Joseph McKenna

“ It is the uncontradicted evidence that, if the bad order car had been equipped with such a coupler as the law required, the ends of the two cars could not have come nearer together than 30 inches, and the accident, of course, could not have occurred. ”

“ It is plain that the principle of the cases quoted from is that carriers should be held liable to employees in damages whenever failure to obey the Safety Appliance Laws is the proximate cause of the injury to them when engaged in the discharge of their duty. ”

“ A car without a drawbar or coupler was standing on the siding. The plaintiff's intestate was a brakeman, and was riding on a second car kicked upon the same siding. A collision occurred, and the deceased was crushed between the car upon which he was riding and the defective car.'
There is no dispute about the facts; there is dispute about the conclusions from them. ”

“ When the conductor went to look for the Farnham car he found it standing on the 'house track' with five other cars to the west of it and four cars to the east of it, the car next it on the east being the defective car, with the drawhead missing from its west end (the end next the Farnham car) . Thus this 'house track,' with capacity for 12 cars, had 10 standing upon it, of which the defective car was one-necessarily they must have been very close together. ”

“ When he got upon this box car, it was about four car lengths from the defective end of the defective car, and the track was slightly down grade toward it. His purpose was to get to the brake at the head end of the head car, so as to stop the three before they touched the defective car, but either because the cars had been started too rapidly by the engine, or because the brake did not work well, or because the track was down grade, or because the time or distance was too short, he did not get the cars stopped in time to prevent them from colliding with the defective car. ”