Studevant v. Blue Springs Lumber Co.

• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: WADE, J.
• Citation: Studevant v. Blue Springs Lumber Co., 16 Ga.App. 668, 85 S.E. 977 (Ga. App. 1915)
• Decision Date: 04 August 1915
• Docket Number: 6165.
• Parties: STUDEVANT v. BLUE SPRINGS LUMBER CO.

85 S.E. 977

16 Ga.App. 668

STUDEVANT v. BLUE SPRINGS LUMBER CO.

No. 6165.

Court of Appeals of Georgia

August 4, 1915

Syllabus by the Court.

The injury sued for occurred because the alleged superintendent of the defendant company, without warning to the plaintiff pressed down upon a certain moving belt with an iron rod at the exact time the plaintiff was in the act of replacing that belt on a pulley.

(a) It is apparent, from the allegation in the petition that the belt "had previously slipped from said pulley and had been replaced without the use of said rod and without injury to any one," that the proximate cause was not the failure of the defendant to have the belt properly adjusted or to inspect it, but was the negligence of the alleged superintendent in attempting to use the iron rod.

The fact that the vice principal of the defendant company, who was in charge of the mill and the operation thereof, with authority to employ hands and give orders to the employés all of whom were under his direction, including the plaintiff, directed the plaintiff to perform a particular act, would not relieve the plaintiff from the legal consequence of assuming the risk of an obvious danger and attempting to replace a belt while the machinery to which it was attached was in motion, where nothing appears to indicate any less certain, definite, and precise knowledge of the hazard thereby incurred than the superintendent himself was in possession of.

The defendant was not liable because of an injury that resulted from a negligent act of its superintendent or vice principal in the discharge of labors or duties outside of the nondelegable duties of the master (in the performance of which he was the master's representative), and while merely doing...