Jones v. Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co.

• Decision Date: 04 May 1926
• Docket Number: No. 19277.,19277.
• Citation: 284 S.W. 513
• Parties: JONES v. LIGGETT & MYERS TOBACCO CO.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

284 S.W. 513

JONES v. LIGGETT & MYERS TOBACCO CO.

No. 19277.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

May 4, 1926.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; J. Hugo Grimm, Judge.

"Not to be officially published."

Action by Martha E. Jones against the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed.

Jones, Hooker, Sullivan & Angert and Marvin E. Boisseau, all of St. Louis, for appellant.

Foristel, Mudd, Hezel & Habenicht, of St. Louis, for respondent.

BECKER, J.

This is a suit for damages for personal injuries originating in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis. Plaintiff's amended petition alleges that on the 9th day of June, 1921, she was in the employ of the defendant, a corporation, at its factory, and while engaged in her duties as such employee she was, with great force and violence, suddenly struck by a scaffold or platform used in cleaning windows, which, when not in use, had been placed by the defendant in contact with certain hogsheads of tobacco in such a position that when either of the hogsheads was moved the said platform was likely to fall upon and injure the plaintiff; that while one of the hogsheads was being moved, at the direction of the defendant, the said scaffold did fall and strike plaintiff, all of which was the direct result of negligence on the part of defendant in the following respects:

First. Defendant failed to furnish plaintiff a reasonably safe place in which to work, in that plaintiff was required to work near the hogsheads of tobacco and the scaffold, and said scaffold was not secured from falling in case said hogsheads should be moved.

Second. That defendant negligently caused said scaffold to fall and strike plaintiff.

Third. That defendant negligently placed said scaffold in contact with said hogsheads near where plaintiff was working in such a position that it was likely to fall if they were moved.

Fourth. That defendant negligently failed to warn plaintiff that it was about to move the hogsheads and that the scaffold was likely to fall and strike her.

The defendant's answer was a general denial.

The facts with reference to the happening of the accident giving rise to this suit were undisputed, and were developed by the testimony of plaintiff herself and two witnesses called by her—Coy Booker and Charley Cunningham. The plaintiff, a colored woman, was employed by defendant in January, 1921. She was put to work on the fourth floor of the stemmery, one of the defendant's factory buildings. She worked under a foreman named Joe Taylor, who was the foreman of all those who worked on the fourth floor. Her work was that of sorting tobacco. To do this she sat at a table, and the tobacco leaves were dumped on the table in front of her. She sorted it out according to the length of the leaves and placed the different lengths into cells. Along with all others on that floor, however, she did whatever work the foreman, Joe Taylor, told her to do. On June 9, 1921, she stated that Joe Taylor had told her to work at another table on a different part of the floor from where she ordinarily worked, and her work there was to sort trash out of the tobacco. To do this she sat on a box at a table and the tobacco was put on the table. She picked out the trash, and then pushed the tobacco off the end of the table into a container of some sort. While doing this work she claims to have been injured.

Her alleged injuries were received in the following manner: About two or three feet behind" where plaintiff was sitting at the table were several large barrels or hogsheads of tobacco. The hogsheads were about 5½ feet in height and were quite heavy. Between two of the hogsheads that were nearest where the plaintiff was sitting some one had placed a scaffold or platform that was used by the defendant in washing the windows. This scaffold was about 2 or 2½ feet wide, and somewhat longer than that. It could be fastened on the inside of a window in some manner and extend on the outside, so that one could stand on it and wash the outside of the window. It was large enough for one man to stand on and set a bucket down beside him, and was made of boards, but its weight does not appear in evidence.:t was customary, whenever the person washing the windows got through with it, to place it between two of these hogsheads, which were near the wall of the building, or in some other out of the way place, so it would not interfere with any one. On the particular day in question Taylor, the foreman, had instructed Coy Booker and Charley Cunningham, a couple of colored men who also worked under him in the stemmery, to mop up the floor. In the progress of their work they came near to where the plaintiff was sitting. In order to mop the floor underneath the hogsheads it was necessary to move them. Accordingly, without noticing that the window-washing " platform was standing on edge between two of the hogsheads, they undertook to move from its position the hogshead nearest the plaintiff. This took away the support from the platform, and it tilted over, the upper end falling against plaintiff's left side as she sat on the box at the table. It did not knock her off the box, nor did the platform fall to the floor. The lower end of the platform remained in its original position, and only the top end fell over against her.

The evidence, all of which was introduced by the plaintiff, showed that Booker and Cunningham worked in the same department, on the same floor, and under the same foreman as the plaintiff. Like the plaintiff, they did whatever work the foreman directed them to do, and frequently they did exactly the same work that plaintiff did; e., sorted tobacco. They were on the same floor, and had opportunities of observation of each other many times every day. While they were scrubbing the floor the...