142 P. 537 | Or. | 1914
delivered the opinion of the court.
The pleadings and the evidence on behalf of the plaintiff disclose substantially a case as follows: The defendant L. B. Wattis Company was a subcontractor under the Utah Construction Company for the grading of a railroad bed in Lane County. For use in the enterprise, it had transported by railway, to a point near which it was to be employed, a steam shovel weighing upward of 30 tons, together with the appliances convenient for its operation. The various parts of the machine having been unloaded from the cars, it was assembled and moved a short distance on a temporary track up what is said to be about a 12 per cent grade. In this process the shovel, with its engine and machinery was mounted on a short flat car having two sets of trucks, one at the forward end and the other at the rear of the platform. Owing to the steepness of the grade, the machine could not be moved wholly by its own power up the incline. Having proceeded to the foot of the hill, it became necessary to fasten a snatch block to stumps along the line through which a cable was rove and carried back to the windlass on the car. The machinery was then started and wound up the cable, with the result that the whole outfit was moved gradually up the hill. In so doing it was requisite to chock the wheels of the car trucks with a heavy railroad tie to prevent the machine from rolling back down the hill when the engine was stopped. The workmen accompanying’ the concern consisted of three Americans and six Greeks, among the last of whom the decedent was one. After the machine had been moved part way up the incline, the men in charge decided to extend the cable to a new hold. The stump
We hold, therefore, that there was testimony which the jury was entitled to consider as showing that the chain in question was an appliance furnished by the defendant for use in the operation of the shovel; that it was worn and defective; that the defendant knew, or with reasonable diligence might have known, of
The judgment is affirmed. Affirmed.