59 Ind. App. 545 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1915
On September 5, 1911, Morton M. Hall, a foreman in appellant’s stone plant, in the city of Chicago, was severely injured by several large slabs of stone falling from a transfer truck over and upon him, while he was passing alongside a track on which a truck was being moved, transporting stone in appellant’s yard. Death resulted from the injury within two days thereafter; and for which appellee recovered a judgment against the appellant, for the benefit of his next of kin, in the sum of $6,000, on the ground that his death was caused by the negligent conduct of appellant. Prom this judgment appellant has appealed.
Errors relied upon for reversal are, (1) overruling appel
The complaint is in two paragraphs, the first paragraph embraces a charge of common-law negligence; the second is based upon a statute of the state of Illinois, requiring machinery and appliances to be guarded, and is similar to the usual factory act enacted by a number of the states in recent years for the protection of workingmen. In substance, the first paragraph of complaint alleges that appellant is the owner and operator of a stone sawmill in the city of Chicago, Illinois, and in the counties of Lawrence and Monroe, this State, and that decedent was employed in the Chicago plant as a foreman- with limited authority, subject to orders of appellant’s superintendent, and had been thus engaged for five weeks prior to the injury. In the plant was a tramway, on which a traveler was operated by electric power, which could run east and west on the tramway, or north and south on its carriage. A transfer track extended near the tramway, on which a stone truck was operated; a metal rope connected the traveler with the truck on which the stones were placed while being moved from the mill to the yard; within five feet of the transfer track on the east were a large number of mill blocks, which formed a stone wall ten feet high, and between the stone wall and the track was a passageway used by appellant’s employes in going from one side of the mill-yard to the other. On September 5, 1911, while appellee’s decedent was passing through the passageway, several large slabs of stone loaded oh the truck, weighing several thousand pounds, fell from the truck upon him, suddenly and without warning. That the injury was caused by the carelessness and negligence of appellant in adopting an improper method
It is contended Avith much earnestness that the answers to interrogatories are in irreconcilable conflict vsdth the general verdict on either paragraph of the complaint; that as to both paragraphs, because the answers to interrogatories disclose that the injury arose solely from the conduct of the fellow servant of appellee’s decedent; and on the first paragraph because appellee’s decedent received his alleged injuries from the dangers which he assumed in entering info and continuing in the employment; and on the second paragraph because he voluntarily encountered the danger, which was known to him, or could have been known by the exercise of ordinary care, that he voluntarily selected a dangerous way to go from the yard to the mill, when there was a safe way open and known to him, and further that under this paragraph, the answers disclose that no provi
No available error being found in tbe record, judgment is affirmed.
Note. — Reported in 109 N. E. 424. As to how far servant may rely on knowledge of master in assuming risk, see 24 Am. St. 320. As to different forms of statement of the general rule with respect to master’s duty as to place and appliances furnished to servant, see 6 L. R. A. (N. S.) 602. On servant’s assumption of risk of master’s breach of statutory duly, see 6 L. R. A. (N. S.) 981; 19 L. R. A. N. S.) 646; 22 L. R. A. (N. S.) 634; 33 L. R. A. (N. S.) 647; 49 L. R. A. (N. S.) 471 ; L. R. A. 1015 E 527. As to knowledge as element of employer’s liability, see 41 L. R. A. 33. Assumption of risk on failure of employer to perform statutory duty, see 4 Ann. Cas. 599; 13 Ann. Cas. 36; Ann. Cas. 1913 C 210. See, also, under (1) 26 Cyc. 1097, 1136, 1177, 1226; (2) 26 Cyc. 1384; (3) 26 Cyc. 1302; (4) 26 Cyc. 1392; (5) 26 Cyc. 1079, 1134; (7) 26 Cyc. 1389; (8) 26 Cyc. 1305; (9) 38 Cyc. 1027; (10) 16 Cyc. 1084; (11) 26 Cyc. 1513; (12) 26 Cyc. 1180; (13) 38 Cyc. 1869; (14) 38 Cyc. 1927; (15) 20 Cyc. 1515; (17) 38 Cyc. 1928; (18) 26 Cyc. 1494; (19) 38 Cyc. 1778; (20) 26 Cyc. 1491, 1497; (21) 38 Cyc. 1711; (22) 17 Cyc. 60.