Doerr v. St. Louis Brewing Ass'n.

• Decision Date: 27 May 1903
• Citation: 75 S.W. 600,176 Mo. 547
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Parties: DOERR v. ST. LOUIS BREWING ASS'N.<SMALL><SUP>*</SUP></SMALL>

75 S.W. 600

176 Mo. 547

DOERR v. ST. LOUIS BREWING ASS'N.^*

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

May 27, 1903.

INJURIES TO SERVANT—CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE.

1. Where a servant, in oiling machinery, accidentally dropped a funnel in a crank pit, and inserted his hand in the pit to remove it, knowing that the whole operation must be performed within the space of three seconds in order to avoid injury, and that the funnel might be easily and safely withdrawn by means of a twisted wire, he was negligent.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; John W. Booth, Judge.

Action by Oscar Doerr against the St. Louis Brewing Association. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

Kehr & Tittmann, for appellant. Cunningham & Maurer, for respondent.

BRACE, P. J.

This is an action for personal injuries instituted in the St. Louis city circuit court, taken by change of venue to the St. Louis county circuit court, where the plaintiff obtained judgment for $5,000, and the defendant appeals.

At the close of the plaintiff's evidence the defendant demurred thereto, the demurrer was overruled, and exception taken. The defendant offered no evidence, and the case was submitted to the jury on instructions. The question to be determined on this appeal is whether the evidence for the plaintiff made a case for the jury. It appeared from that evidence that on 2d day of June, 1899, the plaintiff was in the employ of the defendant, as a fireman in one of its breweries in the city of St. Louis, in which was a machine operated by steam, to oil which was among the duties of his position. That on that day he was engaged in oiling the crank shaft of the machine while the same was in motion. The motion of this shaft was vertical, the head revolving in a pit below. This crank pit was about two feet deep, two feet wide, and two feet long, was directly under the crank shaft, and in it the head of the shaft moved up and down elliptically, approaching the bedplate at the bottom closely, and at no time leaving open a space of more than 18 inches. On the shaft was a stationary oil cup, directly above the crank pit, for the reception of oil for the machine. The appliances furnished the plaintiff for supplying this cup were a small funnel made to fit in the oil cup, and an oil can or filler— the latter about six inches in diameter, and about six inches high—from the bottom of which projected a spout about five inches long. In order to use them, the oiler stood up in front of the machine, placed the funnel in the oil cup, and poured the oil into the funnel from the filler while the shaft was in motion. On the day aforesaid the plaintiff was so engaged in supplying this cup with oil, when the can which he was holding in his hand "bumped up against the funnel," displacing the funnel, which fell into the crank pit, and thereupon he stooped down, reached into the crank pit with his right hand and arm to recover the funnel, when his arm was caught by the shaft above the wrist, and so mangled as to subsequently necessitate amputation. There was no person present when the accident occurred, except the plaintiff. He testified that, when he reached down into the pit for the funnel, the shaft was revolving at the rate of about 18 or 20 revolutions a minute. That he could have recovered the funnel in half a second. That when his arm got right under the shaft it began to revolve at the rate of at least 40 revolutions more a minute, and the theory of the plaintiff's petition is that his injury was caused by defective appliances furnished him for oiling the machine, and a defect in the governor of defendant's engine, by reason of which the speed of the crank shaft was instantaneously accelerated, as stated, while his arm was in the crank pit. The answer is a general denial and a plea of contributory negligence. The plaintiff testified further that he had been in the...