Byersdorf v. Cream City Sash & Door Co.

• Decision Date: 08 January 1901
• Citation: 109 Wis. 456,84 N.W. 860
• Parties: BYERSDORF v. CREAM CITY SASH & DOOR CO.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

109 Wis. 456

84 N.W. 860

BYERSDORF

v.CREAM CITY SASH & DOOR CO.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Jan. 8, 1901.

Appeal from superior court, Milwaukee county; O. T. Williams, Judge.

Action by Frederick Byersdorf, by guardian ad litem, against the Cream City Sash & Door Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

Action by plaintiff, who, on March 10, 1898, when 14 years and 8 months of age, suffered loss of a hand as an employé of defendant in its factory at Milwaukee, while working at a device called a “slat saw,” which, so far as possible in words, may be described as follows: The east or operating part consisted of a flat plane or feed table, 28 inches long north and south, and 4 inches wide, bounded on the west by a rigid vertical side, 2 inches high, and open towards the east. The feeder stood at the north end of this feed table. About 19 inches from the north end there were hung on a shaft below this table two rigid circular saws, about 9 inches in diameter, and extending above the said feed plate or table about 2 1/8 inches. These saws revolved towards the feeder at the north. About 4 inches north of the north edge of these saws was a toothed wheel, which, revolving, engaged any piece of wood pushed up to it by the feeder, and pushed it end first against the saws. Above the saws was a curved, nearly semicircular, rigid plate or guard of steel of about 2 inches greater radius than the saws, the ends of which, respectively, in front and back of the saws, extended downward to within 1 3/4 inches above the feed table, the purpose of which was to hold down any piece of wood while passing through the saws, which, but for such guard, would be thrown violently upward and northward as soon as it had passed from under the toothed feed wheel above mentioned. The two saws were about one-half or nine-sixteenths of an inch apart, and the inner or westerly one about the same distance from the vertical west side of the feed table, so that as strips of wood were passed through they were sawed into two slats, about one-half inch thick, any excess of the strip outside of the east saw going to waste. These strips were previously prepared so as to be approximately 1 3/4 to 2 inches thick vertically, and 1 3/8 to 1 1/2 inches wide, and of lengths from 8 inches to 2 feet. It was the duty of the feeder standing at the north to slide these strips onto and along the feed table until the toothed wheel engaged them and fed them against the saws, each strip serving to push its predecessor through the saws under the overhanging steel guard, and on southward, till they reached the south end of the feed table, about 6 or 7 inches beyond the saws, and about 4 1/4 inches beyond the south end of the overhanging guard. South or southeast of the machine was stationed a boy whose duty it was to receive the slats into which the strips had thus been sawed, and to put them in a pile to be carried to other machines, and to put the waste strip cut off by the easternmost saw into a pile for kindling wood. At this latter work plaintiff was engaged on March 10, 1898. He had been at work for defendant a little less than a month; had first worked at the slat saw something more than two weeks before; had worked on it in all on five or six different days,--the whole time aggregating about one day. He had at first been shown his duty to take away the slats after they had passed through the saw, such instruction not indicating a necessity of reaching nearer the saws than the south end of the feeding table. The testimony is conflicting as to whether he had been warned of the peril of injury from getting his hands in contact with the saws. While so engaged the feeder, Schultz, having fed through all of the strips which he had and pushed the last one of the bundle into the saws, had turned away to get more strips. Plaintiff testifies that he took hold of the slats of this last piece, and as he took hold of them felt the stick jerk backward, and when he looked the stick was gone, and his hand was gone; that he took hold of the slats for the purpose of taking them away. Further than this he knows nothing of how the accident occurred. His right hand was cut completely off, except the thumb, which was sawed through except the flesh on the side away from the hand. The hand was cut off at a point from an inch to an inch and a half towards the wrist from the knuckles. The fingers were found scattered in various directions north and south of the machine, underneath the feed table, among the sawdust, and on top of the feed table. A considerable quantity of blood was observed at various points of the machine beneath the feed table, and a few spots above it and upon the teeth of the saws. The defect alleged was the absence of boxing around the upper part of the machine on top of the feed table, the plaintiff testifying that when he first worked on the machine there had been a wooden box which covered the whole device, having sides both east and west of the saws, while at the time of the injury the box in use had merely a top and the west side to it, so that it was open on the east side. This box was placed over the saws by the feeder to prevent sawdust, etc., flying back in his eyes. The jury found in favor of plaintiff in answer to a series of 17 questions, and, among others, in answer to question 8, that the plaintiff's hand was cut by that portion of the saws which projected above the saw table ...