Boldt v. Pennsylvania Railroad

At Buffalo, New York, defendant has a yard where freight trains are made up. Cars under control of a brakeman descend by gravity to desired positions on connecting tracks which lie southward of the “hump” or high point. A rule forbade employees from going between cars without first taking precautions not observed in the present case. Some evidence tended to show that under long-continued practice, considered good railroading, cars (in “strings” or “cuts”) were constantly sent down and purposely allowed to strike others with sufficient force to secure coupling, but not hard enough to injure…