110 Me. 140 | Me. | 1912
This is an action on the case in which the plaintiff, a minor, seeks to recover damages of the defendant, for an injury that the plaintiff claims he sustained by reason of his hand being caught between two rollers in a washing machine, which the plaintiff was assisting another workman in preparing to start up, in the defendant’s factory. The accident took place on the 18th day of December, 1911, the plaintiff being at that time eighteen years of age and having been in this country three years.
When the plaintiff first came to this country he worked one year and eight months in the card room of the defendant, putting wool in the carding machine. He then went to Connecticut and worked eight months in a scissors factory, sharpening scissors on a grind stone; he then worked six months in a plush mill at Bridgeport; he then returned to Lisbon Falls, Maine, and went to work for the defendant in the finishing room, and had been so employed about two weeks at the time of the accident.
He had, before the day of the accident, been called by a man operating the machine known as the washer to assist him in what is known as threading the machine, the plaintiff says three times, the workmen said four to six times.
The machine upon which the plaintiff was injured consisted, in part, of two sets of rollers. The work the plaintiff was engaged in when injured, was placing a piece of cloth so it would roll through a second set of rollers; the first set of rollers were about half an inch apart when the cloth was put through, which evidently, when the machine was running, dropped together. A few feet from the first rollers was another set of rollers about six or eight inches in diameter, one being of copper and one covered with hard rubber. The cloth run from the first set of rollers to the second set, and in order to thread it, or place the cloth so that it would run through the rollers, it was necessary for the workman to stand back of the second rollers, facing the first rollers, and reach over the second rollers and hold the cloth close to the rollers, when the machinery was started, and allow the cloth to roll through, so that it could be taken up over another roller some few feet higher, and it was while placing the cloth in position to run through the second rollers that
There is no allegation in the declaration, or evidence in the case, that the washing machine was not a suitable and proper machine for the purpose for which it was used, or that the master did not furnish a reasonably safe place to perform the work that the plaintiff was. performing, when injured; but the action is sought to be maintained because the plaintiff was a minor, and inexperienced in the handling or working of such machines as the washing machine, and because 'he was immature, and inexperienced, and did not appreciate the danger of operating the machine, and that the defendant did not perform its duty, by properly instructing him of the dangers of operating a washing machine, and, in fact, gave him no instructions, or warnings of the danger of operating the machine.
Did the plaintiff know and appreciate the danger of the work he • was doing? It was not his regular work, but he had seen the work done a few times, and had assisted in threading the machine at least twice. For over thirty-four months he had worked in factories;
Nor do we think the plaintiff’s age was such that he should' not have appreciated the danger of his employment. It seems incredible that a young man, eighteen years old, with three years’ experience among machinery, was not old enough to appreciate the danger of coming in contact with revolving cylinders. It is contrary tO' human experience to think that he did not appreciate that danger. Reason and experience must have taught him the danger. Intelligence and reason are not developed the instant one becomes of age. From childhood to manhood they are growing and developing. Reason as well as authority says he was of sufficient age to appreciate the danger of coming in contact with machinery in operation. Mott v. Packard, supra, and cases there cited.
As the plaintiff was of sufficient age to appreciate the danger of the labor he was performing, at the time of the accident, if it was dangerous, and his knowledge of the working of machinery was such that it was not an unknown or an unseen danger, the conclusion is irresistible that the accident was caused by the contributory negligence and want of due care on the part of the plaintiff in not avoiding a danger known to him, and the judgment of nonsuit was properly ordered.
Exceptions overruled.