Cunningham v. Adna Mill Co.

• Decision Date: 20 November 1912
• Citation: 127 P. 850,71 Wash. 111
• Parties: CUNNINGHAM v. ADNA MILL CO.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

127 P. 850

71 Wash. 111

CUNNINGHAM v. ADNA MILL CO.

Supreme Court of Washington

November 20, 1912

Department 1. Appeal from Superior Court, Lewis County; A. E. Rice Judge.

Action by Luther Cunningham against the Adna Mill Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Reeves Aylmore, Jr., of Seattle, and A. A. Hull Chehalis, for appellant.

Forney & Ponder, of Chehalis, for respondent.

CROW J.

Action by Luther Cunningham against the Adna Mill Company, a corporation, to recover damages for personal injuries. From a judgment in plaintiff's favor, defendant has appealed.

The only question presented is whether the trial court erred in denying appellant's motions for a nonsuit, for a directed verdict, and for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Respondent wad employed as a rigging slinger in appellant's logging camp. The crew of which he was a member was engaged in hauling logs from the woods, where they were left by the fallers, and conveying them to a loading platform. A donkey engine furnished power to move the logs by means of a cable operated on a drum; the cable extending from the engine into the woods. The logs were attached to the cable by the gang of which respondent was a member, and were hauled in by the engine. A haulback line, operated on another drum of the engine, was used to draw out the main cable and return it to the woods to bring in other logs. The haulback line was attached to the end of the main cable and passed through two pulleys, so that it and the main cable formed a triangle, the long sides of which, at the wider portion, were more than 200 feet apart. Both lines extended across a ravine, some 15 or 20 feet deep and 100 feet wide, which caused them to be raised or suspended above the surface of the ground. On the morning of the accident respondent was assisting other members of his crew to draw or spring the main cable towards and attach it to a log which they intended to move. Just at this instant certain fallers, members of another crew employed by appellant, who were working some two or three hundred feet distant, caused a large tree to fall across the suspended haulback line above the ravine. The terrific force thus suddenly applied caused the haulback line to spring the main cable and throw respondent a considerable distance, inflicting the injuries of which he now complains. There was evidence that the fallers could see the haulback...