Dowling v. Allen

• Decision Date: 17 November 1890
• Citation: 14 S.W. 751,102 Mo. 213
• Parties: Dowling v. Gerard B. Allen & Co., Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

14 S.W. 751

102 Mo. 213

Dowling v. Gerard B. Allen & Co., Appellant

Supreme Court of Missouri

November 17, 1890

Appeal from St. Louis County Circuit Court. -- Hon. W. W. Edwards Judge.

This is an action for damages for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff while in defendant's employ and by reason of alleged negligence of the latter. The defense was a denial and a plea of plaintiff's contributory negligence, which the reply put in issue.

The injury complained of occurred in 1872. The present action was begun in 1875. Plaintiff was obliged to take a nonsuit under the rulings of the circuit court at the first trial, but that judgment was reversed and the cause remanded on appeal to the St. Louis court of appeals (Dowling v. Allen, 6 Mo.App. 195) whose judgment was approved by this court in an opinion reported in 74 Mo. 13. The cause was then retried in 1882 in St. Louis county (to which a change of venue had been taken). The result was a verdict for plaintiff for $ 10,000. An appeal was taken therefrom to this court where that judgment was reversed and the cause remanded in a decision reported in 88 Mo. 293.

In 1886 a new trial was had before the circuit court of St. Louis county with the aid of a jury. A verdict and judgment were then rendered for plaintiff for $ 12,000. After the usual motions the present appeal was taken.

The evidence tended to show that plaintiff was an employe in the foundry of defendant, and, at the time of the accident seventeen years of age. He was inexperienced in the business of which fact the superintendent who engaged him was aware. For some months he ran errands and did similar light work but afterwards was put in the machine-shop and in the yard where a turntable for a bridge was being built under direction of King, another employe. His father told King it was a dangerous place for the boy. The foreman, who had engaged plaintiff, directed him to obey the orders of King.

On the day of the accident plaintiff had been working the rachet handle on the turntable. There was an engine, near by, which ran the machinery in the shop. At noon the steam was shut off from it and the hands stopped for dinner. There was, close to the turntable, a revolving shaft (connected with the machinery) on which was a set screw in a collar to keep the shaft in place. The latter was some twelve feet long, six inches in diameter and about ten inches above the floor. It was covered except for a space of about three feet at the end nearest the turntable. The collar at that end of the shaft was about an inch and a half thick, and the set screw about two inches high above it. When the shaft was running it made some two hundred and fifty revolutions a minute and the set screw could not then be seen, owing to the rapidity of its motion. The shaft, at the end where the set screw was, bore on a supporting pole, and further along the shaft was a pulley wheel.

It is not necessary to pursue this description further into details as the situation of the various parts of the machinery material to the case will be easily understood from the accompanying cut.

[SEE ILLUSTRATION IN ORIGINAL]

THE FOREGOING CUT REPRESENTS THE SITUATION AS DESCRIBED IN DEFENDANT'S TESTIMONY.

1. Is the place where young Dowling was working when he started to turn off the engine.

2. Is where King and Cook were standing.

3. Is the collar and set screw.

4. Is the engine he started to stop.

On the day of the accident when the noon hour came King told plaintiff to stop the engine. This could easily be done by anyone, and plaintiff had done it often before. He proceeded to execute the order and was told to "hurry up." He had a choice of routes to reach the engine but took that leading by way of the shaft referred to. He testified that there was a space of some two and a half feet (often used by other men) as a passage way over the shaft next to the supporting post and that he was going that way; that he had never observed the set screw before, nor been warned of it and it had never been pointed out to him; that as he was about to go over the shaft the set screw caught his pants and drew his leg under the shaft, resulting in injuries which cost him that member.

There was a sharp conflict in the evidence on several points, one of which will be specially noted. Defendant's testimony was to the effect that there were only some six inches of open space next to the supporting pole of the shaft in question, on the side toward the set screw, and it tended to show that a passage over the shaft at that point could not be made. There was abundant evidence from which the jury might have inferred contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff, or might have found that he was exercising ordinary care. They found the latter as the fact.

The evidence at the last trial was in every substantial particular the same as that given at the former one (reported 88 Mo. 293).

No exceptions were taken to the rulings upon the testimony.

No instructions were refused by the court. Those given were as follows:

For plaintiff:

"1. The jury are instructed that, if they find for plaintiff, they will assess his damages at such an amount as in their judgment will compensate him for the pain and suffering he sustained by reason of his injury, together with such a sum as will compensate him for the permanent injury they find he has sustained by reason of the loss of his leg, not exceeding in all the sum of $ 20,000."

Number 2 appears fully in the opinion of the court.

"3. The court instructs the jury that although they may find from the evidence that the set screw and collar attached to the shaft were visible, and the danger in passing over the same was apparent to a person of mature years, or one accustomed to the use of such machinery, yet if the jury further find from the evidence that, by reason of the youth and inexperience of plaintiff, he was not aware of the danger to himself from said set screw and collar, the fact that they were so visible or apparent will not defeat his right to recover in this case.

"4. The court instructs the jury that, if they find from the evidence that the collar and set screw was run in defendant's machine shop in such manner as to expose the employes therein of the age and experience of plaintiff to the danger of injury in approaching or passing over the same, the fact that they may be run in the same manner in other machine shops will not relieve the defendant from liability therefor."

For defendant:

"1. The jury is instructed that the defendant as proprietor of the machine shop was not an insurer of its employes against the danger of its machinery, but in the supplying of machinery at its shop it was required in law to furnish only such as was reasonably suitable for the work to be done. If therefore, the jury find from the evidence that defendant supplied and maintained the same machinery ordinarily supplied and maintained by reasonable and prudent men for like purposes, then defendant is not liable for negligence in providing such machinery.

"2. The court instructs the jury that the law does not require or exact of the proprietors of machinery that it shall be absolutely free from risk or danger to operatives, but only that ordinary care to that end shall be observed in its construction and in the order or repair in which it is kept; and the court further instructs you that the ordinary perils, risks and dangers arising from the use of such machinery are assumed by the employes who undertake to work in and about such machinery, and the employer cannot be held answerable in an action for damages for injuries occasioned by the dangers, risks and perils ordinarily incident to the use of such machinery.

"3. If the jury find from the evidence that the shaft and set screw upon which the plaintiff was injured were in the same condition in respect to guards or protection in which they were at the time plaintiff entered defendant's employ, and that the danger of such condition, if any, was open and apparent to common or ordinary observation, the verdict must be for defendant.

"4. If the jury believe from the evidence that the injury to plaintiff was caused by his own negligence immediately contributing thereto, and that by the exercise of ordinary prudence and caution he could have avoided the injury, they must find for the defendant.

"5. The fact that the employe is a minor when injured does not change or increase the responsibility of his employer to him unless...