152 Wis. 494 | Wis. | 1913
The foregoing outline may be supplemented by a few details from the undisputed evidence. The poles in question were the ordinary large telegraph poles, about thirty-five feet long and twelve to fourteen inches in diameter at the larger end. A pile of these lay across skids on the ground,
Counsel for respondent advances a somewhat different and quite plausible theory, but we are to take the evidence most favorable to the appellant with its favoring inferences,, be
It seems to us, within the rule of Rahles v. J. Thompson & Sons Mfg. Co. 137 Wis. 506, 118 N. W. 350, 119 N. W. 289; Yezick v. Chicago B. Co. 138 Wis. 342, 120 N. W. 247; Brotzki v. Wis. G. Co. 142 Wis. 380, 125 N. W. 916, and other like cases, this danger was not only necessarily inherent in the work in which the plaintiff was engaged, but was also so obvious and apparent that it was plain to any person of ordinary intelligence. To require one to say to an intelligent man engaged in trying to tumble down a pile of long cedar poles with a team hitched in the manner described that the falling poles may strike one of those to which his team is hitched and swing it around, seems like an idle ceremony of words. Long poles, crooked poles, and light poles fall, bound, and swing in a manner somewhat different from shorter, straighter, and heavier logs, but every workman and every, person who possesses a modicum of common sense knows that. The real cause of the unfortunate accident in question was using this extremely short chain to pull down the pile of poles by dislodging two poles up about six feet from the ground. This short chain compelled the plaintiff to either stand at one side of his team, where he could not handle them so well, or to stand where he did at the side of and so near to the poles to which his team was hitched that the falling pile of poles threw one or both of the poles to which his chain was fastened against him. This risk he intelligently and affirmatively assumed. The fall of the pile was the result he was trying to bring about and did bring about. He expected that the pile would fall, and he knew that no very strict rules would guide the poles in their descent. He also knew that the pile would collapse, if at all, before he had completely removed therefrom the two poles to which his horses were
The notion that there is something unusual, extraordinary, or peculiar in the fall of a pile of cedar poles is well presented, but its effect is exaggerated. We cannot overlook the fact that any adult intelligent person knows that when he tumbles down a pile of any kind the units of which the pile is composed will fall in disorder and with great irregularity, varying in velocity, direction, 'and effect somewhat according to the height of the pile and the nature of such units, but in all cases where such units have considerable weight with danger to those standing near the falling pile. There is no duty to warn an intelligent adult employee of such obvious consequence of the very act which he is knowingly engaged in performing. The judgment of the circuit court must be affirmed.
By the Court. — It is so ordered.