Sorenson v. Menasha Paper & Pulp Co.

• Decision Date: 12 December 1882
• Citation: 56 Wis. 338,14 N.W. 446
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Parties: SORENSON, ADM'R, v. MENASHA PAPER & PULP CO.

56 Wis. 338

14 N.W. 446

SORENSON, ADM'R,

v.MENASHA PAPER & PULP CO.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Filed December 12, 1882.

Appeal from circuit court, Brown county.Weisbrod & Harshaw, for appellant, Neil Sorenson, Adm'r, etc.

Gabriel Bouck, for respondent, the Menasha Paper & Pulp Company.

ORTON, J.

On the conclusion of the plaintiff's evidence the circuit court granted a nonsuit, and to determine whether properly or not, the substance and effect of that evidence mnst be considered. The defendant company had for a long time owned and operated this paper and pulp mill. The building stood facing an open street towards the east, about 162 feet in length. From the north end towards the south, about 46 feet, there was the main entrance by a door over 5 feet wide, and always open for the entrance and exit of all persons employed in that part of the building. About 7 feet south of this entrance there was a door about 3 feet wide, which had been used as the entrance to the office of the proprietors, and about 78 feet south of this door there was another door, leading into the machine-room, for the accommodation of those employed therein. Near the south-east corner of the building there was a well, where the employes obtained drinking water.

The north end of the building is a short wing, in which the “rotary” is situated, near the west side, where the deceased worked. Near the rotary to the south are the “beaters,” five in number, extending to the west end of a wing. In the south wing is the paper machine. From the rotary to the main entrance door is about 42 feet in a line to the south-east. From the main entrance to a point a little north of one of the beaters, about 32 feet, there was kept a kerosene lamp burning on a post 8 inches square, and another on a similar post towards and near the rotary, about 11 feet from the first one, and another light near the north-east corner of the rotary, about 50 feet from the main entrance. There was another lamp near and south of the lower beater, 36 feet from the main entrance, and one about 8 feet west of it and directly south-west of the main entrance about 48 feet, and two others east of the paper machine about 16 feet apart. All of these lamps would cast light without obstruction to the main entrance. The office was partitioned off from the main room perhaps about 15 feet by 20 feet; the south-east externalcorner of it within about 6 feet from the main entrance, and the office door opening from it into the street. For the purpose of improving the machinery the partitions had been taken away, except a small part on the south-east side, on the eighteenth day of August, and the safe was left standing near the north-east corner of the room as it had been.

Before the accident, and on Saturday, the twentieth of August, a square hole or slit was cut in the floor north and south seven by nineteen feet, the north end near the safe, and lengthways, nearly opposite the office door, and about five feet from it. It was afterwards filled up one foot on each side with timbers. There was water in this hole six feet deep, which communicated with the wheel. The mechanics of the defendant worked upon this job on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. The last day, in the evening, was the time of the accident. On Saturday, when they left the work in the evening, they put a fence around it, and on Sunday they covered it, and on Monday they put two plank on top of each other part of the way, and then separated in the middle lengthways of the hole. There was a pile of plank laying on the north side of the hole about two feet high. About 8 o'clock in the evening of the twenty-second day of August the deceased, who had been employed by the defendant for a few weeks only and whose duty it was to carry straw from the rotary to the beaters, took a small pail and started to go for drinking water at the well. That is the last time he was seen alive. Louis Larson, who worked at the beaters, after waiting for a half hour, became alarmed and proceeded to search for him, and went out the main entrance and looked along the street, and while standing outside, opposite to the main entrance, he looked through the open office door and saw the black cap of the deceased lying on the east timbers of the hole. Then search was made in the hole and below, and his lifeless body found with the head bruised and other wounds. There was water on the plank over the whole as if spilled there from his pail on his return from the well. The lamps cast light, although not a strong light, to the doors, and the cap was seen by Larson by this light. The hole was from six to twelve feet from the line of the proper course of the deceased, going to and coming from the main entrance north of the hole. The deceased knew all about the hole, and saw it on that day. The office door was found open by Larson, but there is no evidence that it was left open when the mechanics left their work that evening, or that it was ever left open. If it was open, and mistaken for the main entrance by the deceased on returning from the well, his direct route of return to the rotary or the beaters would have been north of the hole, and not westwardly across it. There is no evidence that the office door was ever used by the...