Joyce v. City of Worcester

• Decision Date: 26 October 1885
• Citation: 4 N.E. 565,140 Mass. 245
• Parties: JOYCE v. CITY OF WORCESTER.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

140 Mass. 245

4 N.E. 565

JOYCE

v.CITY OF WORCESTER.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

Filed October 26, 1885.

This was an action of tort for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff while in the employ of the defendant. At the trial in the superior court, before ALDRICH, J., the plaintiff offered evidence to show that in the summer of 1882 he came to Worcester, and let himself to the defendant to work on a sewer. As the sewer was excavated, it became necessary to drive planks on the sides of the trench; and the particular work which the plaintiff was to do was to drive these planks down, as the excavation went on, with a heavy wooden mallet. After the sewer was built at the bottom of the trench, it was filled with earth to the top, leaving these planks, which were about 18 feet long, 10 inches wide, and 2 inches thick, imbedded in the earth, and projecting above the surface about one foot. The city had an appliance to draw these planks up out of the earth, consisting of a derrick, made of four pieces of timber, about 16 feet long, and in size 4 by 6 inches, fastened together loosely at the top by an iron pin, which ran through the timbers at the upper end. The fastening was made loose to facilitate the spreading or the contracting of the legs of the derrick. No part of the derrick was broken, and every part of the derrick and appliances for drawing the planks was in full view, and could be seen by the plaintiff and his fellow-servants. In order to steady the derrick when the power was applied, a man was stationed at each leg to hold it firmly down to the plank on which it stood. The accident occurred on May 4, 1883, by the upsetting of the derrick when the power was applied to draw up one of these planks. The plaintiff was set to hold, and was holding, one of the legs at the time of the accident. The derrick was pulled over, and the plaintiff received his injury by being thrown upward and backward by the action of the leg of the derrick he was holding. The engineer had had many years' experience in running a stationary engine, and had drawn planks in the same manner, and by a similar contrivance, as he was doing it at the time of the accident, in 1875 or 1876; but not since until he began to work for the defendant in drawing planks as above stated. A foreman was placed over the derrick, to attach the chain to the plank, and to give the signal to the engineer, and he was also one of the men to hold the legs. The plaintiff...