Coray v. Southern Pacific Co.

This action was brought in a Utah state court under the Federal Safety Appliance and Federal Employers’ Liability Acts 1 to recover damages for the death of Frank Lucus, an employee of the respondent railroad. The decedent’s death occurred when a one-man flat-top motor-driven track car crashed into the back end of an eighty-two-car freight train on a main-line track at a point near Lemay, Utah. Both train and motorcar were being operated in an eastward direction on railroad business. The train unexpectedly stopped just before the crash occurred because the air in its brake lines escaped,…