Prybilski v. Nw. Coal Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 08 February 1898
• Citation: 74 N.W. 117,98 Wis. 413
• Parties: PRYBILSKI v. NORTHWESTERN COAL RY. CO.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

98 Wis. 413

74 N.W. 117

PRYBILSKI

v.NORTHWESTERN COAL RY. CO.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Feb. 8, 1898.

Appeal from superior court, Douglas county; C. Smith, Judge.

Action by Mike Prybilski against the Northwestern Coal Railway Company. From a judgment entered on a verdict in favor of defendant, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

This is an action for personal injuries. The facts appearing on the trial were that the defendant, in November, 1895, owned and operated a large coal dock on Allouez Bay, in the city of Superior, and that the plaintiff was a laborer about the dock. On the west side of the dock, and joining the bay, was a long trestlework, about 35 feet high, and upon the top of this trestlework there was machinery for hoisting coal out of the vessels in the bay. This hoisting was done by means of buckets lowered down into the boats from the ends of boom sticks. The buckets were then raised out of the boat to the boom stick, and then followed the boom stick along over the trestle, on a carriageway, for a long distance back across the dock, being under the control of a man called the “hoister,” who was stationed on the top of the trestle in charge of the machinery, and, by means of levers, dumped the buckets at the proper point. The buckets were so constructed that, when dumped, they would right and latch themselves; and the hoister then, by the aid of his levers, brought the bucket back along the carriageway and the boom stick, and lowered it into the vessel. The average time occupied in loading the bucket, emptying it, and returning it to the vessel, was about four minutes. Immediately east of the trestlework, and upon the ground and floor of the dock, were two parallel railway tracks, running lengthwise of the dock; and immediately east of these tracks were pockets built up upon timbers, the top of which came within five or six feet of the carriageways upon which the buckets ran back and forth. These pockets extended the whole length of the dock north and south, and from the bottom of each pocket there was a spout which extended downwards, so that coal could be loaded from the pockets to the cars standing on the east railroad track. When the pockets were full, the buckets of coal were carried over the pockets further east, and dumped in the yard. At the time of the accident, the pocket over which one of the buckets ran was full, and the coal was heaped up above the top, and the hoister was sending the bucket back into the yard. When the bucket was empty, and was properly latched, it would clear the coal which was heaped up over the top of the pocket; but if the bucket did not latch, and was returned without latching, it hung down about a foot and a half lower, and in that position would hit the coal. On...