In the Bender v. Pennsylvania Company case of 1892, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a dispute involving railroad safety and liability for injuries sustained by employees. The plaintiff, Mr. Bender, was an employee of the Pennsylvania Company who suffered severe injuries while working on a freight train due to defective machinery that caused derailment. He sued his employer for negligence in maintaining safe work conditions as required by law. The court held that under common law principles, employers have a duty to provide their workers with reasonably safe tools and appliances for carrying out their duties; failure to do so could result in legal liability if it leads directly to injury or harm. However, this obligation does not extend indefinitely - once an employer has fulfilled its initial responsibility (i.e., providing safe equipment), they are not liable for any subsequent defects unless they had knowledge of such defects and failed to rectify them. In this particular case though, evidence showed that the company did know about these issues but didn't take action which led directly to Mr.Bender's accident thus making them liable.

In the dissenting opinion for Bender v. Pennsylvania Company, Justice Brewer expressed his disagreement with the majority's decision to uphold a lower court ruling that denied recovery of damages to an injured employee due to contributory negligence. He argued that it was not clear whether the plaintiff had been negligent and therefore, this should have been decided by a jury rather than assumed by judges. Furthermore, he disagreed with the notion that employees assume all risks associated with their employment when they accept their jobs; instead, he believed employers should be held accountable for maintaining safe working conditions. In essence, Justice Brewer contended that workers' rights were being undermined and called for more protection against employer negligence.