Berg v. B.B. Fuel Company
| Decision Date | 03 July 1913 |
| Docket Number | 18,104 - (206) |
| Citation | 142 N.W. 321,122 Minn. 323 |
| Parties | ANNA BERG v. B.B. FUEL COMPANY |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Action in the district court for Hennepin county by the mother of John Berg, a minor, to recover $10,300 for injury to her son in a so-called bark machine or conveyor. The case was tried before Dickinson, J., who at the close of plaintiff's testimony and at the end of the case denied defendant's motions for a directed verdict, and a jury which returned a verdict of $775 in favor of plaintiff. From an order denying defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial, it appealed. Affirmed.
Rule of "turntable cases" -- evidence.
1. Evidence held sufficient to sustain a recovery, under the doctrine of the "turntable cases," for injury to a 10-year old boy from an unconcealed unguarded, and unprotected bark machine, consisting of an endless chain running in a slanting trough, and used for removing bark from the river at a place, within a city, where children frequently bathed, fished, and gathered wood.
Contributory negligence.
2. Evidence held not to show contributory negligence as a matter of law.
Elijah Barton, for appellant.
Grotte & Bowen, for respondent.
Plaintiff sued on behalf of her minor son for damages for a personal injury received by him. She had a verdict, and the defendant appealed from an order denying its alternative motion.
It is undisputed that, for some years prior to the time of the injury, defendant had been operating, on premises leased by it and located on the river bank in the city of Minneapolis a bark machine, used for the purpose of conveying bark from the river to the bank. It consisted of a trough from 12 to 18 inches wide and some five inches deep, extending from the river upward for about 100 feet and at an angle of about 30 degrees. An endless chain ran in a groove in the bottom of the trough. Above the chain and at right angles thereto a number of cross-bars about three inches wide and 14 inches long were fastened to the chain at intervals of four or five feet, so that when in motion they carried bark and refuse up the trough. About 15 feet from the river and three or four feet above the trough, a timber extended across it at right angles, underneath which and serving as a support to the trough, was another timber extending beyond each side. The machine was operated by an electric motor, all parts of which were housed under the same. When in motion the chain traveled nearly as fast as a man can walk.
On August 31, 1911, while the machine was in operation plaintiff's son, then about ten and one-half years old, while sitting on the cross-timber which held the trough, took hold of a piece of wood about two inches thick, six inches wide, and four feet long, which was moving, in the trough, and lifted it so that his thumb was caught between the end of the wood and the upper cross-piece, whereupon the chain pushed the wood against his hand, causing the injury complained of.
The only question involved, so far as plaintiff's claims are concerned, is whether the facts bring this case within the doctrine of the so-called "turntable cases." The foundations of this doctrine have so frequently been discussed, that it is necessary here merely to advert to...
To continue reading
Request your trial