Log Mountain Coal Co. v. Crunkleton

• Decision Date: 09 October 1914
• Citation: 160 Ky. 202
• Parties: Log Mountain Coal Co. v. Crunkleton.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

Page 202

160 Ky. 202

Log Mountain Coal Co. v. Crunkleton.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Decided October 9, 1914.

Appeal from Bell Circuit Court.

METCALF & JEFFRIES for appellant.

CHARLES I. DAWSON for appellee.

OPINION OF THE COURT BY JUDGE MILLER — Affirming.

The appellee Crunkleton, a coal miner, recovered a verdict and judgment for $1,000.00 against the Log Mountain Coal Company for damages to his health arising out of the failure of the coal company to properly ventilate its mine, as required by Section 2731 of the Kentucky Statutes. That statute reads as follows:

"The owner, agent or lessee of every coal mine, whether slope, shaft or drift, to which this act applies, shall provide and maintain for every such mine an amount of ventilation of not less than one hundred cubic feet of air per minute per person employed in such mine, which shall be circulated and distributed throughout the mine in such a manner as to dilute, render harmless, and expel the poisonous and noxious gases from each and every working place in the mine; and no working place shall be driven more than sixty feet in advance of a break-through or air-way; and all break-throughs or air-ways, except those last made near the working-face of the mine, shall be closed up and made air-tight by brattice, trap-doors or otherwise, so that the currents of air in circulation in the mine may sweep to the interior of the excavations where the persons employed in the mines are at work; and all mines governed by this statute shall be provided with artificial means of producing ventilation such as suction or forcing fans, exhaust steam, furnaces, or other contrivances, of such capacity and power as to produce and maintain an abundant supply of air. All mines generating fire-damp shall be kept free from standing gas, and every working place shall be carefully examined every morning with a safety lamp, by a competent person or persons, before any of the workmen are allowed to enter the mine. And at every mine operated by a shaft, there shall be provided an approved safety catch, and a sufficient cover overhead, on all cages used for lowering and hoisting persons, and at the top of every shaft, a safety gate shall be provided, and an adequate brake shall be attached to every drum or machine used in lowering or raising persons in all shafts and slopes."

The complaint is that appellant negligently failed to supply appellee, who was a miner in appellant's service, with the quantity of fresh air required by the statute, and that his health was thereby seriously and permanently injured.

During the latter part of the year 1911 it became necessary to the proper and profitable operation of appellant's mine, to make certain changes therein. One of these changes consisted in driving a new entry from the fourth left entry in the mine, commencing near the mouth of room 25 and running diagonally toward the heads of the third left entry and the second left entry. The record speaks of this new entry as the "diagonal"; and it was in this diagonal that Crunkleton was working, as a miner, when, as he claims, his health was injured.

In order to comply with the statute above referred to, every entry in the mine was paralleled by another entry called an air-way. The statute is based upon the fact that experience has demonstrated that every person working in a mine should have at least a hundred cubic feet of fresh air, per minute; that this quantity of air in the ordinary mine entry will not travel more than sixty feet in a horizontal direction without artificial assistance; and in order that this circulation may be stimulated, a suction fan, pulling or drawing the impure air from the mine, is placed at the portal or mouth of the air-course; and, at distances of sixty feet, an opening is cut from the entry to the air-way. The fan draws out the impure air from the air-course, and the vacuum thus created is immediately filled by the pure air entering the mine entry and crossing through the break-through.

At the end of the second sixty feet, as the entry and air-course are driven, another break-through is made, and the entrance to the last one is closed by cloth curtains, or brattices made of wood, so that the action of the fan forces the pure air to the last unclosed break-through. This system is extended throughout the mine, as the work progresses; and as a new break-through is made, the circulation through the preceding break-through is cut off or shut off in the manner above described.

The relative positions of the several entries to the main entry, and to each other, and to the air-ways, as well as the principal break-throughs that are material to this case, are shown on the following map:

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINING TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

The principal contention between the appellant and appellee, relates to the course of circulation of the air in the fourth left entry, and its outward passage therefrom to and through the third left entry. The pure air entered the mouth of the main entry at A; and the suction fan, revolving at the mouth of the air-course would, ordinarily, cause the pure air to travel up the main entry to the fourth left entry, thence up the fourth left entry to a point therein at room 18, which was about half-way between the mouth of the fourth left entry and the point where the diagonal entry departed from the fourth left entry. Crunkleton was working in the second diagonal. Room 18 opened into the third left entry, thus affording an outlet for air through that entry.

Appellant contends that a trap-door was built across the fourth left entry at room 18, and that the air was thereby deflected to the air-way parallel to the fourth left entry, thence up the air-way (all of the break-throughs from the air-way to the entries being closed to a point a short distance beyond where the Crunkleton diagonal left the main entry), and thence into the diagonal, where Crunkleton was at work. This line is indicated on the map by the letters, A, B, C. D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M. Appellee contends, however, that the trap-door was not closed across the fourth left entry at room 18; and that...