84 Wis. 148 | Wis. | 1893
The condenser in question consisted of ten sections. Each section consisted of coiled two-inch pipe, and was about twenty feet long, running north and south, about five and one-half feet high, and about six inches wide at the base. These several sections stood some eighteen or twenty inches apart, and parallel with each other, upon the floor, or on blocks upon the floor. In putting up such sections, they commenced first with the one at the west end, and then the one next to that, and so on towards the east,
Such is a brief summary of the evidence upon which the trial court granted the nonsuit. After a careful examination of all the evidence we are constrained to hold that the nonsuit Avas properly granted. The. allegation to the effect that the defendant provided and maintained unsafe, dangerous, and defective appliances for the support of the condenser is certainly not supported by the evidence. Counsel strenuously contends that the defendant’s duty to furnish safe appliances includes competent co-employees and instructions to them and the plaintiff. Assuming that the evidence tends to prove that some of such co-employees were negligent, yet it fails to show that any of them were incompetent to perform the work assigned. They all, including the plaintiff, appear to have been possessed.of at least ordinary intelligence. There does not appear to have been anything very complicated in the putting up or taking down of the several sections mentioned. Each section was narrow at the base, and heavy; and. in view of its height, it must have been obvious to such employees that the same was liable to fall in case of any considerable lateral pressure, unless secured in some way by stays or braces. As indicated, at the time of the injury all the bolts attaching the header to the several sections had been removed, except one in each of the two end sections; and hence, when the plaintiff knocked out the only intervening bolt, the natural weight or sag of the header drew the several sections onto each other, and caused the fall. True, had the bolt which the plaintiff thus knocked out been put through from the inside, so that the nut could have been removed, and the bolt driven out from the outside, it is quite certain that jthe plaintiff would not. have been injured as. he was, if at all, although, in the absence of such stays or braces, the
These views render it unnecessary to consider the several exceptions to the exclusion of evidence, since, if all the evidence offered had been admitted, the result would necessarily have been the same.
By the Court.— The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.