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Just after finishing school and getting admitted to the Bar, a friend approached me, with his arm and hand in a sling, wanting to sue an airport and plane owner. It seems he walked into a spinning propeller and lived. I queried him about the accident, and learned there was a fence marked with signs warning about the props, and he had gone around the fence AND a rope barrier around the plane, also containing large signs, before walking into the propeller. Since this was 1959 in NY, contributory negligence would appear to preclude his recovery, so I declined the case.
To my chagrin, he found a mutual acquaintance who took the case, and got a settlement of several thousand dollars. What compounded it was that the mutual acquaintance was convicted of practicing law without a license a year after this-never having bothered to take the NY Bar before hanging out his shingle.
Following this, I stuck to practicing Labor and Employment law.

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