FW Martin & Co. v. Cobb

CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)
Citation110 F.2d 159
Docket NumberNo. 11578.,11578.
PartiesF. W. MARTIN & CO. v. COBB.
Decision Date05 March 1940

R. L. Arnold, of Texarkana, Ark. (Atchley & Vance, of Texarkana, Tex., and Arnold & Arnold, of Texarkana, Ark., on the brief), for appellant.

Ben Shaver, of Texarkana, Ark. (James D. Shaver and James H. Williams, both of Texarkana, Ark., Jeptha A. Evans and Charles I. Evans, both of Booneville, Ark., Shaver, Shaver & Williams, of Texarkana, Ark., and Evans & Evans, of Booneville, Ark., on the brief), for appellee.

Before WOODROUGH and THOMAS, Circuit Judges, and NORDBYE, District Judge.

WOODROUGH, Circuit Judge.

In this suit against an employer for damages for personal injuries resulting in the death of its employee, the jury assessed damages in favor of the widow as administratrix in the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, and this appeal is taken by the employer from the judgment rendered against it on the verdict.

It was alleged in the plaintiff's complaint that at the time of the accident the defendant was engaged in drilling a well in the oil field in Miller County, Arkansas, by means of a derrick, machinery and appliances, and that the intestate, her husband Earl Cobb, was employed on the work as a common laborer. In the course of the operations while the decedent was standing on a deck of the derrick about thirty or forty feet above the floor thereof in the proper discharge of his duties, and while he was in the exercise of due care, being securely fastened to the derrick by means of a safety belt supplied him by the employer for that purpose, the derrick fell, inflicting fatal injuries upon him. Plaintiff alleged that the fall of the derrick and the resultant injuries were caused by defendant's negligence, "the particular act or acts of negligence on the part of defendant causing such injury to and death of the plaintiff's intestate being to her unknown but known to the defendant". The defendant denied any negligence on its part and alleged that the decedent's knowledge of the derrick machinery and appliances was equal to its own and that he had assumed the risks of his employment. It alleged that the falling of the derrick could not have been foreseen or anticipated by defendant and that it was an unavoidable accident.

It appears from the evidence that plaintiff's intestate was in defendant's employ as a driller's helper working on the derrick operated by defendant and that the falling of the derrick caused the injuries from which he died some thirteen hours later. The derrick was a Muskogee Iron Works steel derrick, 122 feet in height from the derrick floor, having a capacity of 537,000 pounds or 268 tons. The model was technically called M. I. W. 537 and was of approved standard construction, having been in general use in the oil field for approximately three years. The particular derrick had been successfully used in drilling at least two wells before its erection at the place where the accident in question occurred. The erection there was completed on July 15, 1938, and the derrick fell August 4, 1938.

The substructure of the derrick was of steel, approximately eight feet in height and rested on heavy wooden sills, the corners being made of 3×12 pine boards cross-laid with some 8×10 sills and some 12×12 sills. The derrick itself was also made entirely of steel and had four legs of steel angle irons 5.8×5 inches put together in fourteen foot sections, the space between the legs being twenty-four feet at the derrick floor and five feet six inches at the top of the derrick. Crossbars of straight ¼×4 inch angle irons were set between the derrick legs at seven foot intervals and the fourteen foot leg sections were held in place by four inch pieces of angle iron eight inches long, bolted on each side of the legs with ¾ inch bolts with lock washers, four bolts in the end of each opposing derrick leg. The land on which the derrick was built was level, no excavating having been necessary, and when completed the derrick was level and plumb and in good condition.

The V door of the derrick, which is a space left in one side in the shape of an inverted V through which pipe and drill stem may be pulled in, faced toward the north. The rotary table, through which the power was applied to turn the drill stem when drilling, was in the center of the derrick and some eighty feet above the floor. At the top of the derrick there was a roller or pulley called the crown block, and steel cables ran through and over the crown block down through another pulley suspended inside the derrick called the travelling block; the cable after passing through the travelling block went back over the crown block and down to the drum to which the steam engine which operates the travelling block was attached. The travelling block and the crown block constituted a block and tackle arrangement by means of which the drill stem was pulled out of the hole and the casing was let into the hole.

At the time of the accident there was a pipe rack on the south side of the derrick floor, and some eighty feet above the floor along the west side there was a finger board in which a series of slots were cut to hold sections of drill stem pipe. The defendant's custom when the drill stem pipe was not in use was to stand it in ninety foot lengths inside the derrick, the bottoms resting in the pipe rack on the derrick floor and the tops leaning in the slots in the finger board some eighty feet above the derrick floor. The stack of drill pipe would slant slightly and lean against the derrick side, but according to defendant's evidence it exerted very little pressure against that side due to its almost perpendicular position. The derrick was not equipped with pipe rack or finger board for stacking the drill stem pipe inside at the time it was built at the location.

The defendant carried on the drilling operation continuously through three shifts with eight men in crews working eight hours each. The work was under the direction of a supervisor, referred to as a "tool pusher", who might have several wells under his supervision, and a "driller" was in charge at each well, a Mr. Knight being the "driller" who directed the decedent in his work. The accident happened after the drilling had progressed to about 6,200 feet following five days of drilling.

The drilling shift of which decedent was a member came on at seven o'clock in the morning of the accident, and the preceding shift during the night before had pulled some 6,200 feet of drill stem pipe out of the hole, using for this purpose the steam engine, the drum and the block and tackle arrangement. The entire weight of the 6,200 feet of drill stem pipe had been put on the derrick in this operation of pulling the drill stem pipe out of the hole. As it was pulled it was separated into ninety foot sections or thribles, and was stacked inside the derrick in the pipe rack and finger board, there being about seventy sections of thribles in all. Its weight, together with the tool joints, was about fifty or sixty tons.

At the time the derrick fell the operation in progress was setting casing into the hole which had been drilled by use of the drill stem pipe and approximately 4,800 feet of casing had been set. The hole being full of mud and water, the method was to plug the lower end of the first section of the casing that was set by means of a ball valve that would exclude the mud and water from the casing, and then pump mud inside the casing in order to make the string of casing heavy enough to sink itself into the hole. The casing was in thirty foot sections, being lowered one section at a time, and as the joints were added mud was pumped inside the casing every twenty or twenty-five joints. The joints of casing were screwed on to each other, and while they were being screwed on the weight of the string of casing was supported by the rotary table, being held by slips with gripping teeth and not by the cables, block and tackle, or derrick. When a joint had been made secure by screwing it on, the driller would pick up the whole string of casing with the engine, putting the weight on the cables and derrick, the slips in the rotary table would be released and the whole string of casing would be let down into the hole with the cables and pulleys for an additional distance of thirty feet when the slips would again be brought into operation and the process repeated.

At the time the derrick started to fall, the weight of the string of 4,860 feet of casing was on the cables and derrick, and the string of casing was being let into the hole into which it was sinking by its own weight, the sinking being controlled by the driller through the brake on the drum around which the cable was wound. It was being run smoothly without jerks or jars, and in the usual and customary manner. As the casing was filled with mud its weight in the mud and water filled hole was the same as it would be empty on the ground, and was figured with the couplings at about thirty five tons, approximately twenty tons less than the weight of the drill stem pipe previously pulled out of the hole and then stacked in the derrick.

It appears that the northwest corner of the derrick gave way and the derrick fell in the direction toward which the drill stem pipe was stacked and slanted, with very little previous warning given. The stacked drill stem pipe was heard to rattle, but whether before the falling started or afterwards is not clear. The decedent was then working on the "stabbing board" laid across the frame of the derrick some thirty two feet above the floor, his duty being to help guide the thirty foot pipe sections at the top and while they were being screwed on to the string of pipe being lowered into the well. There was a safety rope stretched across the derrick and fastened at each end to the metal parts, and his safety belt held him fast to the rope so that if he should be jarred from the stabbing board in the course...

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    ... ... sidewalk below. Smith v. Kansas City Pub. Serv. Co., ... 328 Mo. 979, 43 S.W.2d 548; F. W. Martin & Co. v. Cobb ... (8th Cir.), 110 F.2d 159; Byrne v. Boadle (Court of ... Exchequer), 2 H. & C. 721, 159 Eng. Reprint 299; ... Gallagher v ... ...
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    ...8 Cir., 84 F.2d 706, 710; Chicago, St. P., M. & O. R. Co. v. Kulp, 8 Cir., 102 F.2d 352, 357, 358, 133 A.L.R. 1445; F. W. Martin & Co. v. Cobb, 8 Cir., 110 F.2d 159, 165, 166; Chicago, St. P., M. & O. Ry. Co. v. Muldowney, 8 Cir., 130 F.2d 971, 975. No purpose could be served by the citatio......
  • Tarbert v. Ingraham Company
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    ...states, such as the res ipsa loquitur doctrine, must be followed by the federal court sitting on a diversity case. F. W. Martin & Co. v. Cobb, 8 Cir., 1940, 110 F.2d 159; Coca Cola Bottling Co. of Henderson, Inc. v. Munn, 4 Cir., 1938, 99 F.2d 190. These decisions, however, are not determin......
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