11 S.E.2d 682 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1940
1. A master must warn a servant of the conditions under which he is employed which are liable to engender disease, and must furnish suitable protection from such danger, provided that the master is in a position to have greater knowledge of the danger than the servant.
2. While the master is chargeable with knowledge of the fact that fumes or dust, given off by the various substances used in industrial processes, are poisonous to persons who inhale them, and may engender in his servant lead poisoning, a disease, the servant, in the absence of a warning by the master, will not be presumed to have knowledge thereof.
3. A servant in a metallic-casket manufacturing business, the material from which the caskets are made being covered and coated with lead, will not be held, as a matter of law, to have known that the inhalation of fumes, dust, and particles of lead would likely engender or produce in the person inhaling them lead poisoning, an incurable disease, so as to be charged with assumption of the risk.
The petitioner by amendment alleged, that had the defendant made a scientific investigation it could have easily ascertained that a person might contract lead poisoning from inhaling, swallowing, or absorbing lead particles; that had the defendant furnished to the petitioner a mask or guard for his nose or mouth, to protect him from inhaling or swallowing lead particles, he would not have contracted lead poisoning as alleged; and that had the defendant furnished a suction device for filtering or carrying away said lead dust or lead particles, or had otherwise filtered the air before it reached the petitioner's lungs, he would not have contracted lead poisoning as alleged.
The court sustained a general demurrer to the petition as amended, and the plaintiff excepted.
A master must use reasonable care and diligence to provide a safe place for his servant to perform the work for which he employs him. Therefore a master should make reasonable provision for his protection against dangers to which he is necessarily exposed while performing such work. Jackson v. Merchants c. Transportation Co.,
It is the duty of an employer to warn and instruct his employees and furnish them with means to avoid inhaling fumes which are poisonous or injurious to their health. Jacque v. Lock Insulator Cor., 70 Fed. 2d, 680, 683, and cit. This duty is based upon an assumption of the master's greater knowledge of the dangers incident to the employment. A master, employing in his business substances and processes of which some one has or should have scientific knowledge, must acquaint the servant with the dangers ascertainable by a knowledge of scientific principles, and to which the servant in his ignorance will be otherwise subjected. Adams v. Grand Rapids Refrigerator Co.,
In O'Connor v. Armour Packing Co., 158 Fed. 241, the court, after laying down the well-established principle as to the duty of the master to furnish the servant a safe place to work, said: "The same principle is applicable where the servant is put to work on material that is dangerous to his health or life. The duty of *626
the master in this respect is primary and nonassignable." In Pigeon v. W. P. Fuller Co.,
The decision of this court in Connell v. Fisher BodyCor.,
It follows that the judge erred in sustaining the general demurrer and dismissing the action.
Judgment reversed. Sutton and Felton, JJ., concur.