Consolidated Arizona Smelting Co. v. Egich

199 P. 132, 22 Ariz. 543, 1920 Ariz. LEXIS 178
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedMay 3, 1920
DocketCivil No. 1753
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 199 P. 132 (Consolidated Arizona Smelting Co. v. Egich) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Consolidated Arizona Smelting Co. v. Egich, 199 P. 132, 22 Ariz. 543, 1920 Ariz. LEXIS 178 (Ark. 1920).

Opinions

ROSS, J.

This is an action for damages under the Employers’ Liability Law (Civ. Code 1913, pars. 3152-3162). The facts as to how the accident happened causing the plaintiff’s injury are not controverted. The plaintiff was working for defendant in its mine on the 900-foot level, and on February 3, 1918, while standing on what is designated in the pleadings and evidence as a grizzly^ breaking rocks with a hammer, as he had been instructed to do, the head of the hammer flew off of the handle and struck his right foot, breaking a toe. The grizzly consisted of railroad rails, placed parallel to each other and about six inches apart. When the head of the hammer struck plaintiff’s foot, the foot slipped between the rails, plaintiff lost his balance and fell, wrenching and twisting the muscles, ligaments, and bones of his foot and ankle.

The defendant raised the question of the sufficiency of these facts to constitute a cause of action under the Employers’ Liability Law, by demurrer, and at the trial by a motion for a directed verdict. The demurrer was overruled, and the motion for a directed verdict was refused. The plaintiff had judgment for $2,500, and the appeal is from the judgment and the order overruling the motion for a new trial.

[546]*546The orders overruling demurrer and refusing to grant motion for a directed verdict are assigned as error. We state the defendant’s proposition of law in its own language:

“They [the facts] show that the accident was proximately caused by the head of the hammer flying off and striking plaintiff’s right foot. This is not an inherent risk of a hazardous occupation which is unavoidable by a workman. It is not an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, and due to a condition or conditions of such employment, as is contemplated by our Employers’ Liability Law, but is the ordinary risk, the ordinary happening which might take place on the public highway, if he were breaking stones there.”

In other words, the proposition amounts to this, as we understand it: The proximate cause of the accident being the negligence of defendant in furnishing plaintiff with a defective hammer to do his work, the injury arose from an ordinary risk, and not an inherent or hazardous risk, it being the contention that the Employers’ Liability Law covers only the latter kind of risk; that is, risks that are inherent in the occupation.

To sustain its position, the defendant refers us to many cases decided by this court, in which the elements going to constitute the cause of action under the liability law have been discussed, and points out therein many expressions tending to uphold its contention. The particular expression upon which the defendant relies is that we'have said in those cases that “the risks and hazards must be inherent in the occupation” before the employee may recover.

That the defendant’s position may be well understood, we again quote from its brief:

“Before an injured workman can recover under the Employers’ Liability Act, it must affirmatively appear that the accident causing the injury was due [547]*547to an inherent risk or hazard of the occupation, and was unavoidable by the workman. This excludes accidents due to the employer’s negligence.”

The learned counsel for defendant rely almost wholly upon what this court has said in other cases to vindicate and sustain their proposition. For instance, in Arizona Eastern R. R. Co. v. Mathews, infra, this language is used:

“It is evident that the accident must arise out of and also be inherent in the occupation itself; the condition or conditions that produce the accident must inhere in the occupation. ... It would seem that, before an employee may recover for injury under this act, it must have occurred while he was at work in his occupation, and it must have been occasioned by a risk or danger inherent in the occupation.”

In Calumet & Arizona Min. Co. v. Chambers, infra, it is said:

“The surroundings in which plaintiff was performing his duties are described in the complaint with sufficient fullness to show that the risks and hazards assumed by the employee are great and inherent in the occupation, and unavoidable by the workmen. . . . Consequently, the facts pleaded are sufficient to set forth conditions of plaintiff’s employment which require him to assume risks and hazards inherent in the occupation he was then engaged in, which he was not able to avoid, and continue in the occupation.”

In Arizona Copper Co. v. Burciaga, infra, it is said:

“The wrong giving the right of action is attributable, not to any fault, wrong, or negligence of the employer, but to the risks and hazards which are inherent in such occupation, and which are unavoidable by the workmen therein. ... As clearly intimated by this court in Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co. v. Mendez, 19 Ariz. 151, 166 Pac. 278, 1183, the Employers’ Liability Law is designed to give a light of action to the employee injured by accident occurring [548]*548from risks and hazards inherent in the occupation and without regard to the negligence on the part of the employer.”

In Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co. v. Mendez, infra, it is said:

“The appellant contends, and I think his contention is correct, that the liability statute must be construed as one creating a liability for accidents resulting in injuries to the workmen engaged in hazardous occupations due to the risks and hazards inherent in such occupations without regard to the negligence of the employer, as such negligence is understood in tlie common law of liability; in other words, such statute creates a liability for accidents arising from the risks and hazards inherent in the occupation without regard to the negligence or fault of the employer.”

In Superior & Pittsburg Copper Co. v. Tomich, 19 Ariz. 182, 165 Pac. 1101, 1185, it is said:

“The matters left open for inquiry were the amount of the damages the plaintiff was entitled to recover as measured by the allegations of the complaint and the evidence, and whether the accident was due to a condition or conditions of the employment, and such as is unavoidable.”

Counsel also contend that the Supreme Court of the United States, in Arizona Copper Co. v. Hammer, 250 U. S. 400, 63 L. Ed. 1058, 39 Sup. Ct. Rep. 553, in construing the Arizona Liability Law, and the decisions of this. court, also had in mind that the liability created was one arising out of accidents inherent in the occupation, and quotes many expressions from that high court such as: “Employment designated as inherently hazardous and dangerous to workmen”; “to hazards inherent in the employment”; “risks inherent in the occupation”; and “due to such inherent conditions.”

[549]*549As we. go along, we think we shall be able to show that the liability arises when the injury or death is caused by an accident due to a condition or conditions of the occupation, and that the accident need not necessarily happen by reason of an inherent risk or danger, but that it may arise from the manner in which the business is carried on.

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Bluebook (online)
199 P. 132, 22 Ariz. 543, 1920 Ariz. LEXIS 178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/consolidated-arizona-smelting-co-v-egich-ariz-1920.