116 Ark. 277 | Ark. | 1914
Ben H. Goza, by his next friend, E. B. Goza, instituted this action against the Garretson-, Greeson Lumber Company to recover damages for injuries suffered by him on account of the alleged negligence of the defendant company. At the time of his injury the plaintiff was a minor eighteen years of age and was employed by the defendant to haul sawdust away from its mill, and to clean up around the boiler. Prior to that time he had worked at a sawmill for three weeks at the cut-off saw and, except for that, had never worked around a sawmill during his life. He was substituted for another employee on the morning of the day of his injury and was injured about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. His duties were to haul sawdust from behind the boiler and also from a place under the mill to which it had been conveyed and deposited by means of a trough. The sawdust was carried from the saw through a trough or box by means of an endless chain working over a sprocket wheel. The wheel was fastened to large blocks which were in turn fastened to upright posts, so that the entire diameter of the wheel, which was about eighteen inches or two feet, extended out ¡beyond the posts. The trough did not quite come to the wheel and the chain dragged along the bottom of the trough. When it emerged therefrom it passed on over the sprocket wheel into a trough leáding 'back toward the saw. The conveyor chain dragged loosely along the trough and by that means carried the sawdust along with it. The saw-' dust was deposited in the space between the mouth of the trough and the post where the conveyor chain passed over the sprocket wheel.
One of the witnesses stated that when the chain passed .over the mouth of the trough and came up over the sprocket wheel it had cogs on it which tightened up and caused the chain to further sag or jump at the point where it caught into the cogs of the sprocket wheel, and that one side of the chain was very much worn, causing it to rmuunevenly.
According to the testimony of Ben H. Goza, he would first haul away a load of sawdust in a cart from behind the boiler and would then go to the space between the end of the trough and the sprocket wheel and carry away a load of sawdust from there. The sawdust accumulated there very rapidly while he was carrying away the sawdust from behind the boiler. At the time he was injured he was standing beside the face of the sprocket wheel shoveling sawdust into the cart and stated that this was the only way in which he could do the work. He had noticed that when the chain left the end of the trough and came up to fasten into the cogs of the sprocket wheel, it tightened up and jumped. This caused the chain to sag down. In some manner, while he was shoveling the sawdust into the cart, his arm got caught in the space between the chain and the sprocket wheel and he was severely injured. He stated that there was not room enough for his arm to have caught in that space unless the chain tightened up and sagged down. He knew that if his arm should be caught it would be injured, but said that he was doing his work in the only practicable way it could be done, and that he did not appreciate the danger from having his arm caught 'between the chain and sprocket wheel. He had not been warned or instructed that'there was any danger in doing the work this way. He also stated that there were cogs on the sprocket wheel and .that when the chain passed over the end of the trough and caught in these cogs it would tighten and then sag.
Evidence was adduced in behalf of the defendant tending to show that the sprocket wheel had no cogs on it and that the chain was carried over it by means of the friction of the chain passing over the wheel.
The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $1,250.00 and the defendant has appealed.
It is first contended by counsel for the defendant that the court erred in giving instruction No'. 2, at the request of the plaintiff. The instruction is as follows:
“You are instructed that if you find from a preponderance of the evidence in this case, that the plaintiff while in the discharge of his duties as an employee of the defendant, and while exercising the care which a reasonably prudent man would have exercised under like circumstances, was injured by the negligence of the defendant in failing to exercise reasonable care to provide him a reasonably safe place in which to work and discharge the duties of his employment, and failed to exercise reasonable care in hooding or protecting the sprocket wheel complained of, then your verdict will be for the plaintiff.”
It is -also contended by counsel for the defendant that the court erred in refusing to give instruction No. 5, asked by it, the instruction being as follows:
“You are instructed that under the testimony in this case, the question of the defendant’s negligence has narrowed down to one issue; that is, whether the defendant was negligent in not warning and instructing the plaintiff as to the dangers to be encountered by him in coming in contact with- the dnst conveyor chain in question, and whether .such failure to so warn and instruct the plaintiff was the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injury.”
We think the case was fairly submitted to the jury under the well settled principles of law which this court has repeatedly held to apply under a similar state of facts. We find no prejudicial error in the record and the judgment will be affirmed.