McCants v. Tremont Lumber Co

• Decision Date: 10 April 1911
• Docket Number: 18,268
• Citation: 128 La. 487,54 So. 967
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: McCANTS v. TREMONT LUMBER CO

54 So. 967

128 La. 487

McCANTS v. TREMONT LUMBER CO

No. 18,268

Supreme Court of Louisiana

April 10, 1911

Appeal from Fourth Judicial District Court, Parish of Lincoln; R. B Dawkins, Judge.

Action by Samuel McCants against the Tremont Lumber Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Daspit & Heath and J. S. Atkinson, for appellant.

Barksdale & Barksdale, for appellee.

PROVOSTY J. SOMMERVILLE, J., takes no part herein.

OPINION

PROVOSTY J.

Plaintiff, a carpenter, and other workmen, were engaged in putting up a large wooden open shed for the defendant company. It became necessary to go up a ladder, to a height of about 13 or 14 feet, to take some measurements, and plaintiff was directed by defendant's foreman to do it. The ladder stood leaning against one of the posts, or columns, of the shed; the foot resting on the floor. It being too long, it extended out at the bottom at too flat an angle. The floor was of dressed lumber, and wet, and therefore more or less slippery. Plaintiff says he told the foreman that it was dangerous to go up this ladder, that it was like sending him into a trap, and that the foreman told him to go ahead -- that he (the foreman) would have Adam Lorber (a fellow carpenter) hold the ladder and would be responsible for the danger. Plaintiff took along with him up the ladder a pine board one inch thick, six inches wide, and seven feet long, to make measurements with. For taking the measurements he had to lean out a good deal. A high wind was blowing. Plaintiff testifies that while he was holding the board with his left hand, and had just folded up his foot rule and put it in his back pocket, the wind blew the board around, so that it hit the side of the ladder, and caused it to "run out on the slick floor" and slip two or three feet; that he held to the board until it struck the post against which the ladder was leaning, and then let it go, when the ladder turned over, and he fell to the floor; that the foreman had gone to another part of the premises, and that Adam Lorber, who, as instructed by the foreman, was holding the ladder, was standing at the foot of the ladder, with his left hand on it, and was not paying attention, but was looking over his shoulder at some men who were working near by.

Plaintiff sues in damages for the injuries received by him in his fall.

Adam Lorber, who was called as a witness by plaintiff, testified that the...