Hoseth v. Preston Mill Co.

96 P. 423, 49 Wash. 682, 1908 Wash. LEXIS 648
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedJune 29, 1908
DocketNo. 7267
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 96 P. 423 (Hoseth v. Preston Mill Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoseth v. Preston Mill Co., 96 P. 423, 49 Wash. 682, 1908 Wash. LEXIS 648 (Wash. 1908).

Opinion

Rudkin, J.

This action was instituted in the court below to recover damages for personal injuries. At the time of receiving the injuries complained of, the plaintiff was in the employ of the defendant in one of its logging camps, and was standing near a cable extending from the logging engine out into the forest, for the purpose of transmitting signals from the men in the forest to the engineer. In transmitting the signals, the plaintiff stood within ten or twelve feet of a large stump to which a snatch block was anchored for the purpose of holding the cable in place. The snatch block was fastened to the stump by a lead line which was wrapped one and one-half times around the stump, and a swamp hook attached to the end of'the line was hooked or fastened into the body of the stump: While the plaintiff was occupying this position, the strain on the cable caused the swamp hook at the end of the lead line to give wajq and the hook or line struck him, fracturing his leg and arm. The specific acts of negligence charged in the complaint were the use of a defective and inadequate hook, and the failure to securely fasten the hook in the stump. The answer denied the negligence charged in the complaint, and alleged affirmatively contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff and negligence of a fellow servant. The trial resulted in a judgment in favor of the plaintiff,, from which the defendant has appealed.

[684]*684In the course of the trial the appellant offered to prove that the swamp hook and lead line which caused the injury were afterwards used for two or three days in the same work, while in the same condition, and with the same set in the stump, and that they worked perfectly. This testimony was competent and should have been admitted. Tremblay v. Harnden, 162 Mass. 383, 38 N. E. 972; 2 Labatt, Master and Servant, § 822. Testimony was received, however, showing the use of the same appliances, in the same manner, for a period of eighteen months prior to the accident, and we do not think that the exclusion of testimony tending to show a like use for two or three days after the accident would be sufficiently prejudicial to warrant a reversal.

The appellant further offered to prove that a man could not remain in its logging camp for a single day without hearing many times a warning to keep away from the lead line. The appellant might doubtless show the nature of the warnings given, how often the warnings were repeated, and the opportunity of the respondent for hearing the warning, but the conclusion that the respondent could not remain about the camp for as much as a day without hearing the warnings many times was for the jury, and not for the witnesses. There was no error in the ruling complained of.

The appellant objected to the following question propounded to one of its witnesses on cross-examination, for the reason that the question was not based on any issue in the case, but the objection was overruled:

“Q. Suppose that a hook weighing one hundred and fifty pounds, or one hundred pounds, or sixty pounds, we will say, was flying around that stump with such terrific force as might be expected in a case of this kind, and the hook and strap became disengaged from the pulley and shear block; don’t you think it had sufficient force to travel probably one hundred feet, if there was nothing in the way?”

There was no pretense that the hook or strap became disengaged from the pulley or shear block, and what might or [685]*685might not happen in such a contingency would seem utterly immaterial in this case. The objection should have been sustained.

On the question of contributory negligence the court instructed the jury as follows :

“The court instructs the jury that the plaintiff would not be entitled to recover if he by his own negligence contributed to his injury, that is, if such negligence on his part was the proximate cause of the injury, and that the accident would not have occurred had it not been for the negligence of the plaintiff.”

The giving of this instruction is assigned as error. The particular objection urged against the instruction is that the jury were left to infer therefrom that the negligence of the servant alone must be the proximate cause of the injury in order to defeat a recovery. The true rule is that if the combined negligence of the master and servant is the proximate cause of an injury and the negligence on the part of the servant proximately and naturally contributes to that injury there can be no recovery. McLeod v. Spokane, 26 Wash. 346, 67 Pac. 74. Whether the instruction as given was misleading or not we need not inquire, as the judgment must be reversed on other grounds.

The giving of the following instruction is further assigned as error:

“I instruct you that the master and servant do not stand upon an equal footing even when they have equal knowledge of the danger. The position of the servant is one of subordination and obedience to the master, and he has a right to rely upon the superior skill and knowledge of the master. The servant is not entirely free to act upon his own suspicions of danger.”

The instruction complained of was followed by these instructions :

“If you believe from the evidence that it was dangerous to stand or be near the stump where this accident is alleged to [686]*686have occurred and that the danger of such position was alike open and obvious to the master and the servant, and that the plaintiff knew of the danger, or by the exercise of reasonable care or caution could have known of the danger, then both the master and the servant are upon an equality and the master is not liable for an injury resulting from dangers incident to the employment.”
“The very conditions of danger which impose upon the master the duty of care in the selection of the hook and in its use also impose a corresponding duty of care upon the servant. The master has a right to suppose that the servant will be alert and observe that diligence to detect and avoid danger which a man of ordinary prudence would exercise for self preservation under like conditions. If you find from the evidence that the plaintiff was not alert and did not observe that diligence both to detect and avoid dangers which a man of ordinary prudence would exercise for self preservation under similar conditions, then your verdict will be for the defendant.”
“The defendant was not required, in order to relieve itself of liability, to call the attention of plaintiff to every special risk from which an injury might result. If defendant warned the plaintiff of the general dangers incident to his employment, or if the plaintiff knew or should have known in the exercise of ordinary care as a man of ordinary intelligence and prudence, that such dangers existed, then plaintiff cannot recover.”

The abstract question embodied in the charge excepted to was considered by this court in Tham v. Steeb Shipping Co., 39 Wash. 271, 81 Pac. 711, and other cases, and the instruction was disapproved as a general statement of the law applicable to all cases of this character. But while the instruction excepted to may not be sound in law and was in direct conflict with the instructions immediately following, yet the charge on this point when taken as a whole was very favorable to the appellant, and we do not think that it could be in any manner prejudiced thereby.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
96 P. 423, 49 Wash. 682, 1908 Wash. LEXIS 648, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoseth-v-preston-mill-co-wash-1908.