Stanwick v. Butler-Ryan Co.

• Decision Date: 22 May 1896
• Citation: 67 N.W. 723,93 Wis. 430
• Parties: STANWICK v. BUTLER-RYAN CO.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

93 Wis. 430

67 N.W. 723

STANWICK

v.BUTLER-RYAN CO.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

May 22, 1896.

Appeal from circuit court, Bayfield county; John K. Parish, Judge.

Action by Thomas Stanwick against the Butler-Ryan Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.Lamoreux, Gleason, Shea & Wright, for appellant.

Sanborn, Dufur & O'Keefe, for respondent.

CASSODAY, C. J.

This is an action to recover damages for personal injuries received by the plaintiff while in the employ of the defendant and engaged in the construction of a part of an ore dock over one of the streets in Ashland. The particular negligence alleged is that the stringers, which were 20 feet above the ground, and 18 feet in length, and 12 feet apart, and made of scantlings 2 inches thick and 4 inches wide, spiked together, were not of sufficient size to support the weight intended to be placed upon them, and were not supported or braced from underneath, and were wholly insufficient, and that one of them broke while the plaintiff was upon it, and precipitated him to the ground, and injured him. The defendant answered by way of admissions and denials. At the close of the trial the jury returned a special verdict to the effect that the plaintiff was an employé of the defendant at the time mentioned in the complaint; that he was injured while in such employ, as alleged in the complaint; that the plaintiff, when he hired out to the defendant, did represent himself to be a carpenter; that the defendant was guilty of a want of ordinary care which was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries; that the defendant did furnish the plaintiff with reasonably safe tools and appliances with which to perform his labor; that the defendant did not furnish the plaintiff with a reasonably safe place to work, and reasonably safe and suitable materials with which to build the staging, from which he fell, while building the same; that the plaintiff did not know, nor could he have known, of the alleged defective materials, by using ordinary care and diligence as a carpenter; that the secretary of the defendant did give special instructions to use the stringer which broke, and in the place in which it was being used, to his foreman, at the time of said accident; that there was no other and safe lumber at hand, provided by the defendant, which its workmen might have used in building the staging at the time of the accident; that the plaintiff did not represent to the defendant's secretary that he had experience in the building of bridges or docks at the time or before he was put to work for the defendant; that the plaintiff was not guilty of negligence which in any manner contributed to his said injuries; that the plaintiff sustained damages by his said injuries to the amount of $1,000. From the judgment entered thereon accordingly, pursuant to the order of the court, the defendant brings this appeal.

The stringers mentioned were parts of the staging being constructed at the time for the sole purpose of enabling the workmen to line up and saw off the piling. As soon as that particular work should be completed, the staging would have performed its purpose, and was then to be removed. The stringers were attached, at or near each end, to the piles, by means of drift pins or bolts. Upon these stringers, so attached, two planks--each 3 inches thick and 12 inches wide, and 14 or 16 feet long, and weighing about 150 pounds--were to be laid close to the piling at the north bent, and two similar planks close to the piling at the south bent. It appears that the plaintiff and his co-employés raised all four of the planks at the north bent, and then, while in the act of moving the third and fourth planks towards the south bent, the middle stringer broke, and the plaintiff was injured. The defendant contends that the method of constructing the staging was left entirely to the judgment and discretion of the men doing the work, and hence, if they performed the work in a manner which proved...