Mississippi Valley Power Co. v. Hubbard
| Decision Date | 31 March 1930 |
| Docket Number | 252 |
| Citation | 26 S.W.2d 118,181 Ark. 487 |
| Parties | MISSISSIPPI VALLEY POWER COMPANY v. HUBBARD |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Appeal from Crawford Circuit Court; J. O. Kincannon, Judge reversed.
Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.
Hill Fitzhugh & Brizzolara, for appellants.
J. F O'Melia and G. L. Grant, for appellee.
The appellants, Isaac Lewis and James A. Lewis, were a partnership owning, and operating a coal mine near Alix in Crawford County, Arkansas, which they had purchased together with the equipment from Ben and Howell Douglass. Over the shaft leading to the interior of the mine was erected what the witnesses have designated as a "tipple." This appears to be a structure composed of four large uprights slightly inclined toward the center from the perpendicular, braced at intervals and extending upward a considerable number of feet. The manner of construction is not disclosed by the evidence or the purpose for which it was to be used, but from the photographs and references made by the witnesses we presume that it was a derrick-like structure used for affording means by which things might be raised or lowered into the mine. Within the tipple and near the shaft on sills laid upon the ground were three electrical devices called transformers. The mine was electrified, the electricity coming over the wires of the appellant, Mississippi Valley Power Company, strung on poles to a large pole about eighteen feet away from the tipple. From this pole the wires were carried into the tipple at a certain distance from the ground--one of the witnesses stated at about twelve feet from the ground--and fastened to one of the up-rights and there brought down the side of the up-right and connected with the transformers. One of these wires was called a high-tension wire, carrying a charge of about forty-four hundred volts. The other wires were called secondary wires, all of which were plainly in view. An iron pipe about 1 1/4 inches in diameter led horizontally from a boiler at a point outside the tipple to within the enclosure made by the same where it was attached by an elbow to a pipe of like dimensions extending downward through the shaft into the mine and there connected with other equipment, the pipe being used for the transmission of steam. This pipe was leaking steam at a point below the entrance to the shaft, and on the morning of the 22d day of September, 1927, Isaac Lewis, who was the foreman in charge of the operations of the mine, caused to be detached the pipe within the mine at a point about seventy feet below where it entered the shaft for the purpose of raising the pipe in order that the leak might be stopped. When this was done, the pipe was detached from the connections leading from the tipple outside, leaving about four feet of the horizontal pipe still attached to the elbow. The foreman then called to his assistance two miners and one Andy Hubbard, and the four raised the perpendicular pipe several feet upward--estimated from three to seven feet--where it was tied to prevent its slipping down. The purpose of this was to raise the pipe so the leak would be above the mouth of the shaft in order that it might be closed by a clamp. This work was to be done by Andy Hubbard who was a blacksmith, and the general repair man of the coal company.
The pipe was raised at about 7:30 or 8:00 o'clock in the forenoon. After it was raised and tied, the foreman, in the presence of the two miners who were helping him to raise the pipe, told Hubbard, who was to close the leak, to be careful with it and not to turn the pipe--that there was no danger if he did not turn the pipe. The elbow on the pipe at that time and the piece of pipe about four feet long projecting therefrom were in an opposite direction and north from where the wires were installed on the south side of the tipple. After having raised the pipe and given the precaution to Hubbard, the foreman and his helpers descended into the mine where they remained. Hubbard also descended into the mine for some purpose and...
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