Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis Railroad v. Coultas

This action was brought to recover for personal injuries. Appellee was a passenger on a freight train on appellant’s road, and just before reaching the yards at East St. Louis it was signaled to stop. The point where it stopped was on the trestle-work between the round-house and the yards. After the lapse of about ten minutes, appellee was in the act of, or had just stepped on the platform of the caboose car, when the train started up with a sudden jerk and he was thrown off the car on the trestle work and from thence fell on the ice below, a distance of twenty feet or more, and received the…