132 Wis. 367 | Wis. | 1907
This case was here upon a former appeal. 127 Wis. 104-113, 106 N. W. 805. The special verdict considered on that appeal was substantially the same as on this appeal, except that the damages were less. Pages 107, 108. On that appeal the judgment was reversed on the sole ground that the instructions to the jury were general on questions of ultimate fact, and “plainly informed them of the legal effect of their findings on negligence, contributory negligence, and assumption of risk.” Pages 110, 111. It is claimed that in charging the jury on the last trial the court fell into the same error that was thus held to be fatal on the first appeal. The records in that respect are quite different. Mr. Justice Siebec-Kek, in writing the opinion of the court on that appeal, said:
“Before giving instructions on the special verdict on different aspects of the case, the court charged the jury generally concerning the nature and theory of plaintiff’s case, and the classes of facts they would need to consider in negligence cases.” Page 111.
This may be verified by reference to pages 80 to 83 of the printed case on that appeal. Yol. 809, Cases and Briefs.
2. No exception was taken to tbe charge of tbe court under tbe first question of tbe special verdict, so it must be regarded as a verity in tbe ease tbat tbe plaintiff was injured by her hair being caught on tbe set-screw used to fasten tbe second slitter from tbe west end of tbe machine to tbe shaft.
3. Exception is taken to a portion of tbe charge under tbe second question submitted to tbe jury to tbe effect tbat, in determining whether the place where tbe plaintiff was working at tbe time of her injury was “rendered not reasonably safe by reason of tbe presence and condition of said set-screw,” tbe jury should “take into consideration all of tbe evidence in tbe case, ... all of tbe facts and circumstances proven in
4. By the third question submitted to the jury they were called upon to determine whether the defendant was negligent in permitting said set-screw to be and remain on said machine, as it was. After stating that the inquiry referred to in this question was as to the time of the plaintiff’s injury, August 24, 1903, the court charged the jury at some length under that third question, each clause thereof being excepted to by counsel for the defendant. The portions of such charge relating to the statutory requirement are as follows:
“Whether the defendant company was negligent in the regard inquired of in this question depends upon whether or not the said set-screw was so located on the said slitter shaft as to be dangerous to employees while in the discharge of their duties. Our statute provides that the owner or manager of every place where persons are employed to perform labor shall securely guard or fence all shafting which is so located as to be dangerous to employees in the discharge of their duty. And if this set-screw in question was so located on the slitter shaft as to be dangerous to employees in the discharge of their duty, then, under the requirements of said statute, it was the duty of the defendant company to fence or in some way guard said set-screw on said shaft. The failure to guard or fence a set-screw on a shaft so located as to be dangerous to employees while in the discharge of their duty would be negligence. If the set-screw was not so located as to be dangerous to employees in the discharge of their duty, then there would be no occasion whatever for guarding or fencing it in any wise, and there could be no negligence in such case on the part of the defendant company in not guarding or fencing the set-screw in question.”
5. Counsel for the defendant contend that the revolving shaft, with the set-screw thereon, is not included in the word “shafting,” and hence was not required by the statute quoted to be “guarded or fenced,” even if it was “so located as to be dangerous to employees in the discharge of their duty.” The title of the original act above cited is: “An act to regulate factories, workshops and other places of employment.” The head of the section is, in part: “Safeguards for Machinery,” etc. The words employed in the section are general and not specific. The obvious purpose .of the section is to require “the owner or manager of every place where persons are employed to perform labor,” therein referred to, to protect such employees by properly safeguarding them against the action of any of the things therein named, when “so located as to be dangerous to employees in the discharge of their duty.” Of course, the requirement of the section is not to be extended by construction beyond the meaning of the language employed. 2 Lewis’s Suth. St-at Const. (2d ed.) § 589. The general purpose of the statute, however, may be considered in construing, such language. Id. § 590. It is there said:
“In statutes the sense signified is the law. The letter is but its servant or its vehicle.” “Where the intent of the act is manifest, particular words may have an effect quite beyond their natural signification in aid of that intent.”
The word shafting is defined by the Standard Dictionary:
“A system of stout rods or shafts, usually cylindrical, mounted in bearings, and serving to carry pulleys, gear*378 wheels, or the like, for communicating power, as from a motor to machines. . . . Flexible shafting — a device made up of advancing spiral wire coils, serving to transmit rotary motion around corners, etc., to portable machinery.”
The definitions given in the Century Dictionary are quite similar, and define “shafting” as the system of shafts which connects machinery with the prime mover, and through which motion is communicated to the former by the latter.” In the case at bar the power or motion was communicated to the slitters from the shaft to which they were attached by means of set-screws. This court has inferentially, if hot directly, spoken on the subject. Thus it has been held:
“In ah action by an employee for an injury alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the employer in not covering or guarding his machinery, the question whether” the statute quoted “required it to be covered or guarded depends upon whether it was 'so located as to be dangerous to employees when engaged in their ordinary duties,’ and that is a question of fact for the jury.” Guinard v. Knapp-Stout & Co. Co. 95 Wis. 482, 484, 485, 70 N. W. 671.
In that case the defendant requested the trial “court to instruct the jury that no statute law in this state required the defendant to cover or guard the set-screw on which the plaintiff was caught,” but the court refused to give such instruction, and this court held that such refusal was not error. In that case the plaintiff “was oiling a rapidly revolving shaft at the time of the injury, and his coat sleeve was caught in a set-screw which projected from the collar upon the shaft,” and he sustained serious injuries. There was no guard or covering for the shaft or set-screws in that case. S. C. 90 Wis. 123, 125, 62 N. W. 625. In a later case.it was held that the question whether, under the statute quoted, “an employer is negligent in failing to guard a set-screw on a paper winder projecting nine sixteenths of an inch above the surface is for the jury.” Kreider v. Wis. River P. & P. Co. 110 Wis. 645, 648, 649, 656, 657, 86 N. W. 662. In that case a collar at the
“We cannot hold as a matter of law that the defendant was not guilty of negligence by reason of such projecting setscrew being unguarded.”
See, also, Thompson v. Johnston Bros. Co. 86 Wis. 676, 57 N. W. 298, where the location of the steel cord and check lines was such as to be dangerous to the operator of the elevator. We cannot hold as a matter of law that the defendant was not guilty of negligence by reason of such projecting setscrew being unguarded.
6. Nor do we perceive any error in permitting the jury to consider, in connection with other evidence in the case, the fact that some time prior to the injury a bar or girth, located about nine inches below the slitter shaft, at the place where the plaintiff afterwards was required to work, had been taken out, and the purpose of placing it there and the reasons for taking it out. It related to the conduct of the defendant prior to the injury in respect to the place where the injury occurred. It may have had some bearing upon the question of negligence submitted to the jury by the third question of the special verdict.
7. The substance of the answer of the jury to the fourth question submitted is set forth in the foregoing statement. It is quite lengthy and need not be here repeated. Counsel excepted to the portions of the charge in submitting that question to the jury to the effect that it is the duty of an employer to provide a safe place for his employees to work, and in doing this he is only required to exercisé ordinary care and prudence — that is, such care and prudence as the great mass
8. On the former appeal it was held that the questions of the plaintiff’s assumption of risk and contributory negligence were questions of fact to be determined by the jury. Van de Bogart v. Marinette & M. P. Co. 127 Wis. 104, 108, 110, 106 N. W. 805. This is referred to by counsel; and it is conceded that the evidence on the last trial was, upon most points, the same as on the first, but that in one particular it goes a little further by proof on the part of the defendant that some of the girls employed in the mill used a “cutter stick,” a little plain stick like a rule, about eighteen inches
9. Exceptions are taken because, in charging the jury on the question of contributory negligence submitted to them by the fifth and sixth questions of the special verdict, they were told that “by ordinary care” on the part of the plaintiff was “meant such care as the great mass of girls of her age ordinarily exercise under the same or similar circumstances.” They were also told that it was “the duty of an employed to use ordinary care — that is, such care as the great mass of persons ordinarily use under the same or similar circumstances — to discover, observe, and appreciate such dangers as attend the work they are employed to perform and to avoid all known dangers and such as may be known or ascertained by the exercise of ordinary care.” They were also told that the plaintiff, “being a minor, would not be held to the same
10. The only other ground urged for reversal is that the damages are excessive. They are very large, but the injury sustained is very severe. It is enough to say that we do not feel authorized 'to disturb the verdict. We find no reversible error in the record.
By the Court. — The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.