In the case of Southern Railway Company v. Prescott, 1915, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of Southern Railway Company. The dispute arose when Mr. Prescott was injured while working for the railway company and sought compensation under South Carolina's Employer's Liability Act. However, his employment contract stated that any disputes would be settled according to Georgia law which did not have such a provision for employer liability at that time. The court held that since both parties had agreed to abide by Georgia law in their contract, they were bound by it regardless of where an incident occurred or where either party resided or operated from primarily (in this case South Carolina). Therefore, Mr.Prescott could not claim damages under South Carolina’s Employer’s Liability Act as he had willingly entered into a contractual agreement specifying otherwise.

In the dissenting opinion for Southern Railway Company v. Prescott, it was argued that the court majority erred in its interpretation of liability under Georgia law. The dissent contended that the plaintiff's contributory negligence should not absolve the defendant from all responsibility if their negligence also contributed to causing harm. It was further pointed out that there were factual disputes about whether or not safety precautions had been taken by both parties involved in this case, which should have been resolved by a jury rather than decided as a matter of law by judges. Therefore, according to this view, it would be more appropriate and justifiable to remand this case back to lower courts for retrial instead of dismissing it outright on appeal.