Heiser v. Shasta Water Co.

143 P. 917, 71 Or. 566, 1914 Ore. LEXIS 209
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 21, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 143 P. 917 (Heiser v. Shasta Water Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heiser v. Shasta Water Co., 143 P. 917, 71 Or. 566, 1914 Ore. LEXIS 209 (Or. 1914).

Opinion

[569]*569Opinion by

Mr. Chief Justice McBride.

1. It is contended that the evidence offered by plaintiff does not correspond to the allegation of damages in his complaint, and is insufficient to bring the injury shown within the purview of the statute. The allegation, in substance, is: First, that plaintiff was engaged in filling siphon bottles; and, second that he was injured by the explosion of one of the bottles then being filled. The evidence tended to show that plaintiff was engaged in filling at a machine used for that purpose, that as fast as the bottles were filled they were placed on a tray by the side of the machine, and that it was the duty of plaintiff when the tray had been filled to put the labels upon the bottles and take them to another place and put them away upon a shelf. In pursuance of this practice he had just filled the bottle in question and placed it upon the tray and was starting to fill another bottle, when the bottle last filled blew up, causing the injury. The variance alleged is merely technical, and could not have misled the defendants on the trial. Plaintiff’s work upon the bottle was not complete. It was still in his immediate vicinity and under his control, and whether it exploded while in the process of being filled or a few seconds after is not material. Section 97, L. O. L., provides:

“No variance between the allegation in a pleading and the proof shall be deemed material, unless it have actually misled the adverse party to his prejudice in maintaining his action or defense upon the merits. ’ ’

It is very evident that defendant was not prejudiced by the variance, if indeed it should be called such. At the close of the case the court allowed the pleading to be corrected to conform to the evidence in the respects mentioned above.

[570]*5702. The defendant also predicates error upon the court’s refusal to give the following instruction:

“If you find from the evidence that the injury which plaintiff suffered was an unavoidable accident under the circumstances of this case, or that the. accident could not have been prevented by the exercise of reasonable care upon the part of the defendant, then your verdict should be for defendant.”

The particular vice of this instruction is the introduction of the words “under the circumstances of this case.” The circumstances were that the plaintiff requested defendant to procure him á mask and gloves, which defendant failed to do, and that in working without them he was injured. Under these conditions the injury was unavoidable. It would have been unavoidable irrespective of whether or not defendant was negligent. The instruction was one tending to mislead the jury, and was properly refused. In addition it may be added that this request, so far as applicable, is covered by the general instructions given by the court, which completely and admirably lay down the law. Among other things the court instructed as follows:

“In a case of this kind, negligence is not presumed from the mere fact that an accident happened, or that a party may have been injured. On the contrary, the law presumes that both plaintiff and defendant exercised due care, and the party who attempts to establish negligence on the part of either must establish it by a preponderance of the evidence. The only negligence for which the defendant would be liable in this case is the negligence set forth in the complaint. So that in this case, if you should find that the defendant is guilty of negligence, which is not alleged in the complaint, it is not liable for such negligence so not alleged, even if you should find it was the proximate cause of the injury, and the reason is that the defendant re[571]*571ceived its notice of the particular charges of negligence from the pleadings, and as those are the only charges set up, those are the only charges that it is called upon to refute; and the particular charge, as I have before indicated, is a charge of failing to provide the plaintiff with regulation mask and gloves. Negligence is the failure to do something that a person' of reasonable care and prudence would have done, or the doing of something that a person of reasonable care and prudence would not have done under the circumstances. It is the want of due care in the particular situation. Due care and negligence are relative terms, and what in one situation might be due care , might be negligence in another; and the measure of duty always is reasonable care and caution upon the part of an employer for the safety of his employees. And that care should be proportioned always to the dangers reasonably to be apprehended from the employment in which the servant is engaged. * * When you come to consider this case your first inquiry will be whether this was a dangerous employment, one involving danger to the servant engaged in it. * * Then your next inquiry will be whether the providing of regulation gloves and mask is a practical provision in the employment in which the plaintiff was engaged. Whether it is practical to use them, and whether the use of them will or will not impair the efficiency of the servant. And a further question, of course, for you to determine would be whether if he had been provided with these appliances that would have protected him against the injury which he received.”

These instructions clearly excluded any recovery on account of any injury except that arising from defendant’s alleged negligent failure to furnish a mask and gloves, and necessarily excluded any recovery on account of any accident, unavoidable or otherwise, not occasioned by such negligence.

3-5. The injury that defendant received consisfed, among other things, in the severing or wounding of [572]*572a tendon of Ms hand by a piece of broken glass. He testified that after laying off for several days he returned to work, but that he could not work without pain, and that the tendon broke one night while he was asleep, causing additional pain and suffering. Whether the second lesion was the result of his returning to work before he had completely recovered from the original injury is problematical under the circumstances detailed and was left by the court to the jury. In this connection defendant’s counsel requested the following instructions:

“Evidence has been offered tending to prove that some five weeks after the accident plaintiff, while in bed, suffered a second injury to his hand, but no evidence has been offered to prove that his second injury resulted from or was in any way traceable to the first. You cannot therefore allow any damages on account of such second injury occurring to plaintiff, but must allow him only compensation for the first injury.”

The refusal of the court to give the above is assigned as error. The instruction assumed as a fact what was at least disputable, namely, that there was no evidence tending to prove that the later lesion was referable to the. original injury, whereas it might reasonably have been inferred from the circumstances themselves, and in fact, nobody reading all the testimony would reasonably conclude otherwise. Whether the fact that plaintiff’s resuming work when he did aggravated the original injury to the extent of bringing about the breaking of the tendon was a question of fact for the jury. The testimony of Dr. Fenton, one of defendant’s witnesses, confirms the view we have taken of this feature of the case. Being asked to account for defendant’s statement that pus had [573]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
143 P. 917, 71 Or. 566, 1914 Ore. LEXIS 209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heiser-v-shasta-water-co-or-1914.