Thomas

In this action respondent seeks to recover damages against appellant for personal injuries sustained by him while employed by appellant in interstate commerce as a switch-tender, which position he had occupied in the Los Angeles yards for approximately three years before the accident. During the course of a night’s work, his duty required him to throw about thirty switches. In throwing a switch, the operator stands on an iron plate approximately twenty inches wide and forty feet long. The switches are thrown by a lever set into and level with the plate or platform on which the operator stands. In order to reach the lever, the operator stoops, releases a safety catch with one hand and takes hold of the lever with the other, raising it to make the throw of the switch points. The lever weighs fifteen or twenty pounds and requires considerable pressure to operate it. One operation of the lever throws eight switch points, each about fifteen feet long, and the total weight of equipment operated by one swing of the lever runs into tons.-

At 11:30 o’clock on the night of the accident, when respondent came on duty, the switch was in good condition and was thrown by him six or eight times…