Jenson v. Will & Finck Co.

89 P. 113, 150 Cal. 398, 1907 Cal. LEXIS 530
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 1, 1907
DocketS.F. No. 3856.
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 89 P. 113 (Jenson v. Will & Finck Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jenson v. Will & Finck Co., 89 P. 113, 150 Cal. 398, 1907 Cal. LEXIS 530 (Cal. 1907).

Opinion

LORIGAN, J.

Plaintiff brought this action to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained while in the employment of defendant. The cause was tried before a jury, who returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff for seven thousand five hundred dollars, upon which judgment was entered. A motion by defendant for a new trial was denied, and this appeal is from such order alone. There is no appeal from the judgment. The complaint alleged that on February 9, 1901, defendant was carrying on business in the city of San Francisco and maintaining in the basement of premises No. 100 O’Farrell Street a warehouse, where it kept a stock of merchandise, and operated in said premises an elevator for the purpose of transporting goods from said basement to the sidewalk in front of said premises; that for the purpose of transporting said goods therefrom it was necessary to place the goods in a wheeled truck, which was placed upon the elevator and hoisted thereon to said sidewalk; that prior to the ninth day of February, 1901, plaintiff had been employed as a cash boy in defendant’s store, Nos. 818-820 Market Street, and prior to said date had never had any experience whatever in the work of transporting goods in trucks from the basement of said premises, No. 100 O ’Farrell Street, to said sidewalk, or any experience whatever in handling or transporting goods in elevators; that on said day defendant, well knowing the inexperience of plaintiff in the work of so transporting goods, and well knowing the inexperience of plaintiff in handling and transporting goods upon the said elevator or any elevator, put plaintiff to work in said basement, *401 and directed him to attend to the transportation and transfer by means of said wheeled trucks of the goods of said defendant from the said basement; that in order to transport said goods as aforesaid it was necesary for plaintiff, in the performance of such duties, to go on said elevator with the truck load of goods; that the work of transporting suph goods in a truck on said elevator was a hazardous undertaking and the hazard was known to defendant and unknown to plaintiff; that plaintiff was unfamiliar with the dangers attending said work which he was ordered to do on said day, and was unfamiliar with the dangers of transporting said goods; that before ordering plaintiff to do the work of transporting goods in said trucks from said basement to the sidewalk, defendant did not give plaintiff any instructions or directions whatever as to the manner in which he should perform his work or transport said goods from said basement; that while plaintiff on said day was in the act of transporting from said basement to the sidewalk on the elevator a large quantity of goods belonging to defendant in one of its wheeled trucks, plaintiff’s right leg and foot, without any negligence on his part, were crushed between the platform of the elevator and the sidewalk, and were then and there mangled and bruised; that on account of said injuries it was necessary to amputate plaintiff’s leg and foot.

The answer of defendant denied the allegations of the complaint, and set up affirmatively, among other separate defenses, that plaintiff violated instructions, and that he had knowledge during his employment of all the dangers incident to his work in connection with said trucks and elevator, and assumed the risk.

Upon this appeal it is contended that the evidence was insufficient to justify the verdict; that the court erred in denying defendant’s motion for a nonsuit, and erred also in its rulings on the admission of evidence and in giving and refusing certain instructions.

The evidence on the part of plaintiff showed that in December, 1900, shortly before the holidays, the plaintiff, then about twelve and a half years of age, and four feet three inches in height, was employed by Mr. Litzius, secretary of the defendant, as cash boy in its toy department, where he was working in that capacity on the morning of February 9, *402 1901. On this date defendant was in control of premises located in three different places in the city of San Francisco used in connection with its business, these consisting of its store and two warehouses. Its store and salesrooms were at Nos. 818-820 Market Street, in the Phelan building, extended back to 0 ’Farrell Street, with an entrance thereto on said street, and included the ground floor and the basement, the toy department where plaintiff was employed being conducted in the latter place under the management of C. GL Weir. About a block westerly from the store, and at No. 108 O ’Farrell Street, in the basement thereof, was an old warehouse of defendant from which, as occasion required, goods were brought to the store on Market Street. This warehouse was in charge of Osma Welk. Defendant had established a new warehouse on the opposite side of O’Farrell Street from its store entrance on that street, and on the day of plaintiff’s injury was engaged in removing its goods from the old warehouse to this new one, the .employees in the former, with additional employees assigned to the task, doing the work. It was while assisting in this work that the plaintiff was injured, and how he came to leave the toy department and be engaged in the warehouse, and the circumstances surrounding his injury, are best disclosed by the evidence of ’the plaintiff himself. He testified that on the morning of February 9, 1901, while engaged in the discharge of his ordinary duties as cash boy in the toy department, Osma Welk, who was in charge of the old warehouse, came over to the toy department and stated that Mr. Litzius wanted another boy over at the old warehouse to move goods, and that his superior, Mr. Weir, directed him to go over to the basement to work, and he did so. When he reached there, Mr. Welk said to him: “Take these trucks over; this is your work; take those trucks over to the other warehouse.” This was all he said to him;, all the direction that was given him as to the task he should perform, or the manner in which he should perform it. There were others engaged in similar work to which he was assigned, and he immediately commenced to do as directed. This work consisted of placing loaded trucks upon a freight elevator, accompanying them on their way in the elevator to the sidewalk above, and then pushing the trucks down O’Farrell Street to the new warehouse. The distance from the *403 floor of the warehouse basement to the sidewalk was from nine to ten feet. The trucks used were wooden ones, about four feet wide by four feet high, with wheels upon them, those in the center at the sides being larger than those at either end. No direction was given to him by any one as to the operation of the elevator machinery. It was operated by pulling a chain, which he observing others do, did likewise. The trucks could not be taken to the sidewalk unless by this elevator. He did not load the trucks himself. They were loaded by others in the warehouse; he simply pushed them to the elevator, took them up on it, wheeled them to the warehouse, and returned with the empty trucks, doing this all the time unassisted until the last trip made by him, during which his injury was sustained. The persons besides himself engaged in handling these trucks consisted of an able-bodied man and two boys, each one attending to a truck. Some of the loads on these trucks were quite heavy.

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Bluebook (online)
89 P. 113, 150 Cal. 398, 1907 Cal. LEXIS 530, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jenson-v-will-finck-co-cal-1907.