Richardson v. Mesker
| Decision Date | 18 February 1903 |
| Citation | 171 Mo. 666,72 S.W. 506 |
| Parties | RICHARDSON v. MESKER et al. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
1. Plaintiff, 15 years of age, had been employed in defendant's factory, and was directed to assist in operating an iron die. On the second day the operator stopped the machine to repair it. Plaintiff, while holding a piece of iron while the operator clinched the nails at one end, rested his hand on a cogwheel, by which power was communicated to the machine. While in this position, the operator started the machine, and plaintiff's hand was crushed. Held, that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence.
2. Plaintiff and the operator of the machine, by whom it was started, were fellow servants, and plaintiff could not recover for such operator's negligence in starting the machine without giving plaintiff notice of his intention to do so.
Appeal from St. Louis circuit court; Jacob Klein, Judge.
Application by William C. Richardson, curator of Walter Heckel, a minor, against Benjamin T. Mesker and another. From a judgment in favor of defendant, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.
L. M. Conkling, for appellant. Percy Werner, for respondents.
This is an action for personal injuries to the said Walter Heckel while in the employ of the defendants Benjamin T. Mesker and Frank Mesker, in which, at the close of the plaintiff's evidence, the court sustained a demurrer thereto, and the plaintiff took a nonsuit, with leave, and, the court refusing to set the same aside, the plaintiff appeals.
The only evidence in the case, except as to the minor's expectancy of life, was that of the said Walter Heckel, who testified, in substance: That on the 6th of July, 1898, he was 15 years and 2 months old; was in the employ of the Meskers at their factory, and had been for 4 or 5 months. That prior to the 5th of July he was engaged in running a pair of shears, by which patterns for skylights were cut out of galvanized iron, and which was operated by a treadle. That about 7 o'clock on the morning of that day, Mr. Niehaus, who was the foreman of the said defendant, having the control and direction of their employés, directed him to go down and help Louis Reynolds on the die. By this machine sheet or galvanized iron was molded into shape for cornice. It consisted of a steel die, working perpendicularly in the grooves of an iron frame about 8 feet long and 1½ feet wide. The power was communicated to the machine by two cogwheels, one above the other, at the west end of the machine; the upper a large, and the lower a small, one, on the end of the shaft. The machine was operated by a treadle at the east end; a step on the treadle causing the die to come down and go up once, and it then stopped, until started again by the use of the treadle. That in obedience to the directions of Niehaus he helped Reynolds all that day. Their work consisted in feeding the machine with strips of sheet or galvanized iron; Reynolds, at the east end of the machine, holding one end of the strips against the gauge, and operating the treadle, and Heckel, at the west end, holding the other end of the strip against the gauge. That on coming to his work on the morning of the 6th of July he was again told by Niehaus to help Reynolds at the machine that day. That he did so, and they continued their work as on the day before, until about 4 o'clock in the evening, when the machine became out of repair, and Reynolds said to him, "I have got to fix it." That Reynolds then got a piece of sheet or galvanized iron about eight feet long and four or five inches wide, with two holes punched in it, and such holes about five inches from either end of the strip, in which two nails were placed, by which the strip was to be attached to the rear of the frame, so as to hold the die within the grooves. That, after Reynolds put the strip in position, he directed the witness to hold the west end up and in position until he clinched the nail in the east end, and then he would clinch the...
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Graczak v. St. Louis
...of a fellow-servant, and a servant so injured has the burden of proving the absence of the fellow-servant relationship. Richardson v. Mesker, 171 Mo. 666, 72 S.W. 506; Burge v. American Car & Foundry Co., 274 S.W. 842; English v. Roberts, Johnson & Rand Shoe Co., 145 Mo. App. 439, 122 S.W. ......
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...was the act of a fellow-servant. Ryan v. McCulley, 123 Mo. 636; Card v. Eddy, 129 Mo. 510; Burge v. Am. Car Co., 274 S.W. 845; Richardson v. Heckel, 171 Mo. 666; Livengood v. Lead Co., 179 Mo. 229; Chrismer v. Bell Tel. Co., 194 Mo. 212; Van Bibber v. Swift & Co., 286 Mo. 338; Funk v. Fulto......
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...Dickinson v. Jenkins, 144 Mo.App. 132; Hawk v. Lumber Company, 166 Mo. 121; Padgitt v. Iron & Steel Company, 160 Mo.App. 544; Richards v. Mesker, 171 Mo. 666; English v. Shoe Company, 145 Mo.App. 439; Freebourn v. Chamberlain Medicine Co., 136 Iowa 434; Gann v. Railroad, 101 Tenn. 380; Find......
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Graczak v. City of St. Louis
...of a fellow-servant, and a servant so injured has the burden of proving the absence of the fellow-servant relationship. Richardson v. Mesker, 171 Mo. 666, 72 S.W. 506; Burge v. American Car & Foundry Co., 274 S.W. English v. Roberts, Johnson & Rand Shoe Co., 145 Mo.App. 439, 122 S.W. 747; S......