207 Ky. 364 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1924
Opinion of the Court by
Reversing.
Forrest Ashcraft, who was then 17 years old, was employed by appellants in their restaurant. It was. a part of his duty to bring a five-gallon coffee pot from the kitchen and pour the coffee in an urn which sat in the restaurant. When he had been at work there about a week he fell while pouring the coffee into the urn and was ibadly burned by the boiling coffee. -He brought this suit to recover for his injury, and on final hearing there was a verdict and judgment in his favor for $500.00. The defendants appeal.
His own statement of the facts briefly put is as follows):
“'The first morning I went there I carried the coffee up. in front to pour it into the urn and when I went up there with the coffee to pour it in Mr. Fowler (appellant) told me I was not tall enough to pour it in there and he pulled out a box from under the counter and told me to stand upon that. I stood upon the box and I had to get the coffee up over my head to pour it in the urn. The top of the urn was 5 1/3 feet from the floor. After that I poured out the coffee as he told me by standing on this box, as he directed. The box held pancake flour. The morning I was hurt some of the cooks took out of the box a part of the flour and I stepped upon that box and it wasn’t solid and I stood back on the edge of the box to place my foot and pour the coffee into the urn and as I stepped back with my foot on the edge of the box the box turned over and I went onto the floor and turned the whole five gallons of coffee on me.” ■ -
“To the general rule that an employer is bound to inspect and test the tools and appliances furnished to his employees and to keep1 them in sufficient repair, there is an exception in the case of common or simple tools. In_ regard to these it is settled that no duty of inspection devolves upon the employer if the tools are reasonably safe when furnished.” 18 R. C. L. 563.
The court should have, therefore, instructed the jury peremptorily to find for the defendant.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded for a new trial.