January 4, 2010

LINCOLN RIDES TO THE RESCUE OF INJURED RAILROADER

Abraham Lincoln’s work as a lawyer for railroads is well known. But back in 1854, Lincoln sued Great Western Railroad Company for a severely injured brakeman named Jasper Harris.

According a three-page complaint that is in Lincoln’s handwriting, Harris’ right leg was amputated above the knee because of an accident that was caused by the negligence of a fellow employee named George Armstrong.

Closing the complaint, Lincoln asked the court to give Harris $10,000 in compensation. That would be nearly two million dollars today.

Although the pleading was signed on behalf of Lincoln & Herndon, historians have verified that the handwriting belongs to Lincoln.

This was a tough case for any lawyer, even a legendary trial and appellate advocate like Lincoln.

The first problem was that the Federal Employers’ Liability Act did not exist in 1854, and Illinois still followed the harsh contributory negligence rule.

Making a bad situation worse, the Illinois Supreme Court adopted the notorious fellow-servant rule – barring employees from suing for injuries caused by co-workers – a few months after Lincoln sued Great Western. Honner v. Illinois Central Railroad, 15 Ill. 550 (1854).

We are not sure exactly happened in Harris vs. Great Western. The old records say the case was dismissed – at Harris’ request – before the Illinois Supreme Court adopted the fellow-servant rule.

Did Great Western settle to avoid having to face the formidable Lincoln in court? And did Lincoln shrewdly forecast that the Illinois Supreme Court was going to adopt the fellow-servant rule?

At least we now have a high-quality color copy of Lincoln’s pleading for Jasper Harris.

Although a black-and-white microfilmed copy of the Harris complaint is available through the Lincoln legal papers project, we tracked the original complaint to the Lincoln Collection in the Library of Congress, and received permission to obtain a high-quality, digitized color-copy of pleading.

If you want a copy of the complaint that Lincoln wrote for Jasper Harris, contact Cindy Stahler at stahler@hoeyfarina.com.

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