In Railroad Company v. Schutte, the United States Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a railroad company was liable for damages caused by a fire that spread from its property to the property of a neighboring landowner. The Court held that the railroad company was liable for the damages caused by the fire, as it had been negligent in its duty to maintain the firebreak between its property and the neighboring landowner's property. The Court found that the railroad company had failed to take reasonable precautions to prevent the spread of the fire, and that this negligence was the proximate cause of the damages suffered by the neighboring landowner. The Court also held that the railroad company was liable for the damages even though the fire had been started by a third party, as the railroad company had a duty to take reasonable precautions to prevent the spread of the fire.

In Railroad Company v. Schutte, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a railroad company could be held liable for damages caused by an employee's negligence in failing to properly secure a load of lumber on one of its cars. The majority opinion found that the railroad company was not liable because it had no knowledge or control over how the employee secured the load and thus could not be held responsible for his actions. Justice Field dissented from this decision, arguing that under common law principles, employers are generally responsible for their employees' acts if they were committed while acting within their scope of employment. He argued that since securing cargo is part and parcel with operating a railway business, then it should have been foreseeable to the employer that such an act would occur and therefore they should bear responsibility when something goes wrong as a result of those activities.