's] negligence." *145 45 U. S. C. § 51. Enacted in 1908, Congress designed the FELA to "shif[t] part of the `human overhead' of doing business from employees to their employers." Gottshall, 512 U. S., at 542 (quoting Tiller v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 318 U. S. 54, 58 (1943)). "[T]o further [the Act's] humanitarian purposes, Congress did away with several common-law tort defenses that had effectively barred recovery by injured workers." Gottshall, 512 U. S., at 542. As cataloged in Gottshall, the FELA "abolished the fellow servant rule"; "rejected the doctrine of contributory negligence in favor of ... comparative negligence"; "prohibited employers from exempting themselves from [the] FELA through contract"; and, in a 1939 amendment, "abolished the assumption of risk defense." Id., at 542-543; see 45 U. S. C. §§ 51-55. "Only to the extent of these explicit statutory alterations," however, "is [the] FELA `an avowed departure from the rules of the common law.'" Gottshall, 512 U. S., at 544 (quoting Sinkler v. Missouri Pacific R. Co., 356 U. S. 326, 329 (1958)). When the Court confronts a dispute regarding what injuries are compensable under the statute, Gottshall instructs, common-law principles "are entitled to great weight in our analysis." 512 U. S., at 544; see id., at 558 (SOUTER, J., concurring) (The Court's duty "is to develop a federal common law of negligence under FELA, informed by reference to the evolving common law.").

III

A

We turn first to the question whether the trial judge correctly stated the law when he charged the jury that an asbestosis claimant, upon demonstrating a reasonable fear of cancer stemming from his present disease, could recover for that fear as part of asbestosis-related pain and suffering damages. See supra, at 143. In answering this question, we follow the path marked by the Court's decisions in Consolidated *146 Rail Corporation v. Gottshall, 512 U.S. 532 (1994), and Metro-North Commuter R. Co. v. Buckley, 521 U.S. 424 (1997).

The FELA plaintiff in Gottshall alleged that he witnessed the death of a co-worker while on the job, and that the episode caused him severe emotional distress. 512 U. S., at 536-537. He sought to recover damages from his employer, Conrail, for "mental or emotional harm ... not directly brought about by a physical injury." Id., at 544.

Reversing the Court of Appeals' judgment in favor of the plaintiff, this Court stated that uncabined recognition of claims for negligently inflicted emotional distress would "hol[d] out the very real possibility of nearly infinite and unpredictable liability for defendants." Id., at 546. Of the "limiting tests ... developed in the common law," ibid., the Court selected the zone-of-danger test to delineate "the proper scope of an employer's duty under [the] FELA to avoid subjecting its employees to negligently inflicted emotional injury," id., at 554. That test confines recovery for stand-alone emotional distress claims to plaintiffs who: (1) "sustain a physical impact as a result of a defendant's negligent conduct"; or (2) "are placed in immediate risk of physical harm by that conduct"—that is, those who escaped instant physical harm, but were "within the zone of danger of physical impact." Id., at 547-548 (internal quotation marks omitted). The Court remanded Gottshall for reconsideration under the zone-of-danger test. Id., at 558.

In Metro-North, the Court applied the zone-of-danger test to a claim for damages under the FELA, one element of which was fear of cancer stemming from exposure to asbestos. The plaintiff in Metro-North had been intensively exposed to asbestos while working as a pipefitter for Metro-North in New York City's Grand Central Terminal. At the time of his lawsuit, however, he had a clean bill of health. The Court rejected his entire claim for relief. Exposure alone, the Court held, is insufficient to show "physical impact" *147 under the zone-of-danger test. 521 U. S., at 430. "[A] simple (though extensive) contact with a carcinogenic substance," the Court observed, "does not ... offer much help in separating valid from invalid emotional distress claims." Id., at 434. The evaluation problem would be formidable, the Court explained, "because contacts, even extensive contacts, with serious carcinogens are common." Ibid. "The large number of those exposed and the uncertainties that may surround recovery," the Court added, "suggest what Gottshall called the problem of `unlimited and unpredictable liability.'" Id., at 435 (quoting 512 U. S., at 557).

As in Gottshall, the Court distinguished stand-alone distress claims from prayers for damages for emotional pain and suffering tied to a physical injury: "Common-law courts," the Court recognized, "do permit a plaintiff who suffers from a disease to recover for related negligently caused emotional distress...." 521 U. S., at 432 (emphasis added). When a plaintiff suffers from a disease, the Court noted, common-law courts have made "a special effort" to value related emotional distress, "perhaps from a desire to make a physically injured victim whole or because the parties are likely to be in court in any event." Id., at 436-437.

In sum, our decisions in Gottshall and Metro-North describe two categories: Stand-alone emotional distress claims not provoked by any physical injury, for which recovery is sharply circumscribed by the zone-of-danger test; and emotional distress claims brought on by a physical injury, for which pain and suffering recovery is permitted. Norfolk, whose position the principal dissent embraces, see, e. g., post, at 172, 177 (KENNEDY, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part), would have us ally this case with those in the stand-alone emotional distress category, Brief for Petitioner 16-31; the asbestosis claimants urge its placement in the *148 emotional distress brought on by a physical injury (or disease) category, Brief for Respondents 26.^[7]

Relevant to this characterization question, the parties agree that asbestosis is a cognizable injury under the FELA. See Urie v. Thompson, 337 U. S. 163, 187 (1949) (occupational diseases caused by exposure to hazardous dusts are injuries under the FELA). Norfolk does not dispute that the claimants suffer from asbestosis, see Tr. of Oral Arg. 4, or that asbestosis can be "a clinically serious, often disabling, and progressive disease," Reply Brief 6 (internal quotation marks omitted). As Metro-North plainly indicates, pain and suffering damages may include compensation for fear of cancer when that fear "accompanies a physical injury." 521 U. S., at 430; see id., at 436 ("The common law permits emotional distress recovery for that category of plaintiffs who suffer from a disease."). Norfolk, therefore, cannot plausibly maintain that the claimants here, like the plaintiff in Metro-North, "are disease and symptom free." Id., at 432. The plaintiffs in Gottshall and Metro-North grounded their suits on claims of negligent infliction of emotional distress. The claimants before us, in contrast, complain of a negligently inflicted physical injury (asbestosis) and attendant pain and suffering.

B

Unlike stand-alone claims for negligently inflicted emotional distress, claims for pain and suffering associated with, or "parasitic" on, a physical injury are traditionally compensable. The Restatement (Second) of Torts § 456 (1963-1964) (hereinafter Restatement) states the general rule:

"If the actor's negligent conduct has so caused any bodily harm to another as to make him liable for it, the actor is also subject to liability for

*149 "(a) fright, shock, or other emotional disturbance resulting from the bodily harm or from the conduct which causes it...." (Emphases added.)

A plaintiff suffering bodily harm need not allege physical manifestations of her mental anguish. Id., Comment c. "The plaintiff must of course present evidence that she has suffered, but otherwise her emotional distress claims, in whatever form, are fully recoverable." D. Dobbs, Law of Torts 822 (2000).

By 1908, when the FELA was enacted, the common law had evolved to encompass apprehension of future harm as a component of pain and suffering. The future harm, genuinely feared, need not be more likely than not to materialize. See Minneman, Future Disease or Condition, or Anxiety Relating Thereto, as Element of Recovery, 50 A. L. R. 4th 13, 25, § 2[a] (1986) (mental anguish related to physical injury is recoverable even if "the underlying future prospect is not itself compensable inasmuch as it is not sufficiently likely to occur"). Physically injured plaintiffs, it is now recognized, may recover for "reasonable fears" of a future disease. Dobbs, supra, at 844. As a classic example, plaintiffs bitten by dogs succeeded in gaining recovery, not only for the pain of the wound, but also for their fear that the bite would someday result in rabies or tetanus. The wound might heal, but "[t]he ghost of hydrophobia is raised, not to down during the life-time of the victim." The Lord Derby, 17 F. 265, 267 (ED La. 1883).^[8]

*150 In the course of the 20th century, courts sustained a variety of other "fear-of" claims.^[9] Among them have been claims for fear of cancer. Heightened vulnerability to cancer, as one court observed, "must necessarily have a most depressing effect upon the injured person. Like the sword of Damocles," he knows it is there, but not whether or when it will fall. Alley v. Charlotte Pipe & Foundry Co., 159 N. C. 327, 331, 74 S. E. 885, 886 (1912).^[10]

Many courts in recent years have considered the question presented here — whether an asbestosis claimant may be compensated for fear of cancer. Of decisions that address *151 the issue, a clear majority sustain recovery. See, e. g., Hoerner v. Anco Insulations, Inc., 2000-2333, p. 49 (La. App. 1/23/02), 812 So. 2d 45, 77 (fear of cancer testimony "appropriately presented in order to prove [asbestosis claimant's] general damage claim"); Beeman v. Manville Corp. Asbestos Disease Compensation Fund, 496 N. W. 2d 247, 252-253 (Iowa 1993) (cancer evidence held admissible to show reasonableness of asbestosis claimant's fear of cancer); Denton v. Southern R. Co., 854 S. W. 2d 885, 888-889 (Tenn. App. 1993) (FELA decision holding erroneous "Trial Court's exclusion of evidence about [asbestosis claimant's] fear of cancer"); Celotex Corp. v. Wilson, 607 A. 2d 1223, 1229-1230 (Del. 1992) (sustaining jury charge allowing damages for asbestosis claimants' fear of cancer); Coffman v. Keene Corp., 257 N. J. Super. 279, 293-294, 608 A. 2d 416, 424-425 (1992) (sustaining award of damages that included compensation for asbestosis claimant's fear of cancer); Fibreboard Corp. v. Pool, 813 S. W. 2d 658, 666, 675-676 (Tex. App. 1991) (sustaining jury charge allowing fear of cancer damages for plaintiff with "confirmed asbestosis"); Sorenson v. Raymark Industries, Inc., 51 Wash. App. 954, 958, 756 P. 2d 740, 742 (1988) (evidence of increased risk of cancer held "admissible to establish, as a damage factor, the reasonableness of [an asbestosis claimant's] fear that he would contract cancer"); Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. v. Cox, 481 So. 2d 517, 529 (Fla. App. 1985) (asbestosis claimants may recover for fear of cancer); Devlin v. Johns-Manville Corp., 202 N. J. Super. 556, 563, 495 A. 2d 495, 499 (1985) (asbestosis claimants, who suffered "substantial bodily harm" from asbestos, may recover for fear of cancer).^[11]

*152 Arguing against the trend in the lower courts, Norfolk and its supporting amici assert that the asbestosis claimants' alleged cancer fears are too remote from asbestosis to warrant inclusion in their pain and suffering awards. In support of this contention, the United States, one of Norfolk's amici, refers to the "separate disease rule," under which most courts have held that the statute of limitations runs separately for each asbestos-related disease. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 12. See, e.g., Wilson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp., 684 F. 2d 111, 120-121 (CADC 1982); Pustejovsky v. Rapid-American Corp., 35 S. W. 3d 643, 649, n. 3 (Tex. 2000) (listing cases).^[12] Because the asbestosis *153 claimants may bring a second action if cancer develops, Norfolk and the Government argue, cancer-related damages are unwarranted in their asbestosis suit. Tr. of Oral Arg. 17-18; Reply Brief 5. The question, as the Government frames it, is not whether the asbestosis claimants can recover for fear of cancer, but when. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 15. The principal dissent sounds a similar theme. Post, at 174 ("a person with asbestosis will not be without a remedy for pain and suffering caused by cancer").

But the asbestosis claimants did not seek, and the trial court did not allow, discrete damages for their increased risk of future cancer. App. 573 ("[Y]ou cannot award damages to plaintiffs for cancer or for any increased risk of cancer."); see supra, at 143. Instead, the claimants sought damages for their current injury, which, they allege, encompasses a present fear that the toxic exposure causative of asbestosis may later result in cancer. The Government's "when, not whether," argument has a large gap; it excludes recovery for the fear experienced by an asbestosis sufferer who never gets cancer. For such a person, the question is whether, not when, he may recover for his fear.

Even if the question is whether, not simply when, an asbestosis sufferer may recover for cancer fear, Norfolk has another string in its bow. To be compensable as pain and suffering, Norfolk maintains, a mental or emotional harm must have been "directly brought about by a physical injury." Brief for Petitioner 15 (emphasis deleted; internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Gottshall, 512 U. S., at 544). Because asbestosis itself, as distinguished from asbestos exposure, *154 does not generate cancer, Norfolk insists and the principal dissent agrees, "fear of cancer is too unrelated, as a matter of law, to be an element of [an asbestosis sufferer's] pain and suffering." Tr. of Oral Arg. 11; see post, at 172.^[13] This argument elides over a key connection between Norfolk's conduct and the damages the asbestosis claimants allege as an element of their pain and suffering: Once found liable for "any bodily harm," a negligent actor is answerable in damages for emotional disturbance "resulting from the bodily harm or from the conduct which causes it." Restatement § 456(a) (emphasis added).^[14]

There is an undisputed relationship between exposure to asbestos sufficient to cause asbestosis, and asbestos-related cancer. Norfolk's own expert acknowledged that asbestosis puts a worker in a heightened risk category for asbestos-related lung cancer. App. 470 (affirming that "asbestosis has to be necessary before lung cancer is a problem"). See W. Morgan & A. Seaton, Occupational Lung Diseases 151 (3d ed. 1995) (hereinafter Morgan & Seaton) ("[H]eavy cumulative exposures to asbestos which lead to asbestosis increase the risk of developing lung cancer.... [T]here is now considerable evidence which indicates that the risk of lung cancer only increases when asbestosis is present."). See also id., at 341 ("There is no doubt ... that the presence of asbestosis, at least in smokers, is associated with a significantly increased *155 rate of lung cancer."); A. Churg & F. Green, Pathology of Occupational Lung Disease 343 (2d ed. 1998) ("[S]tudies provide strong support for the notion that asbestosis is crucial to the development of asbestos-associated lung cancers.").

Furthermore, the asbestosis claimants' expert testified without contradiction to a risk notably "different in kind from the background risks that all individuals face," post, at 187 (BREYER, J.): Some "ten percent of the people who have the disease, asbestosis, have died of mesothelioma." App. 93; see Morgan & Seaton 350 ("The evidence suggests that, once the lungs of the susceptible subject have been primed by a sufficient dose of asbestos, then the development of [mesothelioma] is inevitable.").^[15] In light of this evidence, an asbestosis sufferer would have good cause for increased apprehension about his vulnerability to another illness from his exposure, a disease that inflicts "agonizing, unremitting pain," relieved only by death, post, at 168 (KENNEDY, J.): Asbestosis is "a chronic, painful and concrete reminder that [a *156 plaintiff] has been injuriously exposed to a substantial amount of asbestos, a reminder which may both qualitatively and quantitatively intensify his fear." Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. v. Cox, 481 So. 2d, at 529.

Norfolk understandably underscores a point central to the Court's decision in Metro-North. Reply Brief 10. The Court's opinion in Metro-North stressed that holding employers liable to workers merely exposed to asbestos would risk "unlimited and unpredictable liability." 521 U. S., at 435 (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Gottshall, 512 U. S., at 557). But as earlier observed, see supra, at 147, Metro-North sharply distinguished exposure-only plaintiffs from "plaintiffs who suffer from a disease," and stated, unambiguously, that "[t]he common law permits emotional distress recovery for [the latter] category." 521 U. S., at 436; see id., at 432. Commentary similarly distinguishes asymptomatic asbestos plaintiffs from plaintiffs who "developed asbestosis and thus suffered real physical harm." Henderson & Twerski, Asbestos Litigation Gone Mad: Exposure-Based Recovery for Increased Risk, Mental Distress, and Medical Monitoring, 53 S. C. L. Rev. 815, 830 (2002); see id., at 830, 833-834 (classifying plaintiffs with pleural thickening as asymptomatic and observing that, unlike asbestosis sufferers, they face no "significantly increased risk of developing cancer" and do not "suffe[r] current pain that serves as a constant reminder that a more serious disease may come upon [them]").^[16]

*157 The categorical approach endorsed in Metro-North serves to reduce the universe of potential claimants to numbers neither "unlimited" nor "unpredictable." Relevant here, and as Norfolk recognizes, of those exposed to asbestos, only a fraction will develop asbestosis. Brief for Petitioner 22, n. 16 (quoting In re Haw. Fed. Asbestos Cases, 734 F. Supp. 1563, 1570 (Haw. 1990) ("A reasonable person, exercising due diligence, should know that of those exposed to asbestos, only a small percentage suffer from asbestos-related physical impairment.")); cf. Morgan & Seaton 319 (study showed that of persons exposed to asbestos after 1959, only 2 percent had asbestosis when first examined; for those exposed from 1950-1959, that figure is 18 percent).

C

Norfolk presented the question "[w]hether a plaintiff who has asbestosis but not cancer can recover damages for fear of cancer under the [FELA] without proof of physical manifestations of the claimed emotional distress." Brief for Petitioner (i). Our answer is yes, with an important reservation. We affirm only the qualification of an asbestosis sufferer to seek compensation for fear of cancer as an element of his asbestosis-related pain and suffering damages. It is incumbent upon such a complainant, however, to prove that his alleged fear is genuine and serious. See, e. g., Smith v. A. C. & S., Inc., 843 F. 2d 854, 859 (CA5 1988) ("general *158 concern for [one's] future health" held insufficient to support recovery for an asbestosis sufferer's fear of cancer); Coffman v. Keene, 257 N. J. Super., at 293-294, 608 A. 2d, at 424-425 (sustaining a verdict including fear-of-cancer damages where trial judge found plaintiff "ha[d] a genuine, real believable fear of cancer" (internal quotation marks omitted)). See also Minneman, 50 A. L. R. 4th, § 5, at 54-56, (discussing cases affirming the view that "apprehension must be genuine").^[17] In this case, proof directed to that matter was notably thin,^[18] and might well have succumbed to a straightforward sufficiency-of-the-evidence objection, had Norfolk so targeted its attack.

Norfolk, however, sought a larger shield. In the trial court and in its unsuccessful petition to the Supreme Court *159 of Appeals of West Virginia, Norfolk urged that fear of cancer could figure in the recovery only if the claimant proved both a likelihood of developing cancer and physical manifestations of the alleged fear. See App. 548 (Norfolk's charge request); id., at 634 (amended petition for appeal). And although Norfolk submitted proposed verdict forms, id., at 549-560, those forms did not call for jury specification of the amount of damages, if any, awarded for fear of cancer. Thus, as earlier observed, supra, at 144, it is impossible to tell from the verdicts returned whether the jury ascribed any part of the damages awards to the alleged cancer fear, and if so, how much.^[19]

We did not grant review, in any event, to judge the sufficiency of the evidence or the reasonableness of the damages awards. We rule, specifically and only, on the question whether this case should be aligned with those in which fear of future injury stems from a current injury, or with those presenting a stand-alone claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress. We hold that the former categorization is the proper one under the FELA.

IV

We turn next to Norfolk's contention that the trial court erred in instructing the jury "not to make a deduction [from damages awards] for the contribution of non-railroad [asbestos] exposures" to the asbestosis claimants' injuries. App. 570. The statutory language, however, supports the trial court's understanding that the FELA does not authorize apportionment *160 of damages between railroad and nonrailroad causes. Section 1 of the Act, to which we earlier referred, see supra, at 144-145, provides:

"Every common carrier by railroad while engaging in [interstate commerce], shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such carrier in such commerce ... for such injury ... resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of ... such carrier...." 45 U.S.C. § 51.

The claimants here suffer from asbestosis (an "injury"), which is linked to their employment with Norfolk and "result[ed] in whole or in part from ... negligence" by Norfolk. Norfolk is therefore "liable in damages ... for such injury." Ibid. (emphasis added). Nothing in the statutory text instructs that the amount of damages payable by a liable employer bears reduction when the negligence of a third party also contributed in part to the injury-in-suit.

Resisting this reading, Norfolk trains on the statutory language conveying that a railroad is liable only for injuries an employee sustains "while he is employed by such carrier." Ibid. That language, Norfolk maintains, "makes clear that railroads are not liable for employee injuries that result from outside causes." Brief for Petitioner 32. Norfolk's argument uncouples the statutory language from its context, and thereby obscures its meaning.

The FELA applies to railroads only "while [they are] engaging in" interstate commerce. 45 U.S.C. § 51. The clause on which Norfolk relies clarifies that the statute's reach is correspondingly limited to injuries sustained by railroad employees while the employees are themselves engaged "in such commerce." Ibid. (emphasis added); cf. The Employers' Liability Cases, 207 U.S. 463, 504 (1908) (predecessor statute declared unconstitutional because it regulated employee injuries not sufficiently related to interstate commerce). Placed in context, the clause does not speak to *161 cases in which an injury has multiple causes, some related to railroad employment and others unrelated to that employment. Such cases, we think, are controlled by the language just noted, which states that the railroad is "liable in damages" so long as the injury was caused "in whole or in part" by its "negligence." 45 U. S. C. § 51.

The statutory context bolsters our reading, for interpreting § 1 to require apportionment would put that provision in tension with the rest of the statute. As recounted earlier, see supra, at 145, several of the FELA's provisions expand a railroad's liability by abolishing common-law defenses that limited employees' ability to recover against their employers. Among the innovations, the Act expressly directs apportionment of responsibility between employer and employee based on comparative fault. See § 53 (set out in relevant part supra, at 144, n. 6). The statute expressly prescribes no other apportionment.

Essentially, then, Norfolk asks us to narrow employer liability without a textual warrant. Reining in employer liability as Norfolk proposes, however, is both unprovided for by the language of the FELA and inconsistent with the Act's overall recovery facilitating thrust. Accordingly, we find Norfolk's plea an untenable reading of the congressional silence. Cf. Edmonds v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 443 U. S. 256, 268, n. 23 (1979) ("It would be particularly curious for Congre