Carpenter v. Loetscher-Jaeger Mfg. Co.
| Decision Date | 13 May 1916 |
| Docket Number | 30359 |
| Citation | 157 N.W. 938,178 Iowa 320 |
| Parties | ELLA M. CARPENTER, Administratrix, Appellee, v. LOETSCHER-JAEGER MFG. CO., Appellant |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
REHEARING DENIED FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1916.
Appeal from Polk District Court.--W. S. AYRES, Judge.
ACTION to recover damages claimed to have resulted to the estate of which plaintiff is administratrix, occasioned by the death of the deceased, caused or brought about by the negligence of the defendant. The opinion states the issues and the facts. Verdict and judgment for the plaintiff below. Defendant appeals.
Affirmed.
Clark Byers & Hutchinson, and Harry N. Hansen, for appellant.
Dunshee & Haines, for appellee.
The plaintiff, as administratrix of the estate of Samuel J. Carpenter, brings this action to recover damages, which, as administratrix, she claims to have sustained by reason of his death. She bases her right to recover on the ground that his death was the proximate result of the negligence of this defendant.
It appears that the defendant is operating a manufacturing plant in the city of Des Moines; that the decedent was in its employ, and, among other things, it was his duty to use a certain elevator in transporting freight from one floor of defendant's factory to another; that the elevator used by deceased was what is known as a freight elevator, run by an electric motor, and with heavy iron counterweights. The elevator was located on the west side of the building, and was about 12 by 20 feet in size, and ran from the basement up to the second floor. The motive power was controlled by a cable. If you wished to ascend, you pulled the cable down, and if you wanted to descend, you pulled the cable up. These counterweights ran between two posts, or guides; and, if the elevator ascended, the counterweights would descend. If the elevator descended, the counterweights would ascend. The distance between the guide posts, or uprights between which the counterweights ran, was about 18 inches. The guide posts were about 6 by 8 inches. They were located on the east side of the elevator, near the south end. To the north of the north guide post was located another post, upon the east side of which (being the side away from the elevator) was located an electric switch, which was used for the purpose of throwing on and off the current that operated the elevator. The switch, located on the posts aforesaid, was 5 or 6 feet from the floor. It had a lever, with which to throw the current on or off, and was operated by pushing the lever up or down.
There was no screen over the counterweights, but there was a railing on the elevator itself, which extended up 3 or 3 1/2 feet from the floor of the elevator, and was sheeted up solid. The rope or cable with which the elevator was started or controlled was also on the east side of the elevator, near the south end, the longest distance on the floor of the elevator being from north to south. There was another railing on the floor of the building, which ran along the floor just east of the floor of the elevator, and east of the post which held the counterweights and the switch. This fence on the main floor was about 4 1/2 feet high. There were three ways of reaching the switch, in turning on or off the current that moved the elevator. One was to go to the north side of the north guide post, and, standing on the floor of the elevator, reach around the north side to the east side of the post on which the switch was located, and pull the switch in or out, or pull it up or down. Another way was to go outside of the elevator onto the main floor, on the east side of the elevator, to the post to which the switch was attached, and reach the switch from that point. The third way was to reach in under the counter-weights between the guide posts and reach around the post on which the switch was situated, from the south, and thus manipulate the switch, while standing upon the floor of the elevator. The distance to be reached was practically the same in either case, when starting it from the floor of the elevator. The evidence discloses that, at this particular time, the switch could not well be reached by going out on the floor of the building and manipulating it from that point, because of the manner in which boxes and lumber had been piled on the east side of the elevator, and in the vicinity of the switch. There was another manner suggested by which the switch might be reached, and that was to go between the fence on the floor of the building and the railing on the elevator floor, and squeeze into the place where the switch was located on the post and manipulate it from that point.
This elevator was operated, as said before, by a device which consisted of a wire cable, which could be pulled up or down. The cable was about two thirds of an inch thick, with two buttons on it, about 10 inches apart. The buttons were about the size of a walnut, and fastened on the cable. Below the elevator, in the basement, were certain knives on a controller, which were thrown by the movement of the cable from one side to the other, so as to bring them in contact with certain metal clips, and, in this manner, the electric current was connected or cut off. If the knives were thrown over by the cable and were engaged in the clips on one side, the top button on the controller cable would have to be moved about 33 inches, to disengage the knives and take them through neutral and engage them on the other side. In order to disengage the knives from the clips sufficiently that the current would not pass through, the rope would have to be moved about 6 inches. After the knife was engaged in the clip, the controller cable could be moved only about an inch further, in the same direction in which it was being moved. The only way the cable could then be moved was to pull it the other way. When the controller was neutral--that is, not engaged in either clip, and the current not connected--the top button of the cable was even with the top of the rail. The cable was operated about 16 inches west of the outside fence, being the fence on the floor, and just south of the south end of the inside fence, or the one on the elevator. When the floor of the elevator was even with the first floor of the building, the bottom of the counterweights was about one foot and one quarter of an inch above the top of the outside fence. The counterweights were about 2 3/4 of an inch think, east and west.
With these conditions existing on the day of the accident, the elevator was brought to a position level with the first floor of the building, and a wagonload of lumber was driven on and unloaded, with a view to having decedent take the same up on the elevator to a gallery above the first floor. The lumber so unloaded was piled along the east side of the elevator to the height of about 2 feet, the south end of the pile being about even with the counterweights. The pile of lumber was approximately 16 feet long and 2 feet high, and extended west from the east side of the elevator, into and on the floor of the elevator, about 2 feet. The south end of the pile was from 18 inches to 2 feet north of the south end of the inside fence.
It appears that, when the wagon, with the load of lumber, was driven onto the elevator, the switch was thrown off; that is, the current that served as a motor power to the elevator was disconnected. It was thrown off by the use of the switch hereinbefore referred to. After the lumber had been unloaded, the evidence tends to show that the deceased took hold of the cable, with a view to starting the elevator, and pulled it once or twice. The elevator did not move. A witness who was present at that time asked him what the trouble was. He made no answer, and the witness went away. The witness had gone but a short distance when he heard deceased call out. He started back, and saw these heavy balancing weights across the deceased's neck and shoulders. It appears that the elevator started up, the weights started down, caught the deceased, and he was dragged from the elevator down through the opening into the basement below, and was injured, and from these injuries died. This witness testified that, when he last saw the deceased before he discovered him in this position under the weights, deceased was standing at the southeast corner of the elevator, with his hand on the controller rope; that, when he turned to throw off the switch, he saw the deceased with the weights across him, between his chest and his neck, and his face turned to the north. The elevator was then going up.
Another witness testified that, when he first saw deceased, after he called for help, he was between these guide posts, under the weights, his feet sticking up between the guide posts, and the counterweights going down and pulling him over. This controlling cable, situated near the southeast of the elevator, had nothing to do with pulling the car up or down. Its purpose was to move the controller, and to put these knives in or out of the clip. The power that moved the elevator was entirely derived from the current of electricity, when the connection was made by putting the knives in the clip. When the knives are at what is called "center," that is, not in the clips, there is no connection of power. They are then said to be neutral. The pulling of the rope connects the power. If one wants to ascend in the elevator, he pulls the cable down. This connects the power, and causes the elevator to ascend. If he desires to descend, he pulls up the cable. This makes connection with the power, and causes the elevator to descend. Whether the elevator ascends or descends depends on the way the rope is pulled. This was also...
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