Cashman v. Chase

• Decision Date: 09 May 1892
• Citation: 31 N.E. 4,156 Mass. 342
• Parties: CASHMAN v. CHASE.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

156 Mass. 342

31 N.E. 4

CASHMAN v. CHASE.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

May 9, 1892

COUNSEL

Linus M Child, for plaintiff.

John Lowell, Jr., and S.H. Smith, for defendant.

OPINION

BARKER, J.

The plaintiff, while at work in the hold of a vessel, was struck by a hook swinging at the end of a fall, and which escaped from the control of a fellow workman. The fall was raised and lowered by a steam engine placed on a lighter between the vessel and the wharf. The orders to raise and lower were given by a workman in the hold to a stage man on the deck of the vessel, and by him repeated to the engineer. The hook was in the hands of a workman in the hold, and it was necessary to lower the fall to enable him to attach the hook to a bundle of laths. The order to lower was correctly given to the stageman, and repeated by him to the engineer who raised the fall when he was told to lower; and the hook was thus pulled away from the workman who held it, and swung against the plaintiff. The plaintiff can recover only by showing that the act of the engineer was one for which the defendant was responsible under the provision of the employers' liability act. If it was merely the act of a fellow workman the action cannot be maintained. The plaintiff contends that the engineer was a person intrusted with and exercising superintendence, whose sole or principal duty was that of superintendence, and that the act of raising the fall was an act of superintendence. The engineer had charge of the engine, and was running it continuously during the progress of the work, and by operating the engine raised and lowered the fall. His station was upon the lighter at the engine. The hold of the vessel was out of his sight. There were four men in the hold, whose work was to collect the bundles of laths into heaps, around which they put a rope. When the fall was lowered the hook was attached to the rope, and a signal given to the stageman, who signaled to the engineer to raise or lower as the work in the hold required. The engineer employed the men in the first instance, and set them at work. He went into the hold on several occasions, for a few moments at a time, and showed them how to adjust the rope around the bundles of laths. He discharged and employed men. The unloading of the vessel took two or three days, and the men were paid by the defendant in person, who was there several times for a short time. The...