Bradley v. Northern Cent. Coal Co.

• Decision Date: 25 November 1912
• Citation: 151 S.W. 180,167 Mo. App. 177
• Parties: BRADLEY v. NORTHERN CENT. COAL CO.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

151 S.W. 180

167 Mo. A. 177

BRADLEY v. NORTHERN CENT. COAL CO.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

November 25, 1912.

1. MASTER AND SERVANT (§§ 101, 102) — LIABILITY FOR INJURIES — DUTIES AS TO TOOLS AND MACHINERY.

The operator of a coal mine owed to an employé operating a coal mining machine the duty of exercising reasonable care to provide and maintain a feed chain, used in drawing the machine forward, reasonably suited to the purposes of its intended use.

2. MASTER AND SERVANT (§ 107) — LIABILITY FOR INJURIES — DUTIES AS TO TOOLS AND MACHINERY.

An employer who continued a chain on a machine in use after it had become worn and dangerous, and after reasonable regard for the safety of employés required that it should be replaced, was negligent.

3. MASTER AND SERVANT (§ 226) — LIABILITY FOR INJURIES — ASSUMPTION OF RISK.

A servant does not, and cannot, assume risks caused by the master's negligence.

4. MASTER AND SERVANT (§ 208) — LIABILITY FOR INJURIES — ASSUMPTION OF RISK.

Where it was inevitable and natural that breakages of the chain on a machine operated by an employé would occur on occasions of unusual and unavoidable stress on the machine, the risks of injury therefrom, being natural and incidental to the service, were assumed by the employe, but the risks resulting from continuing to use a chain so defective as to be unsafe for ordinary usage were not assumed by him.

5. MASTER AND SERVANT (§ 234) — LIABILITY FOR INJURIES — CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE.

An employé who knew that a chain on the machine he was operating was defective was not guilty of contributory negligence in continuing in the service, if a reasonably careful man in his situation would have concluded that he could work without subjecting himself to danger of immediate injury.

6. MASTER AND SERVANT (§ 289) — ACTIONS FOR INJURIES — QUESTIONS FOR JURY.

In an employé's action for injuries, evidence held to present a question for the jury whether the danger of a chain breaking, which the employé knew to be defective was so obvious and imminent as to render the employé guilty of contributory negligence in continuing work.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Randolph County; A. H. Waller, Judge.

Action by Odus Bradley against the Northern Central Coal Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Willard P. Cave, of Moberly, for appellant. F. E. Murrell and M. J. Lilly, both of Moberly, for respondent.

JOHNSON, J.

Plaintiff sued to recover damages for personal injuries he alleges were caused by negligence of defendant. He prevailed in the circuit court, and the cause is here on the appeal of defendant. The facts of the case are as follows: At the time of the injury, March 20, 1912, defendant was operating a coal mine in Randolph county, and plaintiff, an experienced miner, was employed in the mine, and was engaged in operating a coal mining machine. One of the links of a heavy wrought iron chain, called a feed chain and used in drawing the machine forward, broke while the machine was in operation, and a broken end was thrown violently against plaintiff, who was standing near the place of the breaking, and the small bone of one of his legs was fractured. The feed chain was 60 feet long, and its links were an inch and a half long, and made of round wrought iron rods 5/8 of an inch in diameter, and, when new, its pulling strength was 14,000 pounds. The machine attached to the chain was an electrical cutting machine, the main parts of which were a powerful motor, a system of sprocket and pulley wheels through and around which the feed chain passed and a cutter bar. The feed chain "threaded" through the machine by being coursed around the various pulley and sprocket wheels, was firmly anchored at each end, and the machine was moved forward by means of the motor revolving the sprocket wheels, the teeth or sprockets of which engaged the links of the chain. In short, the machine traveled by pulling itself along the feed chain, and the chain carried the machine, as well as its load, which consisted of the resistance offered to the work of the cutter bar. It was the office of the bar to undermine the ledge of coal by cutting out the underlying and supporting material and the ordinary working load carried by the feed chain when the machine was cutting through dirt or soapstone was about 4,000 pounds. When the cutter encountered harder substances, the load was increased, and, when it struck hard rock or sulphur, it was necessary to remove the cutter as it could not work in such substances, and the attempt to go on would result either in breaking the chain or some part of the machine. The operator could tell by the hum of the motor the character of the...