Klochinski v. Shores Lumber Co.

• Decision Date: 22 May 1896
• Citation: 93 Wis. 417,67 N.W. 934
• Parties: KLOCHINSKI v. SHORES LUMBER CO.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

93 Wis. 417

67 N.W. 934

KLOCHINSKI

v.SHORES LUMBER CO.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

May 22, 1896.

Appeal from circuit court, Ashland county; John K. Parish, Judge.

Action by John Klochinski against the Shores Lumber Company. Plaintiff had judgment against defendant company, and it appeals. Reversed.

This was an action to recover damages sustained by the plaintiff by reason of the alleged negligence of the defendant while in its employ as a laborer in its steam sawmill. The mill is a double mill, and the logs are brought into it over live rollers by a chain with brads which pierce the logs and haul them up on a log deck, on each side of which the carriages run upon which the logs are placed and carried forward to the saw. The carriage and saw on each side, forming a double mill, are supplied with logs from the log deck, and the machinery for handling the logs and sawing runs with great speed. A man is employed on the log deck who stands there and throws the logs, as they come in, down an incline to the carriages, with levers operating machinery for that purpose, and, when a log is thrown onto the carriage, it is controlled and handled by means of a steam trip or jigger, operated by the sawyer with his foot. The work of handling the logs on the log deck and carriage is required to be done in a quick manner, so as to keep out of the way of the machinery, and the plaintiff alleged that it was a hazardous and dangerous employment, even to experienced hands, and was known to be such by the defendant. On the day of the injury, the log-deck hand had become disabled, and John W. Murray, the defendant's superintendent and general manager, and who was joined as a defendant with it, took the plaintiff, as he alleges, from his work in the shingle mill, to assist him (Murray) on the log deck, knowing the plaintiff to be without experience, skill, or knowledge in that work, well knowing its dangerous character, and without informing the plaintiff of or explaining the same to him, and when this machinery, steam trip, and jigger were out of repair and defective, and suffered and directed the plaintiff to assist him (Murray) on the log deck; that Murray used the lever and threw a log down the incline to the carriage in a careless and negligent manner, one end in advance of the other, so that it swung around and failed to catch on the carriage properly, when the jigger operated by the sawyer caught the log near its middle, instead of the end, and threw it around suddenly, without warning, and with great force and violence, striking the plaintiff on his leg, knocking him down, breaking his right leg, and inflicting on him other injuries, etc.; that the injury was caused without the fault of the plaintiff, and wholly by reason of “the fault, neglect, and wrongful acts of the defendants, in putting the plaintiff to work in such danger without informing him thereof, and in allowing said machinery to be so out of repair and defective, and in the said Murray carelessly, negligently, and wrongfully throwing said log down the incline in an irregular manner as aforesaid.” It was admitted by the answer that the defendant Murray was the superintendent in charge of, operating, and running the mill of the defendant company, that the mill was constructed and operated substantially as stated, and that the plaintiff was injured while at work therein at the time stated; but it was alleged that his injury was caused by his own carelessness and neglect, and not by the carelessness or neglect of either of the defendants, and, save as admitted, it denied all other allegations of the complaint.

At the trial before a jury, evidence was given on the part of the plaintiff tending to show: That he had worked for the defendantfor over two summers in and about the mill and shingle mill, and just before his injury he was at work in the shingle mill. That Murray called him to work on the log deck, and gave him the cant hook, and Murray was then handling the levers on the log deck by which the logs were shot up onto the deck. That he straightened two logs before he got hurt. The log was lying crooked on the deck. Murray told him to go and straighten it, and, when he was doing this, the sawyer kicked the log with the jigger, and the log was thrown over against him, breaking his leg. That he had never worked at that kind of work before. Murray did not explain that it was dangerous, but the evidence tended to show that he had seen and observed how the work was done. The evidence was that the work on the log deck was usually done by one man, who handled the levers that operated the steam kicker, a device by which logs were thrown from the chain as they came in, to the carriage on either side; that the plaintiff did not use this lever at all, but that Murray was there using it, and the plaintiff only used the cant hook to straighten the logs around, and Murray directed him to straighten the log when he got hurt; that the sawyer ought to have been looking to see that he was not in the way when he tripped the jigger. And the evidence also tended to show that it was not safe to go down on the log deck to straighten a log without first signaling the sawyer so that he might not throw the jigger up; that it was usual to signal him, although he probably would be in view of the sawyer in going down on the deck; that it would be dangerous for any man who had never had any experience to be put to work on the log deck. The defendant moved for a nonsuit, but it was denied.

The defendant Murray testified: That he and the plaintiff, at the time of the injury, were together doing the work of one man on the log deck, and that he called the plaintiff up to roll logs or straighten them, and he worked the lever to throw them upon and down the log deck on either side; but he denied that he gave him any direction or indication in respect to the log which injured him. He called him to help witness for the time being, and did not leave the entire work with him, for the reason that the device that throws the logs off from the live roll either one way or the other worked very fast and by steam, and he was afraid to trust it in his hands, for fear he would break it, and so stayed to handle it himself....