144 S.E. 557 | N.C. | 1928
The evidence tended to show that the plaintiff was an experienced workman, having worked for the defendant about seven years, and on the date of his injury was running four boring machines. On said date the foreman gave the plaintiff a punch and directed him to lace the belt on one of the machines and start it up. In order to start up the machine it was necessary to put on the belting.
Plaintiff's narrative of his injury was as follows: "I laced the belt and got through with it and went to put it on. I had to put it on with a stick. I had to go up on the ladder and reach over just as far as I could reach to pull the belt on the pulley. After it had been laced it was tight. The first time it didn't go on, but the second time it went on just like that — snapped on like lightning — and when it did it threw me, and there was no way for me to help. . . . I was standing on top of the ladder. . . . I used the stick because that was the only thing we had to use to pull the belt on with. That was what we had been using. Mr. Brooks (foreman) told me to use it. . . . The company did not furnish anything to use except the stick. There was no lever furnished for shifting the belt. . . . He (foreman) told me to get a stick and step-ladder and put this belt on. He told me to go up the ladder and put the belt on with the stick. . . . I have put belts on that way before many times. All the other times I put the belts on like I did this time; just exactly the same way. . . . The step-ladder was shackly; it was shackly all over. I do not know how long it had *123 been in that condition, but it had been that way for a good while. I had discovered that; I had used it several times before to put on the belt and placed the ladder up under the shafting; take a chair round to get to the top of the ladder and some one else would take my stick and pull the belt on the pulley of the machine. No one would tell me how to do it. They knew that I knew how to do it. I knew how to put the belt on that pulley; Brooks (foreman) had told me how. . . . I had to lean way over to get it; the belt and ladder together threw me off. I know that all machinery is naturally dangerous; this machinery was not any more dangerous than any other machinery used in places like this, though I do not know that they have machines where they have a clutch to stop the shafting so as to put on the belt, but this machinery is not any more dangerous than other machinery. I complained to Mr. Brooks (foreman) about it. I told him that putting these belts on like they had to be put on was dangerous. He said well, he could not help it."
A witness for plaintiff testified that he knew such appliances as were used in modern furniture factories for shifting belts on running pulleys. Witness said: "Most of the machines I have ever operated have levers for shifting belts. . . . These appliances are in general use in all plants I have worked in."
Issues of negligence, contributory negligence, assumption of risk and damages were submitted and answered by the jury in favor of the plaintiff. The verdict awarded damages in the sum of $4,750. From judgment upon the verdict the defendant appealed. The chief question of law presented is this: Under what circumstances will the doctrine of assumption of risk bar recovery in personal injury actions?
The evidence discloses that the plaintiff was an experienced employee and was fully aware of the fact that the method of putting on belting, adopted by the defendant, was attended with danger. The law imposes upon an employer of labor the positive duty to use ordinary care in providing employees with reasonably safe methods and means to do the work for which they are employed. Jefferson v. Raleigh,
Again in Bissell v. Lumber Co.,
Our decisions are to the effect that mere knowledge of danger, ordinarily, does not preclude recovery unless the danger is so open, obvious and imminent that no man of ordinary prudence would continue to incur the risk thereof. If the danger is so open, obvious and imminent that no man of ordinary prudence would incur the risk thereof, then under such circumstances a workman who continues in the employment would be guilty of such contributory negligence as to bar a recovery. Russ v. Harper,
But who is to decide the question as to whether the danger is so open, obvious and imminent that no man of ordinary prudence would continue in the employment? This question has been answered by this Court in Medford v.Spinning Co., supra. Adams, J., said: "Whether the danger of putting the belt in the pulley when the machinery was in motion was so obvious that a man of ordinary prudence would not have gone on with the work, was a question for the jury to determine upon all the evidence." Parker v. Mfg.Co.,
Therefore, we are of the opinion that the trial judge ruled correctly in submitting the issues to the jury, and the verdict of the jury has determined the merits of the controversy.
No error.