Tangney v. J.B. Wilson & Co.

• Decision Date: 28 July 1891
• Citation: 87 Mich. 453,49 N.W. 666
• Parties: TANGNEY v. J. B. WILSON & CO.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

49 N.W. 666

87 Mich. 453

TANGNEY v. J. B. WILSON & CO.

Supreme Court of Michigan

July 28, 1891

Error to circuit court, Wayne county; GEORGE GARTNER, Judge.

Action by Eugene Tangney, by his next friend, Joseph R. Nolan against J. B. Wilson & Co., a body corporate, for damages for personal injuries. Judgment for defendant. Plaintiff brings error. Reversed.

Sloman, Berry & Duffie, for appellant.

Wisner, Speed & Harvey, for appellee.

MORSE, J.

This is an action for personal injuries. The court below directed a verdict for the defendant on the ground that no negligence on its part had been shown. There was no testimony given on behalf of defendant, and the case rested upon the showing on the part of the plaintiff. At the time of the injury plaintiff was 20 years of age, and had been in the employ of the defendant about five months. His duties consisted of making cores in a foundry for iron castings, placing them on a carriage, pushing the carriage into the drying oven or furnace, lighting the fires, and adjusting an iron door in front of the furnace. The door was made of sheet-iron over an iron frame-work, and was 10 feet high by 6 or 7 feet in width, and weighed between 250 and 300 pounds. It was moved up and down over the entrance to the furnace by means of a chain fastened to its top, and running up over a trolley-wheel or fixed pulley, across to another wheel about four feet distant, and from thence down to the wall of the foundry nearly to the ground. To this end of the chain a weight was attached, which counter-balanced the weight of the door. It will be seen that when the door was up there was a constant strain on the chain at least equal to the weight of the door. The door, when up, was higher than a person's head. There was a rim on the inside of the door, or the frame, which was taken hold of by the hands to pull it down. It took two persons to do this. As plaintiff and another employe, on the 28th of January, 1890, were pulling this door down, the chain broke, and the door fell upon plaintiff, breaking his leg and otherwise injuring him. The chain was covered with grease and soot, so that its condition when in place was not well open to observation. The chain was of wrought iron, and the links were about two inches in length, and from a quarter to five-sixteenths of an inch in thickness. It was found after the accident that this chain had been connected together in one place with coils or strands of wire, which had broken or pulled apart. The wire was rusty, and had evidently been there a long time. The fact of this wire connection was unknown to plaintiff; and James Hurley, who had worked in the foundry since 1882, testified that he did not know there was any wire there until it broke. He had never known of any repairs to...