Crane v. Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway Co.

The question in this case is whether a State may make the defense of contributory negligence available to a railroad sued by a nonemployee for damages for personal injuries caused by the railroad’s failure to maintain its freight cars “with couplers coupling automatically by impact/’ as required by § 2 of the Federal Safety Appliance Act of 1893, 27 Stat. 531, 45 U. S. C. § 2.1

Petitioner was in the employ of Cargill, Inc., at its Cedar Rapids, Iowa, meal house and elevator on the line of respondent railroad. Petitioner’s duties were to move, weigh, and load freight cars spotted by respondent…