56 A. 548 | N.H. | 1903
Lead Opinion
It was the duty of the defendants, in the exercise of reasonable care and diligence, to provide and maintain a safe and suitable stairway by which the plaintiff, as their servant, could go to and from his place of work in the mill. Fifield v. Railroad,
The evidence was that the plaintiff and seven other spinners, after finishing their work at nine o'clock in the evening, regularly came down the stairway from the third floor of the mill; that no other way was provided for them; that the stairway was winding, steep, narrow, and worn; that the treads of the stairs varied in width, being narrowest on the inside of the curve; and that the defendants had placed lamps, which were usually lighted at night, over the stairs. On the night in question, when the plaintiff and the other workmen had finished their labors they put out the lights over their machines, as was their custom, and started to go out of the mill. On reaching the stairway they found it was dark, but proceeded to go down and out, the plaintiff going on the outside of the curve, where the treads of the stairs were widest, steadying himself with his hand against the wall, there being no railing on that side of the stairway. When part way down he slipped, fell, and was injured. Reasonable men could conclude from this evidence that the defendants required their servants to use this stairway at night; that its construction, in conjunction with the darkness, rendered its use dangerous; that the defendants themselves so regarded it; that their neglect to make the stairway safe for such use was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury; and that, under the circumstances, he was exercising due care in undertaking to use the stairway (the only means provided for leaving the mill) and in his conduct while using it.
Did the plaintiff voluntarily assume the risk of the defendants' negligence? "One does not voluntarily assume a risk, within the meaning of the rule that debars a recovery, when he merely knows there is some danger, without appreciating the danger." Mundle v. Company,
When the plaintiff went into the mill it was daylight. He knew that his work would not be finished before nine o'clock that night, and that it was the custom of the defendants to then have the stairway lighted. He had the right to believe they would perform their duty on the night in question, and to rely thereon. He entered the mill, worked until nine o'clock, and then went to the stairway to go out. On reaching it, he found himself surrounded in darkness. Although he then knew the defendants had failed to *303
perform their duty, yet in view of the fact that he then had no choice open to him, the only exit provided being over the dark stairway, and no opportunity to leave the defendants' service before his injury was received, it cannot be said, as a matter of law, that he voluntarily assumed the risk. It was for the jury to say whether the plaintiff, knowing the defendants' neglect of duty, fully appreciated the danger therefrom and voluntarily encountered it. Demars v. Company, supra; Whitcher v. Railroad,
Exception sustained.
CHASE, J., was absent: the others concurred.
After the filing of the foregoing opinion on March 3, 1903, the defendants moved for a rehearing.
Addendum
The defendants' motion for a rehearing must be denied. It was their non-delegable duty to provide reasonably safe stairs for use in the night-time; that is, adequate instrumentalities or means for the reasonably safe exit of their men from the factory. If at the time of the accident light was essential to such use, — if the danger incident to the defective stairs could have been obviated by artificial lighting, — the duty to furnish the necessary light, or in some way to guard against the apparent danger, was no more a delegable duty than the duty to maintain stairs of sufficient strength to support the ordinary weight imposed upon them. The rule of ordinary care which requires the master to provide a safe structure for travel from an upper story to the ground might require him to furnish adequate light when the structure becomes unreasonably dangerous for use in the darkness, for the same reason that common prudence might require him to keep a defective underground passage-way lighted in the daytime as well as in the night-time. The principle involved is not derived from exact or ingenious definitions of the words "place," "tools," or "appliances" however convenient and useful the may be in a particular case, but from considerations of the requirements of ordinary and reasonable care on the part of both the employer and the employee. If as a matter of fact a particular course of conduct on the part of *304 the master toward his servant is unreasonable when measured by the conduct of men in general engaged in similar occupations, he cannot shield himself as a matter of law from the consequences of such conduct by a resort to verbal distinctions, which oftener serve to obscure than to elucidate legal principles. The law seeks to enforce as a duty the requirement of reasonable conduct, hence the rule of ordinary care, which determines the rights and duties of master and servant in negligence cases.
Whether ordinary care for the reasonable safety of their servants, in view of the contract of employment, required the defendants to remedy or remove the danger incident to the use of these stairs in the night-time, by repairing or reconstructing them, or by lighting them, is a question of fact for the jury. This court cannot say upon the evidence reported that fair-minded men in the discharge of their duty as jurors, after having viewed the premises and heard the evidence, could not reasonably find that the defendants omitted to exercise the degree of care which common prudence required.
This case is clearly distinguishable from McLaine v. Company,
Motion denied.
PARSONS, C. J., and REMICK and BINGHAM, JJ, concurred: CHASE, J., doubted. *305
