Burke v. Davis

• Decision Date: 02 March 1906
• Citation: 191 Mass. 20,76 N.E. 1039
• Parties: BURKE v. DAVIS.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

191 Mass. 20

76 N.E. 1039

BURKE v. DAVIS.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

March 2, 1906

COUNSEL

Maurice M. Lynch and John B. Moran, for plaintiff.

Romney Spring and Harry H. Atwood, for defendant.

OPINION

SHELDON, J.

This is an action of tort, brought under Rev. Laws, c. 106, § 71, to recover damages for injuries received by the plaintiff while in the employ of the defendant, and engaged in feeding sheets through a mangle for the purpose of drying and smoothing them. The action is based on the alleged negligence of the defendant in placing the guard blade in front of the rollers of the mangle too high, so that the plaintiff's hand passed under them, and was caught between the rollers and seriously injured.

The plaintiff was 17 years old at the time of the accident. She had been at work for the defendant about two years and a half, working in the laundry, usually in the ironing room but not often on mangles, and then only at the request of Spargo, the defendant's superintendent. She had worked 12 or 13 times on the mangle on which she was injured, and a few times on other mangles. This mangle is an ironing machine consisting of a large, heated cylinder and several smaller rollers. The cylinder and the rollers revolve in opposite directions, so that the articles to be ironed are drawn between the rollers and the cylinder. On the morning of the accident, she began some other work, and Spargo ordered her to go to work upon this mangle. When she showed reluctance to do so, he said to her, 'If you don't, you can put on your coat and hat and go home.' She then went to work on it with one Jennie Laughton, put two roller towels and two sheets through the rolls, and started a third sheet, which was torn. Spargo then increased the speed of the mangle so that it ran at its highest speed, being the usual speed used in ironing sheets. The plaintiff saw him do this, and understood it. There was a guard on the mangle about one inch above the feed board, and in front of the rolls. This guard had been in the same position every time that the plaintiff had worked upon the machine. The distance between the feed board and the guard was plainly visible. This guard consisted of two pieces, a circular rod an inch or a little less in diameter, and a guard blade about an inch wide and an eighth of an inch thick. The lower surface of the guard blade was parallel to the feed board, and about an inch above it. The plaintiff testified that she tried to do the best she could with the torn sheet, but it went so fast that the first thing she knew her hand was in the mangle. She also testified that Spargo told her the machine was perfectly safe; that every time he told her to go up there, she told him she did not want to go because she knew nothing about it, and he said it was perfectly safe, that other girls had been up there and never been hurt; that she was afraid to work on this mangle, because she was afraid that she would be hurt, that her hand would be caught between the rolls; that she knew that the cylinder and the rolls were revolving; that she was afraid of the mangle because she thought from her prior experience that her fingers might get so far in that they might get caught, that if her hand went in she could not get it out; that in spite of what Spargo said she thought that he was not right, that there was more danger than he thought. Jennie Laughton testified that the purpose of the guard was 'to warn by touch of the danger of the machine if you went beyond it.' Another girl employed in the laundry testified for the plaintiff that Spargo told all the girls that the guard would prevent their fingers from going in any further, but that he also said that they should look out for their hands. Another of the girls employed in the laundry said that the guard was never changed, that her fingers usually passed under the edge of the guard in pushing the work under, that the folder could push her fingers under so that th...