The Summit Coal Co. v. Shaw
| Decision Date | 23 September 1896 |
| Docket Number | 2,053 |
| Citation | 44 N.E. 676,16 Ind.App. 9 |
| Parties | THE SUMMIT COAL COMPANY v. SHAW |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
From the Greene Circuit Court.
Reversed.
Emerson Short, for appellant.
C. E Davis and W. V. Moffett, for appellee.
The appellee's complaint alleges that the appellant is the owner of and operating a coal mine near the town of Linton in Greene county, Indiana, known as the Summit Coal Mine, and employs men therein, in the business and work of mining coal that at the time of the injuries hereinafter mentioned, and long before, the appellee was an employe of appellant in said mine for hire; that said mine was then and still is an underground structure consisting of a main shaft about eighty feet deep, from which lateral horizontal excavations are made in the coal stratum of said mine, constituting what are known as entries and rooms in said mine; that a main or chief entry runs from the bottom of said main shaft, and that southward from the main east entry run a number of side entries, among which is one known as the sixth south entry from the main east entry; that from said sixth south entry excavations in the coal stratum of said mine, from which coal is taken in mining, are extended eastward; that said excavations are known as rooms and constitute working places for miners who work in said mine, which rooms are designated by numbers; that the safety of miners working in said rooms requires that said rooms should run parallel, and that there should be left at the coal stratum a pillar or rib, from six to eight feet in thickness, in order to prevent said mine from caving in, and to prevent the explosions from the shots of powder with which the coal must be loosened and detached in mining, from blowing through and doing injury to miners working in adjoining rooms; that such ribs or pillars are left by the miners working in said rooms as the work of mining progresses therein, and as coal is taken therefrom; that it is the duty of appellant, and was its duty at the time of the injuries complained of, to keep in its employment at said mine a competent mining boss, whose duty it then was to visit and examine every working place in said mine, at least every alternate day while the miners of such place are or should be at work, and to see that safety in all respects is assured therein, and, if found unsafe, to order and direct that no person be permitted therein except for the purpose of making it safe; that it was the duty of said mining boss and of the appellant to mark and lay out and plan the excavations of said rooms so that the pillars between such rooms should be and remain of the thickness and safety aforesaid, and to see that as the miners advance their excavations such pillars are maintained at the thickness aforesaid; and that it was obligatory on said mining boss and the appellant to perform all of said duties and preserve all of said precautions with reference to the room in which appellee was then on duty, and all of the rooms adjacent thereto; that at the time of the injuries mentioned, to-wit: on the 26th day of February, 1894, the appellee was sitting on a seat in a break-through or airway, made in the rib between rooms 13 and 14 in said sixth south entry, at a safe distance from a shot of powder which had just exploded, where he had been awaiting said explosion, and where he was in the line of his duty as laborer in said mine and employe of appellant, and without knowledge of the unsafe condition of the rib or pillar hereinafter mentioned, or that a shot was about to be made therein; that at said time, and for months prior thereto, appellant had in its employment a mining boss whose name was , but that said mining boss did not visit the said room 14, which was the room in which appellee was at work, and to which he had been assigned by appellant, nor any of the adjacent or adjoining rooms, each alternate day, or on any day; nor did he see that safety in all respects was assured in said rooms, or any of them; nor did he order and direct that no person, including the appellee, should be permitted in said room or rooms, except for the purpose of making it or them safe; nor did appellant perform, or cause to be performed, any of said duties; nor did said mining boss or the appellant see that the pillar or rib between said room 14 and room 15 was maintained at the requisite thickness to prevent blasts of powder from blowing through and injuring miners in said rooms, but that the appellant and said mining boss negligently, unlawfully and willfully failed and refused to perform any of said duties, and negligently, willfully and unlawfully so laid out and planned the excavation of said rooms that the lines thereof, to-wit: the south line of room 14 and the north line of room 15, aforesaid, converged as the excavations in said rooms advanced, and said rib between them became dangerously weak and thin, to-wit: of the thickness of two feet and no more, and negligently, willfully and unlawfully permitted said lines of said rooms, as the excavations therein advanced, so to converge and the said rib to become so dangerously thin, as aforesaid; and negligently, willfully and unlawfully permitted said rib to be and remain thin and unsafe, as aforesaid, and well knowing it to be in said unsafe condition, negligently and willfully assigned to work in said room 15 an inexperienced miner, who had not sufficient experience to detect said thinness of said rib, or to know the dangers thereof if detected; that on the 26th day of February, 1894, while in the discharge of his duties as employe of appellant, in said room 15, said inexperienced miner drilled a hole in said rib and placed powder therein for the purpose of shooting down coal in the usual way, and, not knowing of the thinness of said rib, fired said shot and exploded said powder; that by reason of the unsafe condition and thinness of said ribs, as aforesaid, and by reason of the aforesaid defaults of said mining boss in allowing it to become and remain so thin and in such unsafe condition, the explosion of said powder broke through said rib and against...
To continue reading
Request your trial