135 Mo. App. 340 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1909
Appellant was hurt in a fall from a swinging seat while engaged in painting the metal chimney or smokestack of respondent’s mill. The chimney rose forty feet or more above the roof of the engine house of the mill. Appellant had been engineer there since 1898 and as such it was his duty to paint the stack, which he did two or three times a year. An iron hook in the shape of a letter “S,” five-eighths of an inch in diameter hung from the top of the stack. Appellant made use of a rope with blocks and tackle to get to the upper part of the stack. A small rope hung from the hook to which was fastened the large rope
It was incumbent on respondent to exercise rea-, sonable care to furnish appellant a rope strong enough to expose him to no more than ordinary peril while painting the smokestack. [Gutredge v. Railroad, 105 Mo. 15, 20.] Appellant assumed no enhancement of the risk due to omission of this duty by respondent. [Curtis v. McNair, 173 Mo. 270; Blundell v. Elevator Co., 189 Mo. 552.] Ordinary care in this regard would vary with circumstances. It might be taken for granted a new rope of the size of the one furnished and showing no faults, was sound and strong enough to bear appellánt’s weight; but one nineteen years old, and which had been used for various purposes around the mill, could not be treated as safe as a matter of