222 Wis. 623 | Wis. | 1936
This case was brought in this court under ch. 285, Stats. 1933. Sec. 285.03 of that chapter, repealed since commencement of this action, provides that cases against the state where the legislature has denied a claim shall be brought in the supreme court. The case was referred to the circuit court for Waushara county for trial of the issues of fact by a jury, in accordance with said statute. The record has been returned with a verdict of a jury and the evidence upon which it is based. The only question involved is .the amount the state must pay forpnen and machinery furnished by the Leola Farms Company, a corporation of which the plaintiff is the trustee in bankruptcy, to fight fires at the request of a state forest ranger. The jury fixed the reasonable value of men’s work at fifteen cents per hour. The plaintiff
Ch. 285, Stats., applies to actions against the state after the legislature has refused to allow claims presented against it. Sec. 285.03, Stats. 1933, provided that the supreme court should “hear and determine” such actions. It also' provided that if issues of fact should be raised in such actions, which the court should deem necessary to be tried by a jury, the court should certify the issue to some circuit court to' try such issue “by a jury as in other cases.” The statute further provided that upon return of the verdict the court might “enter judgment thereon or again certify the same question of fact . . . to be tried and returned,” and might grant a new trial of any issue of fact as often as it should be satisfied good cause therefor existed.
Neither party is asking for a new trial in the instant case. Each party asks the judgment of the court in accordance with the record as now before us. Upon that record we are constrained to rule that there is no evidence whatever to sup-; port the finding of the jury of seventy-five cents per hour as
The phrase “trial by jury as in other cases” above quoted from the statute doubtless implies that the jury’s findings are to be given the same consideration and weight that verdicts of juries returned in cases brought in the circuit courts are given. Such verdicts cannot be disturbed unless under any reasonable view of the whole evidence they are without support. With this rule in mind we must determine whether the findings of the jury can stand, and, if not, whether the least amount which a jury could reasonably fix under all the evidence bearing upon the point is as claimed by the plaintiff.
The kind of work involved was fighting fire. The record discloses that it was hard and fatiguing. The daily hours of service were long. At times some of the men driving tractors worked as long as thirty-six hours continuously without sleep. Two' fires are involved. They were peat and forest fires. While the record does not so show, such work, as matter of common knowledge, by reason of subjection to smoke, heat, and wind, causes great physical discomfort and distress. The service is compulsory. Sec. 26.14 (1), Stats. The statute, in sub. (3), provides that workmen shall “receive such pay as the [conservation] commission may determine, but not to exceed thirty-five cents per hour.” The commission refused in the instant case to allow anything. Obviously, when men are called upon to work in putting out fires under the statute last cited, the commission must allow them some compensation, and, in case of the commission’s refusal to pay, the state is liable to compensate the men for the reasonable value of their work up to the maximum limit
From all this evidence, and this is all the evidence there is to the point, we are convinced that thirty-five cents per hour is the least that a jury could reasonably find the service of the
By the Court. — The clerk of the court will enter judgment in accordance with the opinion.