Virginian Ry. Co. v. Staton

SOPER, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff in the District Court, a brakeman on the Virginian Railway Company, accidentally lost his right leg during a switching operation when in the course of his duty he attempted to uncouple certain freight cars and cut them from a train. He recovered a judgment of $10,000 in the court below, from which the railway company appealed on the ground that the injury could not be attributed to the failure of the defendant to perform any duty which it owed to its employee, but was caused either by the negligence of the plaintiff himself in going between the cars while…