Johnson v. Union Carbide Co.

135 N.W. 1069, 169 Mich. 651, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 780
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMay 3, 1912
DocketDocket No. 124
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 135 N.W. 1069 (Johnson v. Union Carbide Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Union Carbide Co., 135 N.W. 1069, 169 Mich. 651, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 780 (Mich. 1912).

Opinion

McAlvay, J.

Plaintiff was injured while employed in defendant’s carbide factory. He brought suit to recover for such injuries, claimed by him to have been caused by the negligence of defendant. The trial resulted in a ver[653]*653diet against him directed by the trial court on account of his contributory negligence. This court is asked by plaintiff to reverse this judgment.

In considering the case of plaintiff as presented by the record, the well-known rule that it will be considered most favorably to him will be applied, and in the statement of facts defendant’s case will not be considered.

The accident occurred in defendant’s carbide factory, where plaintiff, who had been injured some time before by an explosion, was employed in doing light work, sweeping the floors, filling carbide cans, and oiling machinery, as directed from time to time. He had been an oiler about two weeks before the injury. He was hurt by having his arm drawn in between the belt and pulley on the end of the stack of rollers called No. 1, being one of five such sets or stacks of rollers used for grinding carbide in the large grinding and packing room on the ground floor in the factory. This department is filled with machinery. These rollers consist of three pairs each, and are inclosed in iron casings 6 or 8 feet square and 10 to 12 feet high. These rollers crush the carbide which is admitted at the top and passes down between them and out at the base. The roller shafts upon which they revolve extend through the casings on the front two feet, and upon the outer end of each is a 10-inch pulley with a 12-inch face upon which runs a 12-inch belt which drives the rollers. The bottom of the lower pair of pulleys is 25 inches from the floor. The drive belt comes from under the left side of a 16-inch pulley, which is 2 feet below the right-hand pulley of the lower pair of pulleys on No. 1, running up over the top of that right-hand pulley and down under the left-hand pulley of this pair, and then directly up to the left face of the left-hand pulley of the second pair, then over it down under and up around the right-hand face of its mate, and so on to the third pair.

This belt, when power is applied, moves in the direction described and indicated up over and around these pulleys, [654]*654and by this arrangement the rollers of each pair turn to' wards each other in grinding the carbide.

When plaintiff was put at work oiling, he objected because he was not acquainted with machinery. The boxes in which the roller shafts rest and revolve are bolted to the iron framework of the roller casing back of the pulleys in such a manner that the rollers may be adjusted to grind coarse or fine. These boxes from vibration and other causes at times become loose and require adjustment. Between the boxes of the two lower rollers was placed a piece of iron with a hole and thread into which was screwed a set screw. The piece of iron pressing against the inner end of one of these boxes and the head of the set screw presses against the inner end of the other. The distance between the faces of these pulleys on the ends of the roller shafts was 2£ inches, and between the inner ends of the shaft boxes was about 2 inches. Between the face of the casing and the inner edge of the pulleys the distance was 12 inches.

Plaintiff was not acquainted with machinery. When he was changed from sweeping to work as an oiler, he objected for that reason, and was told by the superintendent that it would be but a few days until he could get an experienced man. On the day of the injury these lower rollers in No. 1 required adjustment. They were grinding too coarse. The superintendent was absent, and the [655]*655man who was always in charge in his absence called to plaintiff, and ordered him to help him adjust these rollers. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon of February 25, 1908. The light was very dim and the air was full of dust. Objects could not be discerned clearly. The man in charge, when plaintiff came to him, had an electric light in his hand, the only light in that part of the room at the time. He handed the plaintiff a wrench, and ordered him to turn the set screw, and said he would hold the light for him. He stepped behind the belt on the outside of the left-hand, pulley and reached in with the light so that plaintiff could see the set screw and block. Plaintiff had never done this work before, and was not warned of the danger, or instructed how to do it. As the light was held he could not see clearly the pulleys or belt. Plaintiff stood in front of the pulleys, reached over, and put the wrench on the set screw, and Owen, holding the light, told him to give it a quarter turn towards him. He did this easily, and was told to give it another turn. He undertook to do this, and found that it required the use of more force, and pulling hard the wrench slipped, and his left arm was caught by the belt and drawn under the left-hand pulley, and so injured as to require amputation at the shoulder. These pulleys were not guarded in any manner.

Plaintiff testified that he thought there was no danger, and trusted Owen, who knew about it, not to put him in danger. The running machinery on this floor made a great noise. Plaintiff had been working about this factory about two years, but not in connection with the machinery until he was put at work oiling about two weeks before he was injured. It is undisputed that this machine had never been adjusted before without stopping it. The superintendent only could authorize stopping it. Plaintiff had never stopped it, and did not know how to do so. Plaintiff charged defendant was guilty of negligence in putting him at work on dangerous unguarded machinery [656]*656without warning or instructing him as to such dangers, in a dim light with a defective tool.

Upon the question of the unguarded belt and pulleys, the facts are not disputed, and the record shows that this belt was not properly safeguarded as required by statute. It was recognized by the trial court that plaintiff, but for what the court held to be his contributory negligence, made a case for the jury. The jury was charged:

“Even conceding the contention which is made in his behalf that he is relieved of the assumption of risk by the failure of defendant to observe a statutory duty, and conceding that there was negligence on the part of defendant in the other respects complained of, we still are confronted in this case with the legal question of contributory negligence and with the rule, as applied to that, which holds specifically and beyond any question that he cannot recover unless on his part he has exercised due care reasonably commensurate with the obvious danger to avoid any iniury.”

He further stated that it appeared plaintiff was of mature years, of sound mind and good eyesight, that he was very familiar with the factory and the machinery, and presumably with its plain and obvious dangers. In effect, that he was a normal individual, with eyes and intelligence which he did not use, and determined, as a matter of law, that upon his own testimony he had contributed to his injury, and therefore could not recover.

The testimony of the plaintiff, upon which the court relied in directing a verdict by reason of contributory negligence, is as follows:

“ I didn’t take notice whether the pulleys were running or whether the belt was running. I didn’t look at it closely, and I didn’t know as a matter of fact whether it was running or not. * * * I didn’t notice the belt when I went in there. I didn’t notice it.

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

Related

Abner A. Wole, Inc. v. Walch
175 N.W.2d 554 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1970)
Petrosky v. Dziurman
116 N.W.2d 748 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1962)
Fish v. Grand Trunk Western Railway
266 N.W. 319 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1936)
City of Detroit v. Porath
260 N.W. 114 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1935)
People v. Dellabonda
251 N.W. 594 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1933)
O'Dell v. Day
183 N.W. 17 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1921)
Koch v. Pearson
219 Ill. App. 468 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1920)
City of Kalamazoo v. Standard Paper Co.
148 N.W. 743 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1914)
Johnson v. Union Carbide Co.
148 N.W. 432 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1914)
Seebach v. Michigan United Railways Co.
142 N.W. 1086 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1913)
Maki v. Mohawk Mining Co.
142 N.W. 780 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1913)
Davis v. Buss Machine Works
140 N.W. 986 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1913)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
135 N.W. 1069, 169 Mich. 651, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 780, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-union-carbide-co-mich-1912.