85 S.E. 152 | N.C. | 1915
After stating the case: It appears in this case that the intestate of plaintiff had been employed to work as foreman in the defendant's service, and as overseer of the work performed by others placed under his authority. He was an experienced miner, having been engaged in the business of mining for many years. Because of his expertness thus acquired, the defendant was induced to take him into its service. The work he was to do on the day of the accident was left, in respect to the method and manner of doing it, to his own judgment, and he was perfectly free *193
to exercise his own common sense and skill in doing it. According to the evidence and the description of the conditions in the mine just before he was killed, he did not need any one to tell him that by digging under the projecting or overhanging bank of dirt and rock he was placing himself in a very dangerous position, as the unsupported bank would necessarily cave in when he removed the last prop that kept it in place. Any man of ordinary sense and common prudence (146) would know of this danger and appreciate the risk of cutting out the foundation upon which a bank of dirt rests and leaving it overhanging, without any support, brace, or prop to prevent its falling in and crushing him, as he was in the way and must needs be hurt. The danger of such a place was so imminent that any ordinarily prudent man would not have so cut underneath the bank as to weaken its support and cause it to fall, or, if this was necessary to be done, would have taken measures to brace it in some way as the work progressed. This Court has often held that "an employer's duty to provide for his employees a reasonably safe place to work does not extend to ordinary conditions arising during the progress of the work when the employee doing his work in his own way can see and understand the dangers and avoid them by the exercise of reasonable care." Simpson v. R. R.,
It was held in St. L. and M. R. R. Co., v. Baker, 163 S.W. (148) Rep., 152, that where a servant was employed to wreck a structure, such as an unsafe building, or to do blasting and excavating, the duty of keeping the place of work safe, if it was originally so, devolves upon the servant, and not on the master. The rule that an employer must exercise ordinary care to provide a safe place of work for his employee was held in Riley v. Neptune, 103 N.E. Rep., 406, not to apply where from the nature thereof the conditions are ever changing, so as to increase or diminish the danger in the course of the particular work, the same being passing risks arising out of the nature of the work and of which the servant is as well informed as the master. L. P.Cement Co. v. Bass, 103 N.E. R., 483. It was held in Andrews v. T.Mining Co., 146 N.W. Rep., 394, that the doctrine of furnishing a safe place to the servant to do his work does not apply where a miner was killed while engaged in making "hitches" in which to place timbers to hold up the roof, "since he is required to make the piece of work safe as he went." Nor, it has been said, does the rule of a safe place apply to building operations where conditions are continually changing, due to the acts of the servants themselves. Roshalt v. Worden-Allen Co., 144 N.W. Rep., 650. It was not necessary that intestate should have had any warning from the superintendent. He was an expert himself in mining, and it did not even require that one should be so thoroughly experienced in such work as he was to know or understand that the work was dangerous, for a man of ordinary intelligence would know that to withdraw a prop or foundation from an object resting upon it would necessarily cause it to fall.
"1. An employer may ordinarily assume that an adult employee has that knowledge which is acquired by common experience, and hence understands those dangers which may readily be known by common observation. *196
"2. All adult employees are presumed to have some knowledge of the properties of nature, and the operation of natural laws, such as the law of gravitation.
"3. An employee assumes the risk of injury from obvious dangers, unless because of his immaturity, inexperience, or other disability he is incapable of appreciating the danger therefrom." Riley v. Neptune, 103 N.E. (Ind.), 406.
No one should be allowed to justify or excuse his own improper conduct by alleging that he expected that another would prevent such conduct on his part. Houston, etc., Railroad Co. v. Clemmens,
It follows that there was no wrong committed by defendant which would make it liable for the intestate's death, and the nonsuit was properly granted.
Affirmed.
Cited: Brown v. Scofields Co.,