Indiana Iron Co. v. Cray

48 N.E. 803, 19 Ind. App. 565, 1897 Ind. App. LEXIS 18
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 10, 1897
DocketNo. 2,222
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 48 N.E. 803 (Indiana Iron Co. v. Cray) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indiana Iron Co. v. Cray, 48 N.E. 803, 19 Ind. App. 565, 1897 Ind. App. LEXIS 18 (Ind. Ct. App. 1897).

Opinion

Black, J.

— The appellee brought his action against the appellant for the recovery of damages for a personal injury alleged to have been caused through the negligence of the appellant without the fault of the appellee, while he was working in the appellant’s manufactory as its employe. There was a special verdict, upon which judgment was rendered for the appellee for $2,150.00, and it is contended, under an assignment of error to that effect, that the court erred in overruling the appellant’s motion for judgment in its favor on the verdict. The special verdict was very lengthy, and consisted of two sets of interrogatories with the answers thereto. It was in substance found that the appellee was injured on the 23d of March, 1895, while working in a manufacturing [567]*567plant then, and for about three years before, owned and operated by the appellant, at Muncie, in a one storied building, a part of the business being to take heated iron from a furnace and manufacture it into, iron and steel by passing it through a system of rollers, situated on the floor of the building in a line extending north and south. The building was spanned by beams running east and west, about twenty-four feet from the floor. An iron track, extending north and south above said rollers, rested on said beams. There were suspended hooks upon pulleys running over said track between said beams, the hooks being used by operatives in passing iron in process of manufacture through the rollers, from one roller to another. The rollers were operated by steam by means of engines and boilers in charge of an engineer in the factory, which contained a furnace for heating the iron preparatory to rolling.-

■ There were in the appellant’s plant three mills, as they were called, a mill consisting of two or more furnaces, two or more sets of rolls, an engine, an arrangement called a telegraph, by which heated metal was carried from the furnace to the rolls, and the appurtenances connected to and with the telegraph, and hooks and tongs. The appellee, when injured, was working at a ten-inch mill. In operating this mill there were two sets of employes, called respectively, day turn and night turn. The turns consisted of a boss roller and certain assistants whose classes are named in the verdict, being seventeen men besides the boss roller. The person using the hook for putting the metal through the rolls was called a “hook-up.” The appellee when injured was a hook-up on the night turn.

' About the 21st of February, 1895, a piece of corrugated iron was placed by one Henry Wells across [568]*568two of said beams, which were ten to fifteen inches apart, and said iron extended northward from the north beam about four or five feet and over and in line with one or more of said rollers, its ends not attached or supported in any way. Said Wells fastened said iron by nailing it to the south beam near the south end of the iron with two wire nails procured by him in said factory, for which purpose he could also have obtained additional nails, The iron was so placed to prevent water from dropping upon the appellant’s laborers and employes while engaged in operating the rolls beneath it. It was not sufficiently and securely fastened, talcing into consideration the circumstances and use to which it and the accompanying appliances were adapted and for which they were used. The operation of the pulley and the jar of the mill caused the north end of the iron to vibrate continually, and the natural tendency of the vibration of the iron and the jar of the beams was to withdraw and loosen the iron from its fastenings. In the operation of the pulley next to the beam upon which said iron was placed, it jarred the beam in running against it, and this constantly tended to loosen the fastenings of such iron and to cause it to fall off, as a necessary consequence, in the reasonable and ordinary operation of the pulley.

This corrugated iron had been in this position about four weeks, when, on the 25th of March, 1895, it left its fastenings, and fell down upon the appellee while at work at the rolls immediately under it. The verdict described the appellee’s injury and his medical treatment, and stated the value of the treatment.

The appellee first observed said iron in its place when he went to work at night, about three weeks before he was injured. When he first discovered it, he was impressed that it might be dangerous and inse[569]*569care, and. he or his colaborer, one McAlister, in his presence, at once called the attention of the engineer to its condition, and he or McAlister requested the engineer to go up and examine it. The engineer declined to do so, but he at the time, promised to call the greaser to go up and examine it, and he did call the greaser, who went up and examined it. He took hold of it and said it was safe, and thinking that it was securely fastened, he immediately came down and informed the engineer that it was perfectly safe, and the engineer immediately informed the appellee and McAlister that the iron was safe and secure; that it was as safe as if it had fifty nails driven in it. The appellee thereupon believed that the iron was safe and securely fastened, and thereafter, until his injury, he continued to work at said place in the belief that the iron was safely and securely fastened, and had good reason so to believe, and did not have any reason to believe that it was unsafe or not securely fastened, and was not thereafter possessed of any facts or circumstances that would reasonably lead him to believe or know that the iron was not safely or securely fastened in its place.

It was found that there was nothing to obstruct the view of the iroq below where it was placed; that it could be seen easily by the exercise of the ordinary sense of vision by any one looking to or examining the condition of the mill; that there was nothing to prevent the appellee from seeing it sooner than he did or to prevent the appellant or its agents charged with the duty of keeping the mill in repair from seeing the iron in its place. It was also found, that there were a number of beams, bents, rafters, and other pieces of sheet iron in the immediate neighborhood of said corrugated iron; also the telegraph track; and that said piece of corrugated iron was hidden or [570]*570concealed, except one end, by the timbers and beams in and about the top of the building, and that a number of men who worked regularly about the ten-inch mill did not discover the iron, or know it had been put up until it fell. Also, it was found, that the iron could be reached easily by a ladder upon a crane standing near it all the time; and to reach it one had to go by the ladder, and, when he reached the top of the ladder, to proceed upward and to one side from twelve to twenty feet on and over a beam about eight by ten inches. It was found that there was an association, or labor union, known as the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers; that prior to the appellee’s injury the appellant entered into a contract or agreement with said association regulating the employment of roll hands in appellant’s mill; that said association had certain rules and regulations regulating the employment of roll hands, one of which was, that all mills employing members of said union as rollers should employ the boss roller, and require him to hire or furnish his own assistants. . The verdict contained an interrogatory and answer as follows: “(243) If you should find that The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers had certain rules and regulations regulating the employment of roll hands, then state what those rules and .regulations were. Answer. We don’t know.”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Ellegood v. Brashear Freight Lines, Inc.
162 S.W.2d 628 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1942)
Berrier v. Associated Indemnity Co.
196 So. 188 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1939)
Joslin v. Idaho Times Publishing Co.
53 P.2d 323 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1935)
Petzold v. McGregor
176 N.E. 640 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1931)
Lazarus v. Scherer
174 N.E. 293 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1931)
May v. Farrell
271 P. 789 (California Court of Appeal, 1928)
Domer v. Castator
146 N.E. 881 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1925)
Finley v. Keisling
151 Tenn. 464 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1924)
Crawfordsville Shale Brick Co. v. Starbuck
141 N.E. 7 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1923)
Standard Oil Co. v. Allen
126 N.E. 674 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1920)
Sargent Paint Co. v. Petrovitzky
124 N.E. 881 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1919)
Washburn-Crosby Co. v. Cook
120 N.E. 434 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1918)
Mobley v. J. S. Rogers Co.
119 N.E. 477 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1918)
Swain v. Kirkpatrick Lumber Co.
78 So. 140 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1918)
Zeitlow v. Smock
117 N.E. 665 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1917)
Montain v. City of Fargo
166 N.W. 416 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1917)
McGee v. Stockton
113 N.E. 388 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1916)
Claim of Powley v. Vivian & Co.
169 A.D. 170 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1915)
Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Bond
1915 OK 177 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1915)
Prest-O-Lite Co. v. Skeel
106 N.E. 365 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1914)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
48 N.E. 803, 19 Ind. App. 565, 1897 Ind. App. LEXIS 18, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indiana-iron-co-v-cray-indctapp-1897.