McCulloch v. Illinois Steel Co.

• Decision Date: 02 February 1910
• Citation: 90 N.E. 664,243 Ill. 464
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Parties: McCULLOCH v. ILLINOIS STEEL CO.

243 Ill. 464

90 N.E. 664

McCULLOCH

v.ILLINOIS STEEL CO.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 22, 1909.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 2, 1910.

Error to Appellate Court, Second District, on Appeal from Circuit Court, Will County; Dorrance Dibell, Judge.

Action by James McCulloch against Illinois Steel Company. From a judgment of the Appellate Court affirming a judgment for plaintiff, defendant brings error. Affirmed.

Garnsey & Wood and William Beye (Knapp & Campbell, of counsel), for plaintiff in error.

John W. D'Arcy, for defendant in error.

CARTER, J.

This is an action on the case brought by defendant in error against plaintiff in error, in the circuit court if Will county, to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by him while employed in the steel mill of plaintiff in error at Joliet, Ill. When the case was finally submitted to the jury the declaration contained three counts. The first count set up the ownership of the plant and buildings, and charged negligence on the part of plaintiff in error in the operation and use of its premises, machinery, and appliances, so that a large quantity of molten iron was permitted to escape from a ‘mixer’ and fall upon defendant in error. The third count charged that plaintiff in error overloaded the mixer, and poured an excessive amount of metal into it from the ladle. The fourth count charged that the craneman operating the crane attached to the ladle was unskilled, incompetent, and inexperienced, and that by reason of his lack of skill he caused too large a quantity of molten iron to be passed into the mixer from the ladle. Each count charged that defendant in error was in the exercise of reasonable care, and set out that he had no notice, knowledge, or warning that metal would escape from the mixer, and that the injury did not result from an assumed risk or the negligence of a fellow servant. At the close of defendant in error's evidence, and again at the close of all the evidence, plaintiff in error moved to instruct the jury to find it not guilty under each of the three counts in question. These instructions were refused. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and assessed damages in favor of appellee. Motion for new trial was overruled, and judgment entered on the verdict. On appeal to the Appellate Court that judgment was affirmed. The case is brought to this court by writ of error for further review.

The accident occurred on April 18, 1907, in what is called the ‘mixer mill’ of plaintiff in error's plant. This is a building about 60 feet broad, from 60 to 70 feet high, and about 250 feet in length, built of steel and corrugated iron. The main floor is of concrete, about 15 feet above the ground level, and on it are laid two sets of ordinary standard gauge railroad tracks. The western half of the building is occupied by the mixers themselves, two in number. These vessels will hold about 250 tons of metal each, being somewhat cylindrical in shape. Their longer axis is about 20 feet. They are nearly the same in width, and about 15 feet deep. They are covered and lined with fire brick, the only openings being an aperture at the top, into which the metal is poured, and a nose or spout at the other end, out of which to pour the molten iron as needed. The mixers stand side by side, with a space of about 8 feet between them. They are mounted on rollers, which rest on a semicircular bed, and can be revolved for the purpose of pouring, the nose lowering as they are tipped. Surrounding the south side of the mixers is a floor 10 or 12 feet above the main floor, which is made of iron plates, and stands about 4 feet below the normal level of the noses, being cut out around the noses of the mixers to permit their being lowered. In the mixer mill are two traveling cranes operated by electricity, which are used to hoist the ladles of molten iron and pour the metal into the mixers. The office of the mixers is to permit iron from different blast furnaces, which is afterwards to be converted into steel in the adjoining building, to be mixed so that its quality may be uniform. The metal is brought from the blast furnaces in cup-shaped ladles provided with a spout, holding from 25,000 to 30,000 pounds each. They are mounted on trucks and run on railroad tracks on the main floor. When it is desired to pour the metal into the mixer, the ladle is raised from the trucks by one of the cranes. When the metal is to be taken from the mixers to the steel mill department, a ladle, called a ‘transfer ladle,’ is brought from the adjoining building upon a track which runs underneath the noses of the mixers and underneath the iron floor. This ladle is ordinarily operated by means of a cable running along the center of the track over which it travels.

At the time of the accident the defendant in error had charge of the repair of machinery as master mechanic in the department in question under a general master mechanic, but had nothing to do with the operating of the department. Herbert W. Spencer was the general superintendent, and John D. Wombacher the assistant superintendent, of that department; the latter having charge and being present directing the operation of the department at the time of the accident. On that day the cable broke about the middle of the forenoon, and word was sent to the mechanical department. The defendant in error proceeded with a gang of men to make the necessary repairs. Most of the work in repairing the cable was done on the concrete floor directly under the nose of the east mixer; the testimony showing that this was the usual and proper place for repairing this cable. While the work was being done, the metal in the west mixer was being taken out by the transfer ladle, pushed by men, as the cable which moved this ladle was the one being repaired; the mechanics having to step aside while it went by. It passed back and forth each way about 8 times an hour. The west crane at this time was being operated by one Joseph Juver, a regular craneman. When the repairing of the cable had been nearly completed, the craneman picked up a ladle containing about 15,000 pounds of metal, which had become cooled and crusted over on top, and started to pour the iron into the east mixer, when the crust broke and a large amount of molten metal fell from the ladle into the mixer, thereby causing some of the iron to splash out of the nose of the mixer and fall upon defendant in error, who...