BNSF Railway Co. v. Loos

BNSF Railway Co. v. Loos
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided March 4, 2019
Full case name	BNSF Railway Co. v. Loos
Docket no.	17-1042
Citations	586 U.S. ___ ( more )
Holding
A railroad's payment to an employee for working time lost due to an on-the-job injury is taxable "compensation" under the Railroad Retirement Tax Act.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Clarence Thomas  · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer  · Samuel Alito Sonia Sotomayor  · Elena Kagan Neil Gorsuch  · Brett Kavanaugh
Case opinions
Majority	Ginsburg
Dissent	Gorsuch, joined by Thomas

BNSF Railway Co. v. Loos, 586 U.S. ___(2019), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that a railroad's payment to an employee for working time lost due to an on-the-job injury is taxable "compensation" under the Railroad Retirement Tax Act. ^{[1] [2]}

Background

Michael Loos sued BNSF Railway Company under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA) for injuries he received while working at BNSF’s railyard. A jury awarded him $126,212.78, ascribing $30,000 of that amount to wages lost during the time Loos was unable to work. BNSF asserted that the lost wages constituted "compensation" taxable under the Railroad Retirement Tax Act (RRTA) and asked to withhold $3,765 of the $30,000 to cover Loos’s share of the RRTA taxes. The district court and the Eighth Circuit rejected the requested offset, holding that an award of damages compensating an injured railroad worker for lost wages is not taxable under the RRTA. ^[1]

Opinion of the Court

Commentators observed that Jutsice Ginburg's majority opinion avoided reference to Chevron deference, perhaps because that was necessary to achieve a majority. In dissent, Justice Gorsuch criticized Chevron and praised the majority for seemingly ignoring it. ^[2]

References

1. BNSF Railway Co. v. Loos,No. 17-1042 , 586 U.S. ___(2019).
2. Hemel, Daniel (March 4, 2019). "Opinion analysis: The doctrine that dare not speak its name". SCOTUSblog. Retrieved July 8, 2025.

External links

• Text of BNSF Railway Co. v. Loos,No. 17-1042, 586 U.S. ___(2019) is available from: Justia

This article incorporates written opinion of a United States federal court. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the text is in the public domain .