45 N.Y.S. 873 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1897
The plaintiff, while in .the service of the defendants, sustained a personal injury, which lie charges was occasioned by their negligence. The business was the operation of two elevators, upon premises in the city of Brooklyn, known as the “ Beard Stores,” in elevating grain out of boats and discharging grain from the warehouse into vessels. The plaintiff was fireman of the stationary engine at one of- the elevators, in which service; he had been engaged for - nearly two years preceding July 5, 1894, when the accident in question occurred. He was directed by the engineer to assist in affixing a new condensing pump to the engine at the other elevator. This - was a cast iron pump, weighing about 800 pounds. By the direction of the engineer he- proceeded to break through a place in the concrete floor for the pump. The machinist of the defendants and one of the workmen, having bored a hole into the ceiling, screwed into it an eyebolt, to which was attached a fall chain for hoisting the pump. In doing this the plaintiff, by direction, -assisted, and when the pump was raised about three feet from the floor the eyebolt was, by the weight upon it, drawn1 out of the ceiling and the pump fell upion the plaintiff, -causing his injury. Upon this state of facts the question arises whether this accident was the consequence of the fail-' ure of the defendants to perform any duty which they owed to the plaintiff in his relation to them in the service.
The principles applicable' to, the relation of master and servant • bearing upon the questions presented for consideration are so well settled as to require no extended statement of them. While the servant assumes the ordinary hazards of the service in which he is engaged, including those resulting from the negligence of his co-employees, the master undertakes to use reasonable care in providing a safe place for him to do the work assigned to him, and to supply him with suitable implements and appliances. '
There is no question about the competency of the plaintiff’s co-employees, nor of the strength and sufficiency of the eyebolt. The difficulty arose from the failure to securely fasten it in the ceiling for the purpose designed. If this preparation for the work of
Much reliance seems to be placed upon Tomaselli v. Griffiths Cycle Corp. (9 App. Div. 127). There the cast iron bar, which was-an appliance furnished for use in the work, was defectively unfit for the purpose for and to which it was applied. Its frailty was the cause of the accident. It was there held that the question whether the master was chargeable with the want of due care in that respect was one of fact for the jury. That case, therefore, is distinguishable from the one at bar. There was also upon the evidence in the Tomaselli case the further element that the purpose of the structure there in question was not confined to. its use on a single occasion, but the object in view was its employment as long as the then existing emergency required it.
These views lead to the conclusion that the judgment and order should be affirmed.
All concurred.
Judgment and order unanimously affirmed, with costs.