Zachra v. American Mfg. Co.

• Decision Date: 15 July 1911
• Citation: 139 S.W. 518,159 Mo. App. 96
• Parties: ZACHRA v. AMERICAN MFG. CO.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

139 S.W. 518

159 Mo. App. 96

ZACHRA v. AMERICAN MFG. CO.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

July 15, 1911.

MASTER AND SERVANT (§ 265) — ACTION FOR INJURIES — EVIDENCE.

Where a servant in an action against a master for personal injuries alleged that specific acts of negligence caused the injury, the servant cannot rely upon the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, for such doctrine may be invoked only where there is a general allegation of negligence unaccompanied by specific allegations.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; W. B. Homer, Judge.

Action by Alois Zachra against the American Manufacturing Company. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Hall & Dame, for appellant. Percy Werner, for respondent.

REYNOLDS, P. J.

While plaintiff was at work in the hemp factory of defendant, running hemp through a machine, a heavy, rapidly revolving iron shaft and its fastenings and supports and certain pulleys and a wheel or sheave around which ran several strands of rope, fell and the disengaged or loosened strands of rope wound around the body of plaintiff and whipped and jerked and dragged him with great force and violence, injuring him in his stomach and bowels and head and arms, as it is alleged in the petition. Quoting from the statement of the petition as made by counsel for appellant, the negligence charged is that "defendant furnished plaintiff an unsafe and dangerous place in which to work in assigning him to work under and near to the said machinery and under the transmission ropes, which place was unsafe and dangerous in `that said shaft and the machinery connected with it as aforesaid, were insecurely, defectively and negligently by defendant fixed, fastened and supported in place, that the hangers or supports of said shaft were fastened by bolts to said timbers, and that the said timbers had become old and weakened and that the said hangers or supports were too small and were not of a size and strength commensurate with the strain upon them, and that the said bolts were too few and too weak to bear in safety the weight and strain of said machinery, and that by reason of the defects aforesaid, and each of said defects, there was danger of the said machinery breaking from its supports and falling and injuring persons working near and under it, and danger of its injuring plaintiff while he was at the work aforesaid; and that defendant knew, or by the exercise of ordinary care could and would have known of the danger aforesaid and that it was not reasonably safe for plaintiff to work under and near said machinery as aforesaid.' And the petition charged that the fall of the machinery and the injury to plaintiff were the direct result of defendant's said negligence." The "subquote" is from the petition.

The answer was a general denial except as to the corporate character of the defendant, which was admitted.

According to the printed statement of appellant's counsel, "the plaintiff's testimony tended to show that plaintiff was injured by the fall of a shaft and the machinery connected with it from its place above where plaintiff was stationed at his work taking hemp from a mill; that the injury to plaintiff was the result of his being caught and struck by large ropes which were driven by steam power around a large wheel or sheave on the shaft which fell.

"There was evidence as to the number and size of the supports of the machinery and the number of bolts in the hangers or fastenings, and as to their arrangement. There was testimony that some of the hangers broke and that in others the bolts broke or pulled out. There was testimony that the ropes had come off of the sheave and had to be replaced shortly before plaintiff's injury and that the screws or bolts of the fastenings became loose and had to be tightened, and there was evidence that a large opening was made in the floor above the shaft preparatory to adding new machinery to the shaft. It further appeared from the evidence that plaintiff had...