Degnan v. Jordan

• Decision Date: 21 June 1895
• Citation: 164 Mass. 84,41 N.E. 117
• Parties: DEGNAN v. JORDAN et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

164 Mass. 84

41 N.E. 117

DEGNAN v. JORDAN et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

June 21, 1895

COUNSEL

A. Hemenway, T.H. Pearse, and

W. Schofield, for plaintiff.

J. Lowell, Jr., and S.H. Smith, for defendants.

OPINION

MORTON, J.

The plaintiff was at the time of the accident an elevator tender in the employ of the defendants, and was 43 years of age. He had been at work running the elevator about a fortnight, and, as he testified, understood the business fairly well. On the morning of the accident he found the elevator below the level of the street floor, and tried, without succeeding, to open the door. Then he went down into the basement, as he had been told by the engineer to do in such a case. There he met a man by the name of Feehiley, who told him that he could not move the elevator. Thereupon the plaintiff stooped into the elevator well under the elevator, which was four or five feet from the floor, so that the whole upper part of his body was under the elevator, for the purpose of reaching the elevator rope, which was in one corner; and as he pulled the rope the elevator came down on him, causing the injuries complained of. Neither the plaintiff nor Feehiley made any effort to report to the superintendent of elevators, or to the engineer, that there was anything wrong with the elevator. And we think that in view of the notice that he had, from the situation of the elevator, that something about it was probably out of order, his conduct in exposing himself, in the manner in which he did, to injury from its sudden descent, was wanting in due care. Murphy v. Webster, 151 Mass. 121, 23 N.E. 842; Id., 156 Mass. 48, 30 N.E. 88. The plaintiff excepted to certain rulings in regard to the admission of testimony. But the manner in which the case is reported renders their consideration unnecessary. According to the report, even if there are material errors, prejudicial to the plaintiff, in the ruling in regard to the admission of testimony, the verdict is to be set aside only in case there is evidence to warrant a finding of due care on the part of the plaintiff. Judgment on the verdict.