Gallagher v. the New York Central Rd. Co.

Appeal from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the third judicial department, entered November 19, 1917, affirming an award of the state industrial commission made under the Workmen’s Compensation Law. Decedent, employed by the railroad as a carpenter, was repairing coal pockets of the railroad about half a mile north of Ravena station. While thus at work he was swinging a sledge hammer to cut the head of a bolt in a trestle, up which the cars were run to the coal pocket, when he lost his balance, fell about sixteen feet to the ground and fractured his skull, death resulting the next day. Before the commission the railroad objected to the rendition of any award upon the ground that Gearrity, when he met with the accident which caused his death, was employed by the railroad as a carpenter in repairing a trestle of a coal pocket, used to supply coal to engines hauling interstate commerce and that, therefore, the Federal Employers’ Liability Act exclusively prescribed and limited the rights and liabilities of the parties. The commission found as a fact that Gearrity was not engaged in interstate commerce.