46 A.D. 298 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1899
This action is brought to recover damages for injuries arising out of the claimed negligence of the defendants. It appears from the testimony that the plaintiff was. employed to remove some machinery from the sub-basement on defendants’ premises,, and it may be assumed that he was authorized to make use of the freight elevator which ran from the sidewalk to the floor of the basement. This elevator was the ordinary kind generally in use for such purposes throughout the city. The plaintiff was entirely familiar with its character and use, and had engaged in the construction of such elevators. Having prepared his machinery for removal, he placed it upon the platform, of the elevator, and, getting thereon with his assistant, started the same, and when it had gone about twelve or fourteen feet it suddenly tipped, and the plaintiff was precipitated to the bottom of the shaft, receiving the injuries of which complaint is made.
Upon the testimony the jury would have been authorized to find that the occasion of the accident was the failure of the chain to wind about the drum situate at the bottom of the" shaft, which failure was produced either by the chain becoming slack or on account of the drum being out of plumb, which caused the chain to leave the drum upon one side and wind about the shaft.
It appeared in the case that elevators of this character frequently tipped in their operation from the causes heretofore mentioned, and in their operation it was ordinarily the duty of the operator to make observation of the drum and chain before using the same. The. mechanism of the elevator was extremely simple and thoroughly understood by the plaintiff, as well as was the danger in its operation. While the testimony is not entirely clear as to whether "the drum
It follows, therefore, that the complaint was properly dismissed, and that the judgment entered thereon should be affirmed.
Judgment unanimously affirmed, with costs,