Tinkham v. Sawyer

Citation153 Mass. 485,27 N.E. 6
PartiesTINKHAM v. SAWYER et al.
Decision Date03 April 1891
CourtUnited States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

Report from superior court, Suffolk county; JOHN W HAMMOND, Judge.

HEADNOTES

Labor and Employment 2857

231H ----

231HXVII Employer's Liability to Employees

231HXVII(B) Working Conditions and Methods of Performing Work

231Hk2857 Covering or Guarding Dangerous Machinery or Places.

(Formerly 148Ak54 Employers' Liability, 255k121(2) Master and Servant)

A wool picker in defendant's cotton mill contained a revolving cylinder with teeth a few inches inside an opening, a foot wide and four feet long, two feet from the floor. It was necessary to sprinkle oil on the wool in the machine, from which cause the floor was slippery. Held, that the defendants were not bound to cover the opening, even if the process which the machine was presumed to perform would have permitted it.

Labor and Employment 2904

231H ----

231HXVII Employer's Liability to Employees

231HXVII(C) Warnings Regarding Work Performed

231Hk2904 Youthful Employees.

(Formerly 148Ak88 Employers' Liability, 255k153(5) Master and Servant)

A boy over 16 worked a day and a half about a wool picker in defendants' mill. He helped to clean it several times and was repeatedly warned that it was dangerous. The machine contained a revolving cylinder, with teeth a few inches inside an opening a foot wide and four feet long, two feet from the floor. It was necessary to sprinkle oil on the wool in the machine, from which cause the floor was slippery. There was no guard before this opening. While gathering wool blown therefrom, the boy went so near that, when he slipped his hand was caught in the cylinder. Held, that defendants were not negligent in failing to warn and instruct the boy.

Labor and Employment 2985

231H ----

231HXVII Employer's Liability to Employees

231HXVII(F) Contributory Negligence; Diminution of Damages

231Hk2985 Inexperienced or Youthful Employee.

(Formerly 148Ak148 Employers' Liability, 255k230(7) Master and Servant)

A boy over 16 worked a day and a half about a wool picker in defendant's mill. The machine contained a revolving cylinder, with teeth, a few inches inside an opening a foot wide and four feet long, two feet from the floor. It was necessary to sprinkle oil on the wool in the machine, from which cause the floor was slippery. There was no guard before the opening. While gathering wool blown therefrom, the boy went so near that when he slipped his hand was caught in the cylinder. Held, that the injury was caused by the boy's own want of care in placing himself so near the machine that if he slipped there was danger that his arm or some portion of his body would go into it.

COUNSEL

J.D Long, for plaintiff.

G.O. Shattuck and W.A. Munroe, for defendants.

OPINION

MORTON J.

We are unable to discover in this case any ground on which it can be held that the defendants are liable. The plaintiff was at the time of the accident somewhat over 16 years of age, and of at least ordinary intelligence, and had been in the employ of the defendants about a month. Up to the forenoon of the day before the accident he had been attending to cards in the carding-room of defendants' mill. He was then set to work to help tend the machine on which he was injured, the accident occurring about the middle of the forenoon of the next day. He was told by the man who set him to work on it that the machine was a dangerous one, and not to touch it when in motion. This was repeated to him by the man who was running the machine. He testified himself that he knew the machine was dangerous when it was going, and that it was going at the time of the accident. During the day and more that he worked on the machine he helped clean it a...

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