Union Pac. Ry. Co. v. Broderick
| Decision Date | 11 November 1890 |
| Parties | UNION PAC. RY. CO. v. BRODERICK. |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Syllabus by the Court.
1. Where an employer negligently provides his workman with improper and unsafe apparatus with which to perform the work, and the workman, without any fault on his part, is injured, owing to the employer's neglect to provide suitable, safe, and proper appliances, the employer is liable for the injury.
2. Held, that the evidence sustains the verdict and judgment.
3. The instructions examined, and held to have been properly given.
Error to district court, Douglas county; GROFF, Judge.J. M. Thurston, W. R. Kelly, and J. S. Shropshire, for plaintiff in error.
Mahoney, Minahan & Smyth, for defendant in error.
The plaintiff below, Patrick Broderick, brought suit against the defendant to recover $1,995, damages sustained from an injury received while in the employ of the defendant, alleging that on October 15, 1886, he was so employed as laborer attending the masons of defendant in building the stone piers of its bridge over South Thirteenth street in the city of Omaha; that he was acting under the directions and control of the defendant's foreman, and without fault or negligence on his own part, while so acting with other workmen, he moved a large stone by means of rollers onto two planks. placed over a hole six feet square intended to receive the stone; that the planks were provided by the defendant's foreman, and while obeying his orders, and performing his labor as directed, he was in the act of lifting up one side of the stone by means of a crow-bar in order to slide the stone down into the hole on the opposite side, and while so lifting, one of the planks on which the stone rested, being of insufficient strength, broke in two, and gave away, thereby throwing the crow-bar out of his hands, and throwing him backward into a hole of like dimensions behind him, and thereby breaking his arm, by reason of which he has suffered great bodily pain, has been unable to labor for a long time, and that his disability therefrom is permanent; that such injury was caused by the negligence of the defendant in selecting and directing to be used as a means of labor and construction insufficient, unsafe, and defective planks for the purpose of lowering and placing the stone in the abutment of the bridge, without contributory negligence on the plaintiff's part. The defendant answered admitting its corporate capacity, and that the plaintiff was in its employ at the time and place alleged, and denying that such injury was caused by any want of care on its part, or that of its foreman, but was caused by the negligence of the plaintiff and of his fellow-workmen. The plaintiff replied denying every allegation of the defendant's answer. There was a trial to a jury, and verdict for the plaintiff for the sum of $1,995. The defendant's motion for a new trial was overruled, and judgment entered upon the verdict. The defendant below brings the case to this court on error.
In the last half of the year 1886, the plaintiff in error was constructing a railroad bridge over Thirteenth street in the city of Omaha. The abutments and piers of the bridge were of heavy masonry. Broderick, the defendant in error, with five or six others, were employed to attend the masons, and assist them in laying the stone. Broderick commenced work about the 20th of August, and, until the 15th of October, was employed upon derrick work. Two holes had been dug about five feet apart on the west side of the street, to the depth of five feet, and about five or six feet square. About two feet of concrete had been laid by the masons in the bottom of these holes, upon which foundations of the piers were to be constructed. On the morning of October 15th, Broderick and three other workmen were directed by Charles Brogstadt, the foreman of the gang, to bring a large stone from a pile on the east side of Thirteenth street, to one of these holes, to be laid by the masons. The stone was...
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