Garity v. Bullion-Beck & Champion Min. Co.

• Decision Date: 23 April 1904
• Docket Number: 1524
• Parties: M. L. GARITY, Respondent, v. THE BULLIONBECK & CHAMPION MINING COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellant
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

76 P. 556

27 Utah 534

M. L. GARITY, Respondent, v. THE BULLIONBECK & CHAMPION MINING COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellant

No. 1524

Supreme Court of Utah

April 23, 1904

Appeal from the Fifth District Court, Juab County.--Hon. T Marioneaux, Judge.

Action to recover for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff because of defendant's failure to furnish a reasonably safe course of ingress and egress to and from his place of work in defendant's mine. From a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, the defendant appealed.

AFFIRMED.

Messrs Farnsworth, Lund & Truman for appellant.

Messrs Powers, Straup & Lippman for respondent.

McCARTY J., delivered the opinion of the court. BASKIN, C. J., and BARTCH, J., concur.

OPINION

McCARTY, J.

STATEMENT OF FACTS.

This is an action to recover for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff because of defendant's failure to furnish a reasonably safe course of ingress and egress to and from his place of work in defendant's mine. The facts, in brief, are as follows: The plaintiff was in the employ of the defendant company, and while going to his work on the night of June 24, 1902, received the injuries complained of. At the time he was injured, and for a week prior thereto, he was at work on the 750-foot level of the mine. In going to his work, he was lowered from the surface to the 700-foot level in a cage. On leaving the cage, he passed through a drift or tunnel 150 feet, and then down a manway, by means of a ladder, to within 14 feet of the 750-foot level, at which point he left the manway and walked along on the caps of the square sets of timbers for about 24 feet to the solid rock on the opposite side of the stope from the manway, and from there he would continue his course about 40 feet to his place of work. He was working on night shift and went to work at 6 o'clock in the evening. Between the time he went off shift on the morning of June 24, 1902, and the time he returned to work in the evening of said day, one of the sets of timbers (square sets) on the opposite side of the stope from the manway was covered with lagging by one Mike Mernan, under the direction of the shift boss of the mine. The lagging consisted of planks which were 10 or 12 inches wide and 2 inches thick. This lagging covered the entire square or space within the square set, and was placed there for the purpose of enabling miners to take down the ore on that side of the stope, and for plaintiff and other miners to pass over when going to and returning from their work in that part of the mine. On the night of the accident, plaintiff walked along on the caps of the timbers, as he had previously done while going to and from his work, and, on coming to the square sets referred to, started to cross over on the lagging, which was so laid as to give it the appearance of a floor; and, when about midway of the space covered, one of the planks broke and gave way under him, and he was precipitated to the landing below, a distance of about 14 feet, and thereby sustained the injuries for which this action is brought. The route taken by plaintiff on the evening of the accident was the most convenient, open, and direct of any in the mine by which he could go to and from his work, and was the one he had always taken before and up to the time of the accident, and was also the same route he had seen the shift boss take in going to and from this same place. In fact, the record shows...