Gaines v. Strickland

• Decision Date: 23 November 1936
• Docket Number: 32386
• Citation: Gaines v. Strickland, 170 So. 695, 178 Miss. 308 (Miss. 1936)
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: GAINES et al. v. STRICKLAND

170 So. 695

178 Miss. 308

GAINES et al. v. STRICKLAND

No. 32386

Supreme Court of Mississippi

November 23, 1936

Division B

1. MASTER AND SERVANT.

In employee's suit for injuries sustained when coworker turned his end of timber, being loaded into truck, loose whether employers were negligent in failing to furnish grabhooks with which to handle timber held for jury.

2. MASTER AND SERVANT.

In employee's suit for injuries sustained when coworker turned his end of timber, being loaded into truck, loose whether employers were negligent in not furnishing sufficient number of workmen held for jury.

3. MASTER AND SERVANT.

In employee's suit for injuries sustained when coworker turned his end of timber, being loaded into truck, loose evidence held insufficient to warrant submission to jury of question of employers' duty to furnish safe place to work, where place was not a permanent one but involved removal of timbers used in construction of pier and warehouse.

4. APPEAL AND ERROR.

In employee's suit for injuries sustained when coworker turned his end of timber, being loaded into truck, loose, action of court in instructing jury for employee that it was necessary for employers to use reasonable care to provide safe tools, such as grabhooks and safe place in which to work, and in giving conflicting instructions for employers held reversible error.

HON. W. A. WHITE, Judge.

APPEAL from circuit court of Harrison county, HON. W. A. WHITE, Judge.

Suit by W. W. Strickland against Frank Gaines and others. From an adverse judgment, defendants appeal. Reversed and remanded.

Reversed and remanded.

Leathers, Wallace & Greaves, of Gulfport, for appellants.

Eaton & Eaton, of Gulfport, for appellee.

Briefs of counsel not found.

Argued orally by R. A. Wallace, for appellant, and by Barney Eaton for appellee.

OPINION

Ethridge, P. J.

Appellee, W. W. Strickland, was plaintiff in the court below and brought suit against appellants, a partnership, by whom appellee was employed, for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by appellants. The work in which appellee's injury is claimed to have been received was the removing of certain timbers used in the construction of a pier and warehouse at Gulfport, which timbers were alleged to be large and heavy, and saturated with water with barnacles thereon from being in the water, all of which made them very difficult to handle without grabhooks.

The declaration alleged negligence as follows: (1) In not furnishing a sufficient number of men to do the work; (2) in not furnishing suitable appliances, to- wit, grabhooks; and (3) in failing to furnish plaintiff with a safe place in which to work.

The timbers had been drawn from the water and placed upon a sand beach to be loaded upon a truck. One of the members of the appellant partnership was in charge of the project. In lifting the timber from the beach to the truck, it was necessary to place one end in the back of the truck, it having a body with sides, and then to push said timber, by hand, into the truck. During the lifting of one of these heavy timbers, one man so engaged in holding one end stated that he would have to turn it loose as the barnacles were cutting his hand, and he thereupon turned it loose. Plaintiff, appellee here, did not turn his end loose because, if he had done so, it would have fallen on his foot, and he thereby suffered a rupture.

The evidence shows that, at the time of the injury, there were men who grumbled at not being furnished with grabhooks with which to handle the timbers, and the foreman, one of the partnership, told them to take...