Figgins v. Industrial Commission

On August 4, 1938, the plaintiff in error, J. Oscar Lawrence, was mowing weeds with a horse-drawn mowing machine, on the right of way of a road maintained by defendant in error, G. M. Figgins, commissioner of highways of Big Springs township, Shelby county, Illinois, preparatory to widening and regravelling that road. In some manner the sickle-bar of the machine dropped in a depression, became caught in some brush and locked. Lawrence left the seat of the machine and, without releasing the reins, went to the sickle-bar and removed the obstruction. At this moment a band of gypsies drove up in…