Chicago & E. I. R. R. v. Finnan

Mr. Presiding Justice Wright

delivered the opinion of the court.

John E. Finnan, intestate, was in the employ of appellant as switchman, in which occupation he had been engaged for several years on different railroads. The night of December 19, 1898, was wet and foggy and all the appliances in his use were covered with the moisture, and slippery; and while making up a freight train in the yards at Danville with the rest of the switching crew, at about nine o’clock that night, it devolved upon Finnan to make a coupling between two loaded coal cars of the train; the car on the south being at the…