Halloran v. Pullman Co.

• Decision Date: 19 April 1910
• Parties: HALLORAN v. PULLMAN CO.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

127 S.W. 946

148 Mo. App. 243

HALLORAN v. PULLMAN CO.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

April 19, 1910.

1. MASTER AND SERVANT (§§ 101, 102)—INJURY TO SERVANT—SAFE PLACE TO WORK—DUTY OF MASTER.

A master must furnish his servant with a reasonably safe place in which to work, and he must exercise ordinary care to keep the place in a reasonably safe condition, and the question of his negligence is determined by reference to the conduct of an ordinarily prudent person under like circumstances, and omissions which entail injuries such as might have been anticipated by a reasonably prudent person are negligent breaches of duty.

2. MASTER AND SERVANT (§ 111)—INJURY TO SERVANT—NEGLIGENCE—EVIDENCE.

A foreman in charge of car cleaners directed an upholsterer to repair a seat in the smoking room of a Pullman car. The upholsterer entered the car, which was dark, raised the sofa from the seat, and then rested it on his knee, and was about to put the stepping box under it when his right foot slipped, and the cushion fell, catching the forefinger of his right hand between the stepping box and the frame of the sofa, crushing his finger. The floor of the car was sloppy. Held, that the master was not liable because a reasonably prudent man would not have supposed that the water remaining on the floor of the car would have caused an accident to any one employed in working there.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Matt G. Reynolds, Judge.

Action by Patrick H. Halloran against the Pullman Company. From a judgment refusing to set aside a nonsuit with leave to move to set the same aside, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Everett W. Pattison and Alfred P. Hebard, for appellant. Sears Lehmann and Lehmann & Lehmann, for respondent.

REYNOLDS, P. J.

The plaintiff in this case, by occupation an upholsterer, while in the employment of the defendant, was directed to put buttons on the seat of a sofa in the smoking room of a Pullman car; that car at the time being in place in the Union Depot, in the city of St. Louis. He reached the car about 5 o'clock on the evening of April 13th and went into the car, which was dark, raised the sofa from the seat in the smoking room of the car with both hands, and, after he had raised it, rested it on his knee, holding it by his knee and his left hand, and was about to put the foot box, or "stepping box," as he calls it, under it, and just as he did so his right foot slipped from under him, and the cushion, falling, caught the forefinger of his right hand between the "stepping box" and the frame of the sofa, crushing his finger. Looking to see what had caused his foot to slip, he found that the floor of the car was sloppy, and had soapy water on it. He had gone to this place to work under the direction of a foreman, who was also foreman and had charge of the car cleaners. Plaintiff testified that in consequence of the injury to his finger his hand is permanently maimed, and that he is unable to pursue his occupation of an upholsterer. This is practically the testimony of plaintiff in the case as to the accident, as also all the material evidence in the case, except that the plaintiff offered in evidence the charter of the defendant which it is unnecessary to notice. At the conclusion of plaintiff's testimony, plaintiff resting, the defendant asked the court to instruct the jury, before which and the court the case was on trial, that under the pleadings and the evidence their verdict must be for the defendant. The court ruling that it would give this instruction plaintiff took a nonsuit, with leave to move to set the same aside, which motion he afterwards filed, and that, being overruled and exception saved, he has brought the case here on appeal.

The errors relied upon by counsel for plaintiff are to...