Gillis v. Graeber

221 P. 235, 26 Ariz. 34, 1923 Ariz. LEXIS 99
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 22, 1923
DocketCivil No. 2046
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 221 P. 235 (Gillis v. Graeber) 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
Gillis v. Graeber, 221 P. 235, 26 Ariz. 34, 1923 Ariz. LEXIS 99 (Ark. 1923).

Opinions

ROSS, J.

— This is an action under the Employers’ Liability Law, chapter 6, title 14, paragraphs 3153-3162, Civil Code of 1913. The questions raised involve a construction of the complaint, and we therefore quote that portion of it which sets forth the character of plaintiff’s employment and the cause of the accident in which he was injured:

_ “That heretofore and on March 16, 1921, the plaintiff was employed by the defendant as a bricklayer inland about the erection and construction of a certain structure, to wit, a certain brick flue and tunnel in and about and used in connection with the ore reduction works and smelter and upon the grounds and property of the International Smelting Company at Inspiration, Gila county, Arizona.
_ “That on said March 16, 1921, and while the plaintiff was engaged in said employment and was doing work in connection therewith on a certain scaffold elevated 20 feet above the ground or floor beneath in the erection and construction of said structure, the plaintiff was injured by an accident due to a condition or conditions of such employment.
“That such condition or conditions of employment were as follows, to wit, that the defendant had furnished for the plaintiff’s use in laying bricks in his said employment and on said structure a scaffold, and that the same was at said time and place elevated 20 feet about the ground or floor beneath and was then and there being used in the erection and construction of said structure; that while said plaintiff was standing thereon in the course of his said employment as a bricklayer and was using and stand[36]*36ing on the same in and about his work of laying bricks and his employment as aforesaid on said structure, the base of said scaffold on which the plaintiff was standing did turn, and the said scaffold became loose, and by reason thereof the plaintiff did fall to the ground.
“That by reason of said condition or conditions of said employment, and said fall from said scaffold. >)

The supporting evidence was to the effect that defendant Gillis was building for the International Smelting Company, of Miami, a flue which when finished was to be used by the smelting company in connection with its smelter. On the day plaintiff was injured he was working for defendant Gillis as a bricklayer, laying bricks in the walls of flue. He was working on a swinging scaffold suspended in the air by ropes, and in some way the scaffold twisted or turned and caused him to fall to the cement floor beneath. The testimony on the question of the height of the scaffold was conflicting. It was not conclusively shown to be twenty feet or more above the ground or floor beneath; and yet the testimony on the question was in conflict. When plaintiff closed his case, defendant moved for an instructed verdict on that ground. The defendant in meeting motion stated that the height of scaffold was not the only ground of complaint; that plaintiff also relied upon subsection 8 of paragraph 3156, reading as follows:

“All work in or about quarries, open pits, open cuts, mines, ore reduction works and smelters.”

Thereupon the motion for an instructed verdict was denied. The defendant then introduced some evidence on the height of the scaffold and renewed his motion for an instructed verdict. This motion was also. denied.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff upon which judgment was duly entered. The [37]*37appeal is from the order overruling the motion for new trial and from the judgment.

The court in his instructions to the jury told them that if they found from the evidence that at the time alleged in the complaint plaintiff was employed by defendant in work in and about ore reduction works or smelters, or on a scaffold twenty or more feet above the ground or floor beneath in the erection and construction of a brick flue or tunnel, or either or both of such classes of work, the defendant was liable. The defendant assigns as errors the court’s refusal to grant his motion for an instructed verdict, and the giving of said instruction.

Since the evidence upon the question of the height of the scaffold was in conflict, the court very properly left the decision of that question to the jury and did not err in refusing to grant the motion for an instructed verdict.

The Employers’ Liability Law, in paragraph 3156, classifies hazardous occupations of employers into ten groups. By paragraph 3155:

“The labor and services of workmen at manual and mechanical labor, in the employment of any person . . . [engaged] in the occupations enumerated in the nest section [3156] hereof, are . . . declared and determined to be service in a hazardous occupation within the meaning of the . . . preceding section.”

We think it too clear for controversy that before the employee can recover from the employer he must have been injured while working in the employer’s occupation, as classified in paragraph 3156. In other words, if the employer’s occupation is the operation of a railroad, and the employee was hired to do railroading, he must have received his injury in that service before he can recover from his employer; or, if the employer’s occupation is the construction, alteration, or repair of pole lines for telegraph or telephone, and the employee was hired to assist in such [38]*38work, lie must show lie received liis injury in his employer’s hazardous occupation; or, if the employer’s hazardous occupation is the operation of an ore reduction works or smelters, and the workman’s employment is to help in such operation and he is injured while doing so, he may recover. But when his employer’s occupation is not the hazardous one of operating ore reduction works or smelters, and the employee was not employed in such operations at the time of his injury, plainly he cannot recover simply because he happened to be at the moment upon the grounds of a smelter belonging to a stranger, helping to build a flue to be used by smelter later on when finished.

The occupation of bricklayer is not declared by the statute to be hazardous, but the occupation of laying brick, as well as all other work, on ladders or scaffolds “elevated twenty feet or more above the ground or floor beneath in the erection, construction, repair, painting or alteration of any building, bridge, structure or other work in which the same are used” is, by subsection 5, paragraph 3156, declared and determined to be hazardous; and this is the occupation the complaint charges the defendant was engaged in and in which the plaintiff, it is alleged, was injured. Neither the employer nor the employee is alleged to be engaged in the occupation of ore reduction works or smelters. On the contrary, it is alleged in effect that defendant employed plaintiff as a bricklayer to lay bricks in the walls of a certain structure, to wit, a brick flue, and that while he was laying bricks he was elevated twenty feet or more above the ground or floor beneath on a scaffold and because of the condition of the scaffold he fell and was injured. True, he alleges the structure was “in and about and used in connection with the ore reduction works and smelter and upon the grounds and property of the International Smelting Company, at Inspiration, Grila [39]*39county, Arizona. ’ ’ But the only possible office of such allegation was to give location to his work.

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Bluebook (online)
221 P. 235, 26 Ariz. 34, 1923 Ariz. LEXIS 99, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gillis-v-graeber-ariz-1923.