India Rubber Co. v. Tobin

13 Ohio C.C. Dec. 653, 3 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 59
CourtSummit Circuit Court
DecidedApril 15, 1902
StatusPublished

This text of 13 Ohio C.C. Dec. 653 (India Rubber Co. v. Tobin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Summit Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
India Rubber Co. v. Tobin, 13 Ohio C.C. Dec. 653, 3 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 59 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1902).

Opinion

HALE, J.

The case of the India Rubber Company against Tobin, error to the court of common pleas. We have encountered much difficulty in determining what ought to be done under this record, but after as mature consideration as we are able to give it, we have reached the conclusion which I will announce.

Tobin was in the employment of the rubber company as an ordinary workman and was injured while in that employment. He seeks compensation of the rubber company for the loss he has sustained by reason of that injury, and says that it was caused by the negligence of the company, without his fault. The negligence charged, in substance, is, that this manufactory had, as a part of its machinery, a machine known as a washer> which consisted, in part, of massive corrugated iron rolls, less than three-quarters of an inch apart, at the end of which were large and powerful cogwheels by which these rolls were rotated ; that the defendant was guilty of carelessness and negligence in not having appliances for stopping the rolls of said washer when in motion, and in not providing any safeguards or appliances for preventing those near the washer from being drawn into and injured by them; that the plaintiff was, at the time of the grievances hereinafter specified, an employe of the said defendant, subject to the orders and directions of one Charles Wheeler, a foreman of said defendant, and superior of plaintiff; that said plaintiff worked on a machine called a calender, about three feet from said washer; that on or about April 17,1893, the said defendant had a large amount of work to do and was running its manufactory night and day, and said defendant carelessly and negligently did not at the time have a sufficient number of skilled operatives to run said calender without requiring the plaintiff to work much longer each twenty-four hours than he was able to keep fully awake, as defendant then well knew. It is then alleged that by overwork Tobin became so exhausted that on this morning in which he was injured he was so sleepy and so completely exhausted that he was Unable to take good care of himself, and being directed by this foreman, Wheeler, to wash his hands at this washer, — which is said to [657]*657be dangerous machinery, — in performing that order, his hand was caught within the rollers and he received the injury that he complained of.

It will be noticed then that there are, in this petition, several distinct acts of negligence charged against this company.

Having read the pleadings to the jury, the trial court then said after stating some propositions of law applicable to the case—

‘ ‘ The pleadings, to which I have called your attention, present for your consideration and determination three principal propositions, which are as follows.
“ Was the defendant negligent in one or all of the acts complained of ?
“ If so negligent, was this negligence the proximate cause of the •injury to plaintiff of which he complains?
“ Did the negligence or want of care on the part of the plaintiff contribute to cause or produce the injury which he sustained? ”

Throughout this charge reference to the acts of negligence charged are only called to the attention of the jury by reference to the petition. No explanation of them, or what would constitute negligence in each particular case, is made except in a general way as follows:

“ Coming, therefore, to this case, you will first inquire whether the defendant was guilty of the negligence or some of the acts of negligence specified in the petition.”

There are quite a number of references throughout the charge in that general way, and the trial court permitted these allegations of negligence in the petition all to go to the jury with the equal sanction of the court as a ground of recovery on the part of the defendant in error. A glance at those would show that some of them at least could not be the basis of any recovery. A statement of these issues is followed by a number of abstract propositions of law, but without explaining to the jury the application to the particular facts of the case then on trial.

Our Supreme Court has, in a number of cases, referred to charges of this kind; and, in Coal Company v. Estievenard, 58 Ohio St. 43, 44 [40 N. E. Rep. 725], the court say : “ The charge of the court to the jury should not be as to abstract propositions of law, but should be confined to the law applicable to the facts of the case which the evidence tends to establish, and the attention of the jury should be called to the controlling point or points of the case, so that the verdict may not be founded upon unimportant matters.”

And on page 59 the judge, in delivering the opinion of the court, says : “ The defect in the charge, on the question of contributory negligence is, that it is, in the abstract, dealing with generalities, and [658]*658failing to deal with the facts of the case as claimed by the parties. Defendant below, by its requests, urged the court to say to the jury that certain facts, if found by the jury, would prevent a recovery; but the court refused to say what acts on part oí plaintiff would defeat a recovery, and contented itself by telling the jury to look at all the evidence, to look at the knowledge of plaintiff, to look at his acts and conduct, etc., without telling them what use to make of such looking, or of the result thereof.”

The court, instead of the general propositions, should have called attention to the charges of negligence upon the subject of the machine, the washer, and explained to the jury if it was one in ordinary use in manufactories of that kind, and that the defendant in error had knowl-edgeof that fact, knew about its operation, it was one of the risks he assumed, and could not be considered by them in determining whether the defendant was responsible or not, that the fact whether they had a large number or small number of men had nothing to do with the negligence of the company while this defendant was washing at the washer ; and should have explained to the jury the effect of the exhausted condition and the bearing it had upon the questions at issue about which there was not a word said in the entire charge. The jury were permitted to find under this charge that the defendant company did not have men enough in its employment, and, therefore, responsible for this injury; that it did not have this washer properly guarded, and although the defendant in error knew all about it and assumed all risks of danger incident to its use, the company was responsible.

And it seemed to us that the jury were not sufficiently instructed as to the allegations of negligence by saying, “ I refer you to the petition to determine what the allegations of negligence are and how to deal with them, under some general propositions that apply to the relation of master and servant.”

Upon this subject of the overwork the attention of the court was called to it by requests, which were refused — the eleventh aqd fourteenth requests.

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Bluebook (online)
13 Ohio C.C. Dec. 653, 3 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 59, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/india-rubber-co-v-tobin-ohcirctsummit-1902.