Canfield v. Iowa Dairy Separator Co.

• Decision Date: 19 October 1915
• Docket Number: 29771
• Citation: 154 N.W. 434,172 Iowa 164
• Parties: ASA G. CANFIELD, Appellant, v. IOWA DIARY SEPARATOR COMPANY, Appellee
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

154 N.W. 434

172 Iowa 164

ASA G. CANFIELD, Appellant, v. IOWA DIARY SEPARATOR COMPANY, Appellee

No. 29771

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

October 19, 1915

Appeal from Black Hawk District Court.--HON. FRANKLIN C. PLATT Judge.

ACTION for personal injuries. Judgment for defendant. Plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

Loren Risk and W. W. Wooley, for appellant.

Edwards & Langley and Lawley & Wheeler, for appellee.

GAYNOR J. DEEMER, C. J., LADD and SALINGER, JJ., concur.

OPINION

GAYNOR, J.

This is an action brought by an employee of a manufacturing corporation to recover damages on account of a disease claimed to have been contracted as a result of the use of certain acid and oils negligently furnished by his employers.

The record discloses that the plaintiff was about sixty-two years old; had worked for the defendant in its factory at various jobs, since November 15, 1907. For a number of months immediately prior to the beginning of his illness, he had been putting spacers in cones. This is the work in which he was engaged when the disease complained of appeared. He began this particular work about June 10, 1910. In November, 1910, the trouble first appeared and continued to develop and grow worse until February, 1911, when he quit work.

The work of putting spacers into cones was one of the many steps taken in the construction of cream separators. Part of the mechanism of the separator is a core built of small tin cones, each cone three or four inches high and two or three inches in diameter, the size, of course, depending upon the particular separator for which it is intended. In building the core, a number of cones are used, one imposed upon another until the desired length of core is attained. The cones do not come in close contact with each other. The space between the cones is slight. The cones are held apart by means of small pieces of tin called spacers. This spacer is a strip of tin, the ends of which are tapered and rounded to form a rough and elongated ellipse. Before the spacers are put in, triangular shaped slots are made in the sides of the cone. Plaintiff's work was to insert these bent pieces of tin or spacers in the slots or holes in the cone, and then, by means of a lever, bring down a weight onto the cone, which pressed the spacers flat on the cone. After the slots were cut in the cones for the purpose of inserting spacers, the cones were then dipped in a solution of water and muriatic acid, and then later passed through a bath of running water for necessary purposes in the perfection of the work. They were then carried to the plaintiff and deposited with him for the purpose of receiving spacers.

The plaintiff in his testimony states the facts substantially as follows:

In order to place the spacers in the cones, it was necessary that certain little slots by some mechanical device be cut in the cones and through them, and in the cutting of the slots, it was necessary to use considerable oil as the machinery through which it passed was a very delicate piece of mechanism. "Mr. Schram generally cut those little slots in there to receive the spacers, and to cut these, he had to use considerable oil because it was a delicate piece of machinery and easily broken. After the slots were cut, they went back down to the shop, and then went through a solution or acid. When they went through this solution or acid, they were brought back to the department where the slots were cut, and I put these little spacers in after they came direct from the shop. When the cones came up there, some would have a rusty appearance and some would be kind of wet, like they had been in saleratus, or something over them, and in others there would be streaks of green. This is the way they came up after they had been through the solution. A great many of them were wet, and I was required to handle them when they were wet. I could not stand up to do the work, so I used a stool. The water would get on my hands and clothing enough to wet me through sometimes or very near it on my abdomen. Sometimes the water would drip on my clothing and down on my arms and legs."

In speaking of the use of the oil, he said:

"When they put oil on the machine that cut the holes, there is an upright concern and they put oil up here, and the oil runs down this shaft and connects with the little punch that makes the holes. They had to keep lots of oil on here to keep the little punch from breaking. If they got the least bit dry in cutting they would split and break off."

In speaking of the acid and its use, the plaintiff said, in substance, that, after they were oiled and the slots cut in them, these cones were dipped in a solution of muriatic acid, after which they were dipped in a large tank of water standing there for that purpose, and used by the defendant company for the purpose of washing from the surface of the cones the solution of acid before the cones were sent up to the department where he was engaged in work; that, in order to perform his duties, it was necessary that he remain in a sitting position and handle these cones when they came to him, some of which were wet and some dry, some covered with a liquid solution and some with a sediment. In speaking of this, he says that the solution and sediment were amalgamated with muriatic acid, in which fluid they were immersed for necessary purposes. He says that he was not familiar with the process used in preparing the cones at the time or previous to the time they were delivered to him for the purpose of placing the spacers in them; that, prior to commencing this particular work, he was in no way diseased; that his blood was in the best condition; that he had no eruptions upon his skin; never had been ill; that in his work he was required to handle a great many of these cones; that sufficient quantities of the fluid in which the cones were immersed ran from the cones down his fingers and about his hands so that it dripped from the same to his abdomen and limbs, saturating his clothing in and about his abdomen and limbs; that a short time after said fluid soaked through his clothing to his skin, a large inflamed thick reddish-colored abrasion about the size of a man's hand appeared across the abdomen; that he had a distressed feeling; that his stomach bloated and he did not have a good appetite; that he did not feel well; that this first appeared about November, 1910, but he stayed at his work until February, 1911. It does not appear that he made any complaint of his condition until after he quit. It does appear that his abdomen and limbs became covered with boils--a particular description of which is not necessary to an understanding of this case.

Plaintiff, in stating his cause of action, predicates his right to recover on what he claims to be the negligence of the defendant, and the only acts or omissions to act on which he bases his claim of negligence are: (1) Defendant was negligent in not washing the acid from the cones before they were delivered to him to be handled; (2) it was negligent in delivering to him and requiring him to work with cones while covered with oil, at such time and in such manner that the acid and oil would become amalgamated, and thereby become poisonous and dangerous.

The cause was tried to a jury. At the conclusion of plaintiff's testimony, the court directed a verdict for the defendant; judgment being entered upon the verdict plaintiff appeals. The only error assigned is that the court erred in directing a verdict for the defendant. The facts hereinbefore set out are not in...