Wilson v. Norfolk & Western Railway Co.

On October 27, 1977, the plaintiff, Robert Wilson, was employed as a road electrician for the Norfolk and Western Railway, and had been so employed for approximately a year. The position of road electrician was, in railroad terminology, equivalent to that of a lineman for a power company, and Wilson had over 30 years’ experience as a journeyman lineman. That day, he was performing work in Norfolk and Western’s Fort Wayne, Indiana, yard while 25 or 30 feet above ground level in the fiberglass bucket of a piece of machinery known as the Baker B — 10 digger-derrick. During this work, he came in…