39 App. D.C. 211 | D.C. Cir. | 1912
delivered the opinion of the Court:
The single question now presented is whether there was sufficient evidence upon which to submit the case to the jury. The defendant contends that “a ladder is a tool, and not a place to work,” and hence that it should not be held responsible for an injury resulting from the negligence of a coemployee in adjusting the ladder in question. It is true that, generally speaking, a ladder is classed as a tool (Bailey, Mast. & S. § 197; Cahill v. Hilton, 106 N. Y. 512, 13 N. E. 339; Borden v. Daisy Roller Mill. Co. 98 Wis. 407, 67 Am. St. Rep. 816, 74 N. W. 92), but that it may be more is, we think, apparent. When, in the construction of a building, ladders are furnished for indiscriminate and constantly changing use by carpenters and other employees, their employer is of course not expected to superintend or be responsible for such use. Under such conditions the use
We come, then, to the question whether there was evidence from which the jury might reasonably infer that defendant undertook to furnish and supervise the means of going from the first to the third floor of its building during the period covered by the evidence. In the first place, it must be kept in mind that there were several classes of employees engaged upon this building; that all used this ladder, there being no other means provided; that it was securely fastened, at least at two floors; that its position was not changed for many weeks, one of the witnesses fixing the period as covering three months. The testimony of the assistant foreman of carpenters that “they” had
When plaintiff was employed this securely fastened ladder projected from the first to the third floor of the building, and constituted the only means whereby access to and from the second and third floors could be had. And this means was not for carpenters alone, but was for. the general use of the various classes of workmen engaged upon the building. It is apparent from the testimony of the assistant foreman of carpenters that the bricklayers were not expected to adjust and secure the ladder in performing their work. If the company undertook to place and secure the ladder for the bricklayers, knowing, as the evidence shows it must have known, that it was to be used by all its workmen, then it was responsible to all, and the evidence warranted the jury in so finding.
On the question of whether the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence, little need be said. In the circumstances of the case, we think it was clearly a question for the jury whether the defective conditions producing the injury were known, or, in the exercise of reasonable care, should have been known, to the plaintiff. This was his first attempt at descending the ladder from tlie third story. He had made but a single ascent to this story, and testified that in making that ascent he did not step upon the rung in question, and did not notice its condition. Other witnesses had testified that their knowledge of the dangerous proximity of the rung to the cement form was gained by slipping from the rung, which testimony tends to
Judgment affirmed, with costs. Affirmed.