Miller v. Great Northern Railway Company
| Citation | 88 N.W. 758,85 Minn. 272 |
| Decision Date | 17 January 1902 |
| Docket Number | 12,859 - (167) |
| Parties | CHRIST J. MILLER v. GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Action in the district court for Stearns county to recover $5,125 for personal injuries. The case was tried before Searle, J and a jury, which rendered a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $1,500. From an order denying a motion for judgment in its favor notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial defendant appealed. Affirmed.
Failure of Master to Provide Safe Appliance.
Facts in an action for personal injuries resulting from the failure of the master to furnish a safe and proper instrumentality for his servant's use in the construction of a bridge, whereby such servant was injured, considered, and held, upon the evidence, that the jury were justified in finding that the master had been negligent in his duty in that respect.
W. E. Dodge and Geo. H. Reynolds, for appellant.
Donohue & Stephens and Calhoun & Bennett, for respondent.
Action for personal injuries sustained by an employee while at work for defendant in the construction of a bridge over the Shell river. While turning a jackscrew by means of a defective crowbar, it broke, whereby he was injured. The answer is a general denial. Plaintiff recovered a verdict. A new trial was denied. Defendant appeals.
From the evidence, which the verdict requires us to adopt, it substantially appears that plaintiff, a young man thirty years old, was required in his service to work on a scaffolding eighteen feet above the ice in the bed of the Shell river, and to stand on a plank twelve inches wide to assist in the turning of a jackscrew placed on such plank in order to raise one end of the bridge. He usually worked with the foreman of the bridge crew, and on the occasion when he was injured took from a tool box where the tools used in his employment were commonly kept a crowbar such as had been previously used by him and others in turning the jackscrew. He carried the bar to the jackscrew, and while standing on the platform inserted it in one of the holes of the screw, and with another servant applied some force thereto to turn the same, when the bar suddenly broke a short distance from its end, and plaintiff was, by means of such force and the breakage, thrown backwards, and precipitated upon the ice below, receiving the injuries by his fall, for which he recovered substantial...
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