Juntunen v. Quincy Mining Co.

151 N.W. 571, 184 Mich. 341, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 885
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 17, 1915
DocketDocket No. 54
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 151 N.W. 571 (Juntunen v. Quincy Mining 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
Juntunen v. Quincy Mining Co., 151 N.W. 571, 184 Mich. 341, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 885 (Mich. 1915).

Opinion

Brooke, C. J.

The plaintiff, a native of Finland, was injured in defendant’s mines through the fall of a piece of rock. The injury sustained was a broken [343]*343leg. Plaintiff had resided in this country about 11 years and had worked for the defendant in various capacities practically all the time. For more than a year and a half prior to his injury he had worked in a repair crew in charge of one Savinini. The record discloses that shaft No. 2 had for a very considerable distance been crushed in and rendered useless. It became the duty of the repair crew, of which plaintiff was a member, to take out the old timbers of the shaft and the rock which had fallen and pressed in upon the shaft and to replace the old timber by new ones. At the time of the accident this work had progressed from the forty-first down to and perhaps a short distance below the forty-seventh level. After the happening of the accident to the plaintiff he was laid up for a period; and, as soon as the broken leg was healed, resumed his work with the defendant company, and continued therein for a period of two years and a half before he brought his suit. The accident happened on January 29, 1910, at which time the declaration charges that the plaintiff was at work in the shaft at a point on the ladder road in said shaft about 20 feet below said forty-seventh level (when) “a large and dangerous quantity of rock or ground fell, rolled, and descended, to wit, out of said forty-seventh level near said shaft and into and through said shaft and to, against, and upon the plaintiff and struck him with great force and violence,” causing the injuries to plaintiff of which complaint is made. The declaration charges the defendant with negligence in not providing plaintiff with a safe place to work, and that it

“negligently allowed, permitted suffered, and caused said aforementioned work of taking out and_ putting in said timbers to be carried on and continued under and by a method and system under which reasonable provision was not made to protect plaintiff from injury from falling, rolling, and descending rock while engaged in and about the performance of [344]*344Ms duties and going to and from Ms said -working place, and failed and omitted to adopt, use, and employ any reasonably safe, suitable, and proper method and system of doing said work; and it wrongfully, carelessly, and negligently failed and omitted to timber up and secure divers places in said shaft and mine from which rock and ground might and could fall to plaintiff’s injury including, to wit, the sides of said shaft and portions of said forty-seventh level near said shaft; and it negligently allowed, permitted, and suffered each and all such places tó be and remain untimbered and unsecured; and it wrongfully, carelessly, and negligently failed and omitted to properly or sufficiently inspect and examine such last-mentioned places and was negligently uninformed as to the safety and condition of such last-mentioned places on and before the day of the occurrence of said injuries; and it wrongfully, carelessly, and negligently failed and omitted to bar down and remove or prop up and secure, and allowed, permitted, and suffered to remain at such a place and condition as to be liable to at any time cause or occasion plaintiff’s injury.”

In the work of repairing it was necessary not only to replace the timbers in the shaft itself after taking away the fallen rock, but to secure the mouths of the crosscuts at the various levels. On the day in question, a part of the crew, having removed the rock during the shift at the forty-seventh level, had prepared to erect a “set” of timbers in the crosscut at the forty-seventh level about 10 feet from the shaft. Uprights had been erected and the timber to be used as a “cap” lay upon the level. This timber, which was 15 feet long, had to be cut to 13 feet in order to fit. When the work had reached this stage, the shift boss directed the men to stand back. The order seems to have been generally obeyed by the workmen at that point, though plaintiff claims that he heard no such order. Plaintiff up to the noon hour had been working at a point about 20 feet below the forty-seventh level. He describes the accident as follows:

[345]*345“At the time I was hurt, I came up from the place where I was working and was picking up tools. My duties was taking old sets away all day, out from the shaft. I am not quite sure how many men were working with me, but I think there were about nine that day. My boss was Fred Pascoe and Charley Karpinnen. Pascoe’s position was to have the work done and look after it. His job was called shift boss. Karpinnen was the timber boss. They both had a right to order me what to do. I had to do what they told me. We knew what work to do when Fred Pascoe, or either of them, told us. I was receiving $54 at that time for 26 shifts. Before I was hurt my health was good. I remember what day of the week it was that I was hurt. It was Saturday. I was day shift that week. They were working three shifts in the shaft there at that work I was at; three eight-hour shifts each day. I was at the forty-seventh level at the time I was hurt. I can’t say exactly what time of the day it was when I was hurt, but it was near 3 in the afternoon. At the time I was hurt, I had a pick in my hand and some rail spikes. I was about to put them down on the other side of the shaft. Then we were to go up, go home. We were through work at that time. Our shift ended at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The next shift just came down. As soon as we would go up they would take our places. We would get down to the forty-seventh level, up and down to our work in the skip, excepting the day shift when there was a truck. The truck ran right through the shaft and carried the men up and down. That is the way the men always went to and from their work. We went from that very level on this skip when we went up. It was dark down there in the mine. The men had sunshine lamps, little lamps they carry in their hats. Except for those lamps there was no light in the shaft. When I was hurt, I was at one of the usual places where the men would go after the end of the shift from that level.

“A stone fell down and struck me on the right leg. Both bones were broken. The stone fell from the mouth of the crosscut from the side, with reference to the forty-seventh level from the first corner where the crosscut goes. The crosscut runs out from the shaft; it goes straight north there. The shaft in-[346]*346dines. While we were working there, the captain and timber boss were with us. Sometimes they were a little further away. The timber boss was working with us. The shift boss didn’t do anything. He was just looking on superintending the work. The shift boss would tell us how the work was to be done. The shift boss and. timber boss were there on the Saturday that I got hurt. I heard several times that we would leave the place where this rock fell from for extra work, we would not bother with that now. I heard both the timber boss and shift boss talking about this place. They said it was all right for today; we would fix that another time. I suppose they examined the place, and, as they were in a hurry with the shaft, they left it for Sunday to be fixed up. * * * It was talked of Saturday, to the captain and timber boss. They said it was good at this time, and it would be fixed tomorrow. That meant the Sunday following that day I was hurt, next day. They talked of the very place from which the stone came, the stone which fell and hurt me. They told me to go to work under it, down the shaft. I relied upon their statements when they said the place was all right and would be fixed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
151 N.W. 571, 184 Mich. 341, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 885, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/juntunen-v-quincy-mining-co-mich-1915.