Citrone v. O'Rourke Eng'g Const. Co.

• Decision Date: 30 April 1907
• Citation: 80 N.E. 1092,188 N.Y. 339
• Parties: CITRONE v. O'ROURKE ENGINEERING CONST. CO.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

188 N.Y. 339

80 N.E. 1092

CITRONE

v.O'ROURKE ENGINEERING CONST. CO.

Court of Appeals of New York.

April 30, 1907.

Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department.

Action by Donato Citrone against the O'Rourke Engineering Construction Company. From a judgment of the Appellate Division (99 N. Y. S. 241, 113 App. Div. 518) affirming a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

Theodore H. Lord, for appellant.

Thomas J. O'Neil, for respondent.

WILLARD BARTLETT, J.

The judgment which comes before us for review on this appeal is based upon the alleged negligence of the defendant corporation in failing to provide the plaintiff, who was a laborer in its service, with a reasonably safe place wherein to do the work which he was employed to perform. That work, considered as a whole, was the construction of a trench through earth and rock in the city of New York. It was prosecuted first by blasting and secondly by the removal of the blasted material. The plaintiff does not appear to have had anything to do with the blasting, but he and the gang of workmen to which he belonged would enter the portion of the trench already open after a blast had been fired and assist in removing the broken stone, sometimes breaking it up into smaller pieces to facilitate the process of removal. While engaged in this employment on September 13, 1904, he was injured by the fall upon him of some loose stones and earth from the sides of the trench. A small blast had previously been fired immediately before he began to work, about two hours earlier on the same morning.

The theory of the plaintiff's case, as presented to the jury, was that the defendant was negligent in not protecting him and his fellow laborers against such an accident as that which befell him, which could have been done by shoring or bracing up the sides of the trench so far as it had already been opened. At the place where the accident occurred the trench was about fourteen feet deep and six or seven feet wide, and was being cut mostly through rock. There was shoring on the sides to the height of five or six feet from the bottom, but no further up. The question which the learned trial judge left to the jury on this branch of the case was thus stated in his charge: ‘Was this trench made reasonably safe for such work, considering the character of the work which was necessarily dangerous? In other words, was this trench where the plaintiff was employed made as safe as a trench where the work of excavating and blasting is carried on ordinarily is made by ordinarily prudent men?’ The jury must have answered these questions in the negative in order to find the verdict which they rendered in favor of the plaintiff; for they were expressly instructed by the court that they could not hold the defendant liable either for a failure to provide competent workmen to perform the work or for a failure to provide proper tools or appliances with which the work was to be done.

It was the contention of counsel for the defendant on the trial, and he contends here, that under the circumstances disclosed by the uncontradicted evidence the doctrine of the duty of a master to furnish his servant with a reasonably safe place to work in has no application to the case at bar. This point is distinctly raised by proper exceptions, and, if well taken, is fatal to the judgment. In my opinion it is well taken. The evidence clearly shows that the work to be done was the construction of the trench. The learned trial judge so instructed the jury. As I have already pointed out, this work of construction was twofold in character, and consisted of the blasting followed by the removal of the material. The gang of workmen to which the plaintiff belonged were fellow servants with those engaged in the blasting. Precisely what that gang did appears from the testimony of another witness who belonged to it. ‘After a blast,’ he said, ‘we would be sent to clean out the stone that had been loosened by the blast. Wherever the stone fell after the blast was the place to which we went to clean it out. That is the way we were working. That is the kind of work that all the men in that gang were doing, and some of them were breaking stone and some of them putting...