In the early 1840s, Nicholas Farwell brought a lawsuit against his employer, the Boston & Worcester Rail Road. Farwell was an ‘engineman’ who earned two dollars a day. One day in 1837, he suffered an accident, was thrown to the ground, and the wheels of a railroad car passed over his right hand and crushed it. The accident was cause (or so Farwell alleged) by the carelessness of other employees. The highest court of Massachusetts turned down Farwell’s claim. The Chief Justice of Massachusetts, Lemuel Shaw, wrote the opinion. Shaw was an important figure in the legal world of the nineteenth century; he would probably be surprised to learn that his fame today, such as it is, is mostly due to the fact that his son-in-law was the author Herman Melville. Shaw was a very able judge, however, and the Farwell case was one of his most notable and significant decisions …
Friedman, Lawrence M, Work Accidents: A Drama in Three Acts, Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal, volume 40, issue 2, article 5 (2023).
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