A court house report on this date indicated that a claim for injuries by a railroad switching crew foreman, Mr. William R. McCoy had been settled for the sum of $10,000. This is the equivalent of $232,487.12 in today's dollars.
Mr. McCoy had lost one leg and the use of the other in a severe crushing injury in the train yard. This injury occurred when his crew was moving a collection of cars from one track to deliver a load of coal in the yard. Another set of cars had been placed improperly and as Mr. McCoy rode on the train, reading his instructions, his legs were crushed between the car he was riding and the improperly placed car.
The argument of the railroad at the trial was that 1) Mr. McCoy, as a railroad employee accepted the risk of working in a train yard and 2) that the dangerous condition of the improperly parked train cars was the fault of the workers, not the railroad. Counsel for Mr. McCoy stated in his closing comments that it was a shameful fact that the current state of the law was that the railroad could use such excuses and defenses and that it was his prediction that that part of the law would one day be changed. The court's failure to grant a trial based on thisstatement were found to be reversible error and the verdict against the railroad for $15,000 was reversed and a new trial ordered. Rather than try the case again, the parties settled the claim for $10,000, a sizeable sum at that time.
However, Mr. McCoy received his injuries May 16 1909 and had apparently been living the past six years with no income due to his disability. In 1910 Mr. McCoy was 40 years old, married and with a six year old son, Carl, according to the 1910 census. In the 1920 census Mr. McCoy was unemployed and his wife was a "laundry operator." Mr. McCoy's obituary of August 30, 1923 gives his history. He was born in Bloomington and went to the public schools. His wife was Martha Tetzloff. Their only son died in 1915, the same year he received his long awaited compensation. He never fully regained his health but worked a short while as the city oil inspector, a job his fellow workers lobbied hard for him to receive.