25 N.Y.S. 205 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1893
This action was brought to recover damages for a personal injury. Plaintiff was an infant 17 years of age. He had been in the employ of the defendant for eight months, and, at the time of the receiving of the injury for which this action was brought, was engaged in operating an elevator in the defendant’s building. The elevator was located in the center of the building, and ran up through four stories to the roof. The well of the elevator was inclosed. There were double doors upon each floor opening out into the room. Upon the fourth floor the building was divided into two rooms by the elevator well, and there were two sets of doors, one opening into the front room, and the other into the rear room. The elevator was used for the hoisting of material, and was not used for the carriage of persons. It appears that there were skylights over the top of the elevator well; that on the day in question they had been removed; that in the large room of the fourth story there were 15 windows and three skylights; that at the time in question the day was bright, and the sun was shining. On the 11th day of June, 1892 at about half past 5 o’clock in the afternoon, the plaintiff ran the elevator up the roof, where men were engaged in constructing an addition to the building. He looked at the men, and then returned with the elevator to the fourth floor, and, as he testified, opened the doors into the front room, left them open about a foot and a half, went about ten feet to get his lunch basket, and immediately returned, without stopping to talk with anybody, walked towards the elevator doors where they were standing as he had left them, looked in the elevator well, but that it was so dark that he could not see whether the elevator was standing there or not, turned around towards a girl by the name of Sophia Luse, who was standing near by, said “Good Night” to her, took hold of the doors with his hands, and backed into the elevator well, falling to the lower story, receiving the injuries for which this action was brought. He says that he was not gone from the elevator more than a minute. It further appeared that after the plaintiff left the elevator to get his lunch basket, as he says, one Peter Young, an engineer in the employ of the defendant, entered the elevator, and ran it down to the first story. He testified that he entered it from the front
The plaintiff knew of the condition of the doors, and of the kind of fastenings that had been provided therefor. It therefore became his duty to guard against any accident which was liable to occur in consequence of the absence of automatic fasteners. Freeman v. Paper Mill Co., (Sup.) 24 N. Y. Supp. 403; Gibson v. Railway Co., 63 N. Y. 449; DeForest v. Jewett, 88 N. Y. 264; Appel v. Railroad Co., 111 N. Y. 550, 19 N. E. Rep. 93; Haas v. Railroad Co., 40 Hun, 145; Powers v. Railway Co., 98 N. Y. 274; Shaw v. Sheldon, 103 N. Y. 667, 9 N. E. Rep. 183. The plaintiff says that, as he looked into the elevator well, it was dark, and that he could not see whether the elevator was there or not. It was, however, at half-past 5 o’clock in the afternoon of one of the longest days in the year, bright, and the sun shining. The top of the elevator well had been removed, and there does not appear to have been anything to obstruct the light from entering the well, and it is quite evident from all the testimony in the case that he could have seen had he carefully looked. He says he was gone from the elevator but a minute, and but ten feet away; and yet it appears that Peter Young came-to the elevator, found it alone with the doors open; that he entered the same, and took it down to the lower floor, without the plaintiff’s-observing it. It is quite possible that he was gone a longer time and a greater distance from the elevator than he admits. He concedes that a week before the accident he was instructed by Mr. Derrick, the superintendent of the defendant, not to leave the elevator alone; that on that occasion he had left it to do an errand for some one, and when he returned Mr. Derrick took him to task about leaving it, and told him never to leave it again, to always-stand upon it. Mr. Derrick tells us that his instructions were not to leave the elevator at any place except upon the first floor, and