"James
H. Persons, the plaintiff above named, for amended complaint,
complains of the defendant, the Linton Coal and Mining
Company, and for cause of complaint says that at the time of
the injuries hereinafter complained of, the defendant was a
corporation duly organized under the laws of the State of
Indiana, and owned a coal mine near the town of Linton, in
said Greene county, known as the Buckeye Mine,' in which
mine the said defendant was then engaged in the business of
mining coal under the laws of said State of Indiana, and at
all times, when so operating said mine, employed more than
ten men therein; that said coal mine has a main shaft one
hundred feet deep, from which one entry, and only one, leads
out through the coal stratum, to and connecting with the
rooms and working places of the miners and laborers in said
mine; that the coal stratum in said mine, including that
originally in said entry leading out from said main shaft, is
six feet in thickness, and is all, including said entry,
overlaid with strata of hard substances known as slate, rock,
shale and other substances, which make and form what is known
as the roof thereof; that the coal had then long since been
mined from said entry, and the same was then, and for a long
time prior thereto had been, used by the defendant, when
operating said mine, as the passway, and only passway, for
miners and laborers in said mine to pass to and from their
work in said mine, and was also used by the defendant as the
passway, and only passway through which to
transmit the mined coal from the working places in said mine
to said main shaft, and was the only passway in said mine for
such transportation, and was the only passway in said mine
through which miners and laborers could pass in going to and
from their working places in said mine, and was the only
passway used for that purpose in said mine; that unless all
said slate and other substance forming the roof of said
passway is, and was, well and carefully secured, it is, and
was, liable at all times, without warning, to fall upon
miners and laborers when going to and from their work in said
mine, in sufficient quantities to bruise, wound and kill
them; that defendant then had in its employ in said mine a
mining boss named James Pascoe; that it was the duty of said
mining boss, and said defendant, to see that all loose coal,
slate and rock overhead wherein miners had to travel to and
from their work in said mine, including the passway
aforesaid, were carefully secured; that at the time of the
injuries hereinafter complained of, and for three months
prior thereto, the slate, rock and other substance forming
the roof of said passway was cracked, loose and in a
dangerous condition, and liable at any time, without warning,
to fall upon laborers and miners passing thereunder to and
from their work in said mine, in sufficient quantities to
bruise, wound and kill them, of all of which facts the
defendant had full knowledge; that said mine boss and said
defendants, nor either of them, did not, prior to the date of
the injuries hereinafter complained of, see that all loose
coal, rock, slate and other substance overhead and forming
the roof in said mine wherein miners working in said mine had
to travel to and from their work therein, including said
passway, were carefully secured, and safety in said mine was
in all respects assured, but negligently, willfully and
unlawfully failed and refused to carefully secure the same against falling on the miners and
laborers while going to and from their work in said mine,
either by properly propping said roof or removing therefrom
said loose slate, or in any other way, and negligently,
willfully and unlawfully permitted the roof of said passway,
and the slate, rock and other substance thereof, to remain
unsecured, and in a dangerous condition for miners in passing
thereunder to and from their work, and negligently, willfully
and unlawfully failed and refused to order and direct that no
person, including this plaintiff, be permitted in said unsafe
place, unless for the purpose of making it safe, or to pass
therethrough, but, on the contrary, negligently and willfully
permitted this plaintiff and other of its employes to
repeatedly pass through and be in said unsafe place.
"Plaintiff
says that on the 26th day of January, 1892, he was in the
employ of this defendant as a miner in said mine, for wages,
and that on said day of January, while on his way from his
work in said mine, by way of said passway (which was the only
passway for plaintiff and other miners to go to and from
their work in said mine), and while necessarily in said
passway on his way from work to which he had been assigned by
defendant
as one of defendant's employes in said mine, and without
any knowledge that the slate, rock and other substance
forming the roof of said passway were cracked, loose or in a
dangerous condition, and while in the exercise of due care,
and without any fault upon his part, and without any warning
to him, and being negligently and willfully permitted by
defendant to pass through said unsafe passway and under said
dangerous slate from his said work in said mine, by reason of
the slate, rock and other substance forming the roof of said
passway then being cracked and loose, and by reason of the
same not having been carefully secured, or removed, or
otherwise made safe by said mine boss and
said defendants, and by reason of said mine boss or defendant
not having ordered and directed that no person be permitted
in said unsafe place unless for the purpose of making it
safe, as aforesaid, and by reason of this plaintiff being
permitted to be therein, as aforesaid, a large piece of slate
fell from the roof of said passway upon the plaintiff,
striking him on his head and on his back, near his hips,
causing a severe contusion of the muscles in those parts,
also a severe sprain of the posterior lumbo sacrel vertebra,
of the posterior illio sacrel vertebra, of the illio femoral
vertebra, and permanent injury to the articulation of all of
same, severely bruised his back at the injured point
aforesaid, and cut large and ugly wounds in his scalp, all of
which has resulted in his permanent injury in those parts and
in his permanent disability to work and earn wages as a coal
miner or at any other manual labor; that from said injuries
he has suffered great and lasting pain of body and worry of
mind, has incurred a doctor bill of $ 100, had to be nursed
at his home two months, has lost ten months' time from
his work; that he has been a coal miner for twelve years last
past, and has no other profession or vocation; that he is now
thirty-four years of age, has a wife, and one child four
years of age; that the only source of support for himself and
wife and child is, and was, through his earnings as a coal
miner; that prior to his said injuries he had been free of
sickness all his life, had a good constitution, good health,
was industrious, and able to earn, and did earn, wages as a
coal miner in the sum of $ 60 per month; that by reason of
all the facts in the premises he has been damaged in the sum
of ten thousand dollars, for which sum he demands judgment,
and for all other proper relief.
