56 Ind. App. 235 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1914
The only question of importance presented in this appeal is the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict. The action was against appellant to recover damages for personal- injuries received by appellee while in appellant’s employ as a deckhand or fleetman, on appellant’s steamboat Harry Brown, which was towing a fleet
The evidence showed that a hasty landing had to be made on account of the storm, that the ladder in question was taken from its place at the head of the fleet, and put down over the side of the barge, which stood about eight feet above the water, that there were at the time of the injury three rungs missing from the ladder, that appellee was ordered by the mate who was standing within ten feet of the ladder, where he could see its condition, to take a line ashore, and appellee started down with a heavy coil of line, his back to the ladder, and was injured by attempting to step where a rung was missing, thereby falling; that appellee had not used the ladder before, and could not see that the rounds were missing because of the upright position of “the ladder, the coil of line which he was carrying on his shoulder, and the haste with which he was required to execute the order. The mate, who was second in charge of the boat, the men and the appliances, had ordered the ladder placed at the head of the fleet at. Evansville, and while standing where he could see it, ordered another deckhand to put it out
Note. — Reported in 105 N. E. 160. See, also, under (1) 3 Cyc. 348; (2) 26 Cyc. 1441; (3) 38 Cyc. 1809, 1815, 1778.