Jefferson v. Republic Iron & Steel Co.

93 So. 890, 208 Ala. 143, 1922 Ala. LEXIS 430
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMay 11, 1922
Docket6 Div. 537.
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 93 So. 890 (Jefferson v. Republic Iron & Steel Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jefferson v. Republic Iron & Steel Co., 93 So. 890, 208 Ala. 143, 1922 Ala. LEXIS 430 (Ala. 1922).

Opinion

*145 THOMAS, J.

The suit was for personal injury suffered by explosion of dynamite in án ore mine, where plaintiff was working.

The issues of fact, submitted to the jury under counts 1 and 3 and the plea of “not guilty,” resulted in a verdict for defendant.

Under the first count it is immaterial whether or not plaintiff sues as employs or independent contractor; he cannot recover. Said count charged that it was “the duty of the defendant to furnish the plaintiff * * * powder or dynamite, which duty it did undertake to perform,” but furnished plaintiff dynamite or powder of an inferior grade or kind, which plaintiff used, and which did not discharge clear, but left a large part of the dynamite or powder in the drill hole unexploded and as a proximate consequence thereof was exploded in the operation of his work, injuring him. Of this issue of fact plaintiff testified:

“Up to the time I got hurt I had been handling dynamite for about 11 years, and I was familiar with it, and knew it was dangerous, and I had handled it as a miner in my mining work. The dynamite is always marked dangerous, and the percentage is marked on it; whatever it is,' some of it is 40, and some 50 and some 60, marked on the sticks, and the one we used had a lot of white stuff around it, kind of like wax. There was no way to determine by an inspection of it, without tearing it up, whether it was defective or not.”

This evidence showed there was no way of determining whether the dynamite or powder furnished by defendant to plaintiff was defective without destruction of the same, and there was no evidence that defendant had knowledge that the dynamite or powder furnished to its employes immediately preceding the time of said explosion was defective in the respects indicated, or that defendant failed to use reasonable diligence to discover latent defects in the dynamite or powder purchased by it and furnished to employes. Such is the effect of the evidence, notwithstanding plaintiff’s testimony that during the “last work” he had done for the company some of the dynamite would not explode. He did not testify when this last work was done, or that he reported the fact1 of defect in powder or dynamite to defendant. Plain-, tiff was not entitled to recover under the evidence under the first count. Henee no prejudicial error intervened in the ruling on demurrer to special pleas as answer to said count.

This court cannot know, as did the trial court, the "locus in quo as described by the witness by reference to the “blueprint” which is recited in the bill of exceptions to have been introduced in evidence and “attached hereto as a part of the evidence in this case.” The same-is omitted from the page of the record so indicated and left blank for such purpose. Nor is that omitted evidence otherwise inserted in the bill of exceptions. Such omission in the bill of exceptions, where the suit is for failure to furnish a safe place for employes to labor, under the several answers of the witnesses, involves a contradiction in the bill of exceptions reciting, “This was all the evidence in this case.” Fayet v. St. L. & S. F., 203 Ala. 3, 81 South. 671; L. & N. v. Jenkins, 196 Ala. 136, 140, 72 South. 68; A. T. R. Co. v. Benns, 189 Ala. 590, 66 South. 589.

In the absence of such material evidence as the blueprint introduced by defendant, and to which the witness testified to explain and to illustrate his testimony, charges which involved a ruling of the trial court applying the law of the case to all the evidence purported to be set out in the bill of exceptions, must be presumed to have been properly given. Schmidt v. Mobile L. & R. Co., 204 Ala. 694, 87 South. 181; Sou. Ry. v. Wyley, 200 Ala. 14, 75 South. 326; B. R., L. & P. Co. v. Canfield, 177 Ala. 422, 59 South. 217; Montevallo Min. Co. v. Underwood, 202 Ala. 59, 79 South. 453.

It may be that detailed consideration of the several rulings on evidence, to which exceptions are reserved, is unnecessary and would subserve no good purpose. However, we see fit to say that the questions propounded to witnesses Bryant and Jefferson were leading or suggestive; the objections were general; the court’s ruling will be referred to any valid ground of objection. The questions as to whether “they” often explode dynamite in rivers and in water were improper to rebut the fact that dampness in mines could not have affected the dynamite. The manner in or conditions under which explosions in water are made, the manner- and length of time dynamite may be exposed to water or dampness in mines, are material inquiries that were not hypothesized in the question calling for opinion evidence of the witness or expert.

The map or blueprint of the locus in quo, made by a mining engineer, was properly admitted after due predicate was laid thereon. If any part of the map was drawn *146 pursuant to information given by another, the ground of objection or motion to exclude was not limited to the part based' on hearsay. The objection was to-the '“blueprint” as a whole. Autrey v. State, 190 Ala. 10, 67 South. 237. Moreover, the drawing is not made a part of the bill of exceptions, and the assignment of error based thereon will not be considered. Watts v. A. B. & A., 179 Ala. 436, 60 South. 861; Kelson v. Shelby Co., 96 Ala. 515, 11 South. 695, 38 Am. St. Rep. 116; Morris v. Beall, S5 Ala. 598, 5 South. 252; McCaskey Register Co. v. Nix Drug Co., 7 Ala. App. 309, 312, 61 South. 484.

"What others thought about plaintiff’s injuries was immaterial to the issue. No damages being found for plaintiff, the fact of his injuries not being denied, the extent thereof was immaterial. No reversible error could be rested on this ruling. Walker v. John Smith, T., 199 Ala. 514, 74 South. 451; Hamilton v. Cranford Merc. Co., 201 Ala. 403, 407, 78 South. 401. So of the questions propounded to witness a. G. Parsons, to which objections were sustained.

The extent to which counsel may-go on cross-examination is usually a question resting largely in the discretion of the court, not, however, to be abused or to amount to an undue restraint upon or denial of the right of cross-examination. And as to irrelevant matters to the issue, the extent of such cross-examination is within the sound discretion of the court, which discretion will not, generally, be reviewed unless abused. Appellant took nothing by his assignments of error numbered 18, 21, 22, and 39. Sou. Rwy. v. Brantley, 132 Ala. 655, 32 South. 300; Cox v. State, 162 Ala. 66, 50 South. 398; L. & N. v. Kay, 8 Ala. App. 562, 62 South. 1014; Johnson v. State ex rel. Jones, 16 Ala. App. 4, 74 South. 972; Ex parte State (In re Johnson v. State), 199 Ala. 255, 74 South. 366; Fondren v. State, 204 Ala. 451, 86 South. 71.

The negative answer of the witness to the question allowed over plaintiff’s objection, challenged in the twenty-third assignment of error, if there had been error, was without injury to plaintiff. Brown v. Johnston Bros., 135 Ala. 608, 613, 33 South. 683; Southern Cotton Oil Co. v. Harris, 175 Ala. 323, 57 South. 854; Birmingham Bottling Co. v. Morris. 393 Ala. 627, 69 South. 85.

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Bluebook (online)
93 So. 890, 208 Ala. 143, 1922 Ala. LEXIS 430, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jefferson-v-republic-iron-steel-co-ala-1922.