Bledsoe v. Capital City Laundry Co.
| Decision Date | 03 December 1923 |
| Docket Number | No. 14852.,14852. |
| Parties | BLEDSOE v. CAPITAL CITY LAUNDRY CO. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Cole County; Henry J. Westhues, Judge.
"Not to be officially published."
Action by Flora Bledsoe against the Capital City Laundry Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.
D. W. Peters, of Jefferson City, for appellant.
Irwin & Haley, of Jefferson City, for respondent.
Plaintiff, a young woman 22 years of age, was injured by having her hand crushed and burned between the hot rollers of a mangle or ironing machine for the flat work in a laundry. She sued for damages on the ground that the machine was not properly guarded as required by section 6786, R. S. 1919. Verdict and judgment for $5,500 were obtained, and defendant appealed.
The evidence in plaintiff's behalf tended to show that the injury occurred while she was having her first experience in working in a laundry. The day she was employed, she was at first directed by the manager to check some clothes, and then in a few minutes she was directed to work at the mangle. This machine consisted of large hollow rollers of steel, covered with padding and heavy duck canvas, revolving in a convex steel surface about one-third their diameter in depth. This convex surface was heated very hot. The large rollers were about 100 inches in length and had a level shelf about 10 or 12 inches in width in front thereof and extending the entire length of the rollers. Large articles, such as bed sheets, spreads, or counterpanes, were ironed on this machine in this manner: Two girls would stand in front of the machine, and two would stand on the other side thereof; each two facing the other two. The girls in front would lay the article to be ironed on the shelf, seeing to it that the article was extended its full width and spread out so as not to have any folds or wrinkles therein, and they would push it up until the same would be carried into and through the rollers; the article, in passing through the rollers, being dried and ironed, would be received by the other two, who would fold it up and lay it aside—and the next piece would go through in the same way. Just in front of the large rollers was a small roller of the same length, which worked upon the flat surface, and as it revolved it would carry the article to be ironed up to the large rollers, which would seize it and carry it on through. This smaller roller, in addition to acting as a carrier for the article up to the large rollers also acted as a guard for the big rollers as it would prevent the operator's fingers from getting caught in the mangle. The small roller was so arranged as to be free to rise above the flat surface should anything, other than the article to be ironed, come under it. So that even if the operator's fingers, in presenting the sheet or other article to the small roller, did go thereunder, no harm would be done, as the small roller would immediately rise and thereby allow the operator to withdraw her fingers from the small roller without injury.
Plaintiff's evidence, however, is that this roller was elevated on wooden blocks so that it was about four inches above the fiat surface, and one's entire hand would go thereunder in the work of presenting the article to be ironed to the large rollers, where it would be engaged by them and carried through the ironing and drying process indicated above, and that the article had to be thus brought to the rollers. Her evidence is to the effect that the manager took her to the mangle and told her to work there, without giving her any instructions in regard to doing the work, except that he told her to hold the article out straight so that it would not wrinkle. Other witnesses say that he ran three or four towels through to show her how the work was done. She says that about an hour (defendant's witnesses say about two hours, but whether it was one or the other would seem to be immaterial) after she began work at the mangle, she and her associate placed a large bedspread, having a heavy fringe, upon the shelf and pushed it up to the rollers. She says she had to get the article in straight and push it until one's fingers were close to the rollers, and, if this were not done, the article would not feed in; that while she was trying to get the big spread started in straight and had her hand at the edge of the article as one of the girls told her to do, her hand caught in the fringe, and her fingers were carried into the rollers and crushed and burned.
The doctor who was called immediately to attend her said, "The hand was mashed just as flat as it...
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