Consolidated Stone Co. v. Morgan

66 N.E. 696, 160 Ind. 241, 1903 Ind. LEXIS 64
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 13, 1903
DocketNo. 19,978
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 66 N.E. 696 (Consolidated Stone Co. v. Morgan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Consolidated Stone Co. v. Morgan, 66 N.E. 696, 160 Ind. 241, 1903 Ind. LEXIS 64 (Ind. 1903).

Opinion

Dowliito, J.

Action by an administrator for damages for the death of his decedent, alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the appellant. The suit was brought in the Lawrence Circuit Court, the venue being afterwards changed to Monroe county. Demurrers to the several paragraphs of the complaint were overruled, as were motions for judgment for appellant, on the answers of the jury to questions of fact submitted to them, and for a new trial. Erom a judgment against it, the company appeals.

The errors assigned and not waived are the rulings on the demurrers to the first, second, third, and fourth paragraphs of the complaint, and on the motions for judgment for appellant, notwithstanding the verdict, and for a new trial.

The appellant owned a stone quarry situated in Lawrence county, in this State, and used in its business a large derrick, consisting in part of a perpendicular mast, upward [243]*243of fifty feet high, held, in an upright position by eight guy-ropes extending from its top and fastened at their lower extremity to stones or other immovable objects. The mast revolved in a socket at its lower end, and was turned around by a wheel on a platform at its base. The stones to be moved by the derrick were fastened to the end of a long arm or boom-pole attached to the mast by a hinge near its bottom, and this boom-pole was raised or lowered by a rope running from its free end to a pulley at the top of the mast, and thence to an iron drum operated by a steam engine located at the power-house. While the decedent was at work on the platform turning the wheel which moved the derrick, a stone weighing some 22,000 pounds was attached to the end of the boom-pole, to be loaded on a railroad car. The great weight of the stone caused the northwest guy-rope to pull from its bed an anchor stone of comparatively small size and weight, to which the guy was fastened. This occasioned a sudden and undue strain upon the adjacent guv-ropes, one or more of which gave away. The derrick then, Iseing without sufficient support, fell, and, in falling, its lower end hurled the surrounding platform and machinery some fifteen feet, and the decedent with them, inflicting such injuries on the decedent that he died in a few minutes.

The grounds upon which the appellant assails the sufficiency of the first, second, third, and fourth paragraphs of the complaint are that they failed to show that negligence of which the appellant had knowledge was the proximate cause of the death of the decedent; that they do not allege that appellant had knowledge of the danger which caused the death of-the decedent; that they show that the death of the decedent was not occasioned by the negligence charged, but by another and different cause; and that none of the paragraphs alleges the knowledge by the appellant of the defects of the machinery and appliances occasioning the injury.

[244]*244It distinctly appears from each of the paragraphs of the complaint that the injury to the decedent was caused by the fall of the derrick mast near which he was working, and that the fall of the mast resulted from the failure of the appellant properly to secure one of the guy-ropes. In the first paragraph it is alleged that the condition of the guy-rope was known to the appellant, or could have been known to it by a reasonable inspection at any time within several months before the accident, and that the decedent had no knowledge of the defective fastening, or the dangers of the place. The second paragraph contains the averment that the appellant carelessly constructed the'derrick, by attach»ing the guy-rope to the side of a small stone, partly in the ground, in such a manner that a heavy weight upon the boom-pole would pull the small stone around, and throw the weight upon the other guy-ropes so as to break them. This paragraph also contains the allegation that the decedent had no knowledge of the defective fastening or the danger . arising therefrom. The third and fourth paragraphs do not differ materially from the second. It is shown by these pleadings that the negligence of the 'appellant in not securely fastening the northwest guy to a suitable anchor or object was the proximate cause of the fall of the mast and the injury to the decedent, and that the appellant had actual or constructive knowledge of the existence of the defects in the fastening. Clear Creek Stone Co. v. Dearmin, ante, 162.

If the appellant itself, as charged in the second, third, and fourth paragraphs, negligently constructed the derrick and its appliances, it was chargeable with knowledge of the manner in which the derrick and machinery were built and supported, and no further allegation of knowledge of the defects of such machinery was necessary. Standard Oil Co. v. Bowker, 141 Ind. 12, 18. It may also be observed that it is shown by the answers to the interrogatories that, on the Sunday preyiou§ to the accident, the master me[245]*245chanie of the appellant, who was then superintending the work of repairing the guy-ropes holding the derrick, was expressly notified that the stone to which the northwest guy was attached was loose and unsafe. It appears, too, from these answers that the small size and loose condition of the stone could have been discovered by the person making the fastening. The jury further specially found that the block of stone which was being moved by the boom was so heavy that it pulled the stone holding the northwest guy from its place, although the capacity of the derrick was supposed to be sufficient to enable it to carry a stone containing >200 cubic feet, while the stone so attached to the boom contained only 138J cubic feet; that the giving away of the northwest guy-rope was the cause of the breaking- of the north guy-rope; that the breaking of the latter caused the northeast guy-rope to break; and that the insufficient size and weight of the stone which held the northwest guy-rope as an anchor in part caused the derrick to fall and kill the decedent, the north guy-rope being too weak to hold the derrick upright after the northwest guy-rope had pulled loose from its fastening. As the answers to the interrogatories show that the appellant had notice of the defective fastening of the northwest guy-rope, and that the giving away of its anchorage was the eaxtse of the fall of the derrick and the injury to the decedent, the ruling on the demurrers to the several paragraphs of the complaint could not, even in the absence of an averment of knowledge of the defective fastening on the part of the appellant, be prejudicial to it. Vestal v. Craig, 25 Ind. App. 573; Beasley v. Phillips, 20 Ind. App. 182.

The first, second, third, and fourth paragraphs of the complaint each stated a good cause of action, and the court did not err in overruling the demurrers’to them.

The supposed infirmity of instructions^ numbered nine, eighteen, and twenty-one, consists in the statement contained in each of them, that if the appellant was shown to [246]*246have constructed the defective machinery, no further proof of knowledge of its defective character was required. There was no error in this statement of the law. Standard Oil Co. v. Bowker, 141 Ind. 12, 18.

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Bluebook (online)
66 N.E. 696, 160 Ind. 241, 1903 Ind. LEXIS 64, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/consolidated-stone-co-v-morgan-ind-1903.