Wosbigian v. Washburn & Moen Mfg. Co.

Decision Date22 October 1896
PartiesWOSBIGIAN v. WASHBURN & M. MANUF'G CO.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
COUNSEL

Marvin M. Taylor, for plaintiff.

W.S.B Hopkins and Frank B. Smith, for defendant.

OPINION

KNOWLTON J.

This is an action at common law to recover damages for an injury alleged to have been caused by the defendant's negligence in allowing the machinery on which the plaintiff was working to become defective and out of repair. The evidence tended to show that the machinery was all in perfect condition at the time of the accident, except that a wooden box or guard over a part of the gearing had negligently been left out of place on the floor by a workman who had just been oiling the gearing. While the plaintiff was working on the machine, his fingers were caught in the gearing, and he was hurt. Assuming in his favor that the jury might have found that he was in the exercise of due care in going to work and getting his fingers caught while the guard was lying on the floor, with the gearing exposed immediately before him, there remains the question whether there is any evidence of negligence of the master in not having the guard in its place immediately after the oiling. There were two reducing rolls used in the machine, which were usually taken out and replaced by others two or three times a day. When this was done the guard was taken off and the gearing was oiled, and the guard was also sometimes taken off when the machinery was oiled at other times. The men who tended the machines were not accustomed to oil them and change the rolls, but two other men were regularly employed to do this. Were these men doing a part of the work that was within the department of the master, whose duty it was to furnish his servants with tools and machinery as suitable and safe as the exercise of reasonable care would secure, or were they doing the work of mere servants in making necessary changes of parts incident to the management of the machines in the ordinary use of them? If these changes had regularly been made, in the ordinary course of their business, by the persons who tended the machines, there would have been no doubt that in making them they would have been mere servants for whose negligence the master would not be liable, and to whom, if competent, he could trust the work without any other duty than to furnish them proper materials and appliances for carrying it on. The only ground for doubt arises from the fact that the work was done by machinists who were specially employed for that purpose. But it appears that there was work to be done, in repairing the rolls which were taken out, and in fitting them for use again, which could not be done by ordinary persons, who were only taught to tend the machines, and...

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5 cases
  • New Deemer Mfg. Co. v. Alexander
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • January 1, 1920
    ... ... Weensocket Rubber Co. (1895), 164 Mass. 214, 41 N.E ... 265; Wosbigian v. Washburn & M. Mfg ... Co. (1896), 167 Mass. 20, 44 N.E. 1058; See sec. 1543, ... Note 1, ... ...
  • Flynn v. Prince, Collins & Marston Co.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
    • March 2, 1908
    ... ... In support of that it ... cites Wosbigian v. Washburn & Moen Manuf. Co., 167 ... Mass. 20, 44 N.E. 1058, and the ... ...
  • Russell v. Cole
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
    • October 22, 1896
  • Stewart v. Int'l Paper Co.
    • United States
    • Maine Supreme Court
    • December 12, 1901
    ...few is necessary: Rounds v. Carter, 94 Me. 535, 48 Atl. 175; Small v. Manufacturing Co., 94 Me. 551, 48 Atl. 177; Wosibigian v. Manufacturing Co., 167 Mass. 20, 44 N. E. 1058. A very full collection of the authorities may be found in the exhaustive note to Mast v. Kern, 34 Or. 247, 54 Pac. ......
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