Jirout v. Gebelein

121 A. 831, 142 Md. 692, 1923 Md. LEXIS 66
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedMarch 15, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 121 A. 831 (Jirout v. Gebelein) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jirout v. Gebelein, 121 A. 831, 142 Md. 692, 1923 Md. LEXIS 66 (Md. 1923).

Opinion

*693 Briscoe, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The questions, arising upon the record in this case, are presented by the rulings of the court upon the plaintiff’s demurrer to the defendant’s' second and special plea to the plaintiff’s declaration.

The suit was brought by the plaintiff against the defendant, in the Court, of Common Pleas of Baltimore City, to recover damages, for injuries sustained by him while employed bv the defendant, and alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant in failing to use due care in procuring and providing proper and sound machinery for the plaintiff’s use; in his butchering establishment in the. City of Baltimore, and thereby exposing1 him, while at work, to unnecessary. risk and danger1.

The declaration is in the usual form in negligence cases and states, in substance, that the defendant at the time of the commission of the injuries complained of owned and operated a butchering establishment in the City of Baltimore and the plaintiff was employed by the defendant as a pork butcher in this establishment; and that, on or about the 18th of February, 1920, the plaintiff was ordered by tbe defendant to stand at a designated place; on a raised platform and kill pigs, by cutting their throats with a knife,; that the pigs to be killed by the, plaintiff were conveyed to him fastened to a moving chain, or cable, running over the top of a revolving wheel fastened to the end of a shaft which was caused to revolve- by the operation of one large and a number of smaller cog wheels, all of which formed part of a lifting device to hoist, the live and struggling: anim-als, from, a position a great distance below the level of said raised platform to- a point on or near a level with the plaintiff’s position and where he performed his duty of killing said pigs by cutting their throats with a knife; that while the plaintiff was in the discharge of his- said duty and while in the exercise of ordinary care the aforesaid large cog wheel suddenly, and without warning, bursted and broke and portions thereof were- *694 violently hurled, in different directions, one of which struck the plaintiff on the head with great force rendering him unconscious, and causing him to permanently lose the sense1 of hearing in his right ear and to' be permanently paralyzed on the right side of his head and face, and also inflicting other painful and permanent injuries upon him.

The declaration further avers that the injuries were directly caused by the negligence, of the defendant in failing to use due care in procuring said cog wheel, which was in a defective and unsound condition for use when purchased and installed by the defendant, and that such defective and unsound condition of said cog wheel was unknown to- the plaintiff, but was known to the defendant, or by the exercise of due care should have been known to him, and that he did not, by any negligence on his part, directly contribute to the injuries whereof he complains but that the same were directly caused by the negligence of the defendant.,

The general issue plea was filed by the defendant to the declaration, .and also a second and special plea in bar, as follows: that under Chapter 800 of the Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland in 1914, now codified as Article 101 of the Annotated Code, and known as the Workmen’s Compensation Act, it is provided that every employer, subject- to its provisions, is required to pay or provide, as required therein, compensation according to the schedules of said act for the disability of his employee resulting from an accidental personal injury sustained hy the employee arising out of and in tire course of his employment, and the defendant alleges that he was the employer of the plaintiff at the time the plaintiff sustained his accidental personal injury, which arose out of and in the course of his employment; that it is further provided under -said act that compensation therein provided for shall be payable for injuries sustained by employees engaged in certain extra hazardous employment, one of which is packing houses and abattoirs, and the defendant alleges that the plaintiff herein at the time he sustained the *695 injuries alleged in his declaration, was engaged in the employment as a butcher at the defendant’s packing house or abattoir; that it is also provided under said act that the employer shall secure compensation to his employee in one of three ways, one of which being “by insuring and keeping insured the payments of such compensation with any stock corporation authorized to transact the; business of Workmen’s Compensation Insurance in this State,” and the defendant alleged that he has complied with this requirement of the act by insuring and keeping insured the1 payments, of such compensation with the Aetna Life Insurance Company, a stock, corporation, authorized to transact; the business of workmen’s compensation in this State; and the; defendant alleged that lie has fully complied with all the provisions of said act and stands ready, willing and able to- pay any compensation that may he- due the plaintiff under the provisions and schedules contained in said Act, and the defendant further alleges that the act. provides that the liability of the employer prescribed therein as to the payment of compensation shall be exclusive.

The plaintiff interposed a demurrer to the defendant’s, second and special plea,, upon the ground that it was bad in substance and insufficient in law.

The plaintiff’s demurrer to the defendant’s second and special plea was overruled by the court, below, and on the 15th of March, 1922, a. judgment on the demurrer was entered in favor of the defendant for costs. Erom this judgment the plaintiff has, appealed.

There was clearly no error in the ruling of the court upon the demurrer, as to the form of the pleading in the case. The defendant’s, special plea in bar was in proper form, to raise the question of tho Workmen’s Compensation Act, as a defense to the action, and, was the, proper mode of presenting this defense.

In Salvuca v. Ryan & Reilly Co., 129 Md. 242, in passing mi the proper pleading in such eases., it is said, “the Court is of the opinion that the question should he raised by special *696 plea in bar in order to give notice to the plaintiff that the statute is relied on as a defense.” Salvuca v. Ryan & Reilly Co., 131 Md. 284.

The second question presented by the record and on the ■demurrer, and the controlling one in the case, is whether the injuries of the plaintiff alleged in the declaration are such :as are included in the provisions of the Maryland Workmen’s Compensation Act, and thereby covered and compensable under the act.

We think this question, under the authorities which are •controlling in the case, is free from serious difficulty.

The injuries alleged in the plaintiff’s, declaration are first, permanent loss of hearing in right ear, second, permanent paralysis on right side of head and face, and third, other painful and permanent injuries.

In Honnold on Workmen’s Compensation, vol.

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Bluebook (online)
121 A. 831, 142 Md. 692, 1923 Md. LEXIS 66, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jirout-v-gebelein-md-1923.