Lahti v. Tamarack Mining Co.

152 N.W. 907, 186 Mich. 18, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 653
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJune 7, 1915
DocketDocket No. 48
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 152 N.W. 907 (Lahti v. Tamarack 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
Lahti v. Tamarack Mining Co., 152 N.W. 907, 186 Mich. 18, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 653 (Mich. 1915).

Opinions

Stone, J.

Action for damages by reason of the injury of the plaintiff in a mine of defendant on the morning of March 19, 1910, on the fifteenth level of No. 3 North Tamarack shaft. This was a perpendicular shaft. In order to reach the vein from the shaft a crosscut was driven in barren ground west from the shaft until the vein was reached. At the time of the accident the crosscut from the shaft to the vein was somewhere between 700 and 1,000 feet long. At the point where the crosscut started from the shaft [20]*20there was a room or opening, which was called the plat. At' this point the crosscut was wider, and it was about 50 feet or more from the shaft before the crosscut narrowéd down to its' average size. The crosscut was about five feet high on the average, and about the same in width. It is straight, so that one could see a light through it from one end to the other. When the crosscut reached the vein there was a drift along the vein.south of about 1,000 feet long. The copper rock was mined and brought down to the drift, and along the floor of the drift, and continuing into the crosscut and to the shaft, was a track built similar to a railroad track, save, that the rails were a great deal smaller in size. On this track cars called tram cars were run to carry the rock- from the drifts to the shaft. These, cars were 4 feet high from the track and 8 feet 8 inches wide. The motive power to pull the cars was furnished by means of an endless cable which ran through the drift and crosscut, and which was run by means of a compressed air engine and a drum located 'at the junction of the drift and the crosscut. The cable coming from the crosscut into the drift went in a straight line on the drum of the engine. There were four or five rounds of cable around the drum, so as to give the cable a grip on the engine. The cable then left the drum and was carried along the floor of the drift to the end of the drift and onto a wheel at that point, and returned on rollers situated between the rails of the track on the floor of the drift and through the crosscut to the plat at the shaft, where it went onto another wheel and back on the rollers, on top of the crosscut. The rails of. the track were about three feet apart, and the rollers on the floor were about halfway between the rails. These rollers were about five or six inches in diameter. The shaft on which the rollers were fastened turned with the rollers, and the cable would [21]*21be 2% inches from the floor of .the drift when it was running on the rollers on the floor. The tops of the rollers in the roof of the crosscut were aboutsix inches from the roof. The rollers on the floor of the crosscut were about 20 feet apart, and those on the roof about the same distance. ••

The cars were iron cars. They were filled in the drift, attached to the cable, drawn to the p'lat at the shaft, where they were taken off.the cable, and run onto the cages which elevated them to the surface. They were fastened to the cable in the following manner: There was a ring on the . cable with a short piece of chain leading from it. . This chain was fastened to the front end of the front car, whichever way the cars were going, by means -of an iron bolt. The cars were then fastened together. There was a slight grade in the crosscut toward the shaft. The cars, being fastened to the endless cable, had no brakes upon them. The moment the cable stopped' the cars stopped. If the cars were being run through the drift or crosscut at their ordinary rate, they would be stopped instantly -when the power was shut off at the engine, or would stop within a few inches. These cars were ordinarily run at a speed somewhat faster-than a man walks. When there was more than one party of trammers they used four cars; if there was only one they used two cars in a train.

The man or boy who operated the engine was stationed at the junction of the crosscut and drift, where he could see in both directions. He is referred to in the record as the “puffer boy,” and the engine used is ordinarily called a puffer engine. When a train of cars was running through the drift, generally a man was with the cars. That man was called a conductor.He rode back and forth on the cars through the drifts and crosscuts. He was on the fear while going to the shaft. There was a signaling apparatus running [22]*22through the drift and crosscut to notify the puffer boy when to start and stop his engine. This signal wire ran to the engine and was located in the roof of the crosscut, more on the right side going in from the shaft. This signal cord^ was within easy reach of persons in the crosscut, and was like the bell signal in a train or street car. All that was necessary was to reach the bell rope and pull it down. The signal to stop was one bell. The conductor could reach out from his position on the train and pull the cord at any time going through the crosscut. It was customary for the men to go into the crosscut on their way to and from work. In fact this was the only way to reach their work in the drift, or drifts.

The crosscut was not lighted except by the miner’s lamps, which they carried in their hats in going through the crosscut. When the cars were being run through the crosscut, it was customary to have a light placed on the front end of the front car. This light was placed on the car by the man called the conductor when he had his train made up and was ready to take it out, and he was the only man whose duty it was to place the light there. The light or lamp that was used for this purpose was an ordinary miner’s lamp that burns “Sunshine” grease — the same kind of lamp that the men wear on their hats. There was a little hole on the end of the car and a hook on the lamp, and he placed the hook in the hole. In addition to the light that the conductor placed on the front of the first car, he also carried a lamp of his own on his hat.

Before entering the crosscut from the shaft the men could ascertain whether or not the cars were running by looking at the wheel at the plat around which the cable went. They could tell whether the cars were running, and in which direction they were running, by feeling the rope back of the timbers and [23]*23where the wheel was, and by watching the light. The custom was to put their foot on the rope passing the post where the wheel was.

The plaintiff was employed by the defendant as a miner, and on the day of the accident his working place was the fifteenth level of No. 3 shaft, where he was to work in a stope. In company with two other men, at about 8 o’clock in the morning, he went down in the cage and got off at the fifteenth level at the plat. Quoting plaintiff’s own words, he testified:

"When I got to the mouth of the crosscut first I looked for the lights on the cars; and then Arfman, who was ahead of me, he felt the rope with his hand, and I felt with my foot. The rope was not moving then. I had two bars on my shoulders, one was 6 or 7 feet long, the other 10 feet or thereabouts, and their weight was about 30 or 40 pounds. After I felt the rope and found it not moving we started to walk in. Arfman was ahead. He might have been 10 feet or more ahead of me. I think it was somewhere around 300 feet from the shaft in the crosscut where I was injured.”

As the plaintiff and Arfman were walking through the crosscut they were met and run down by a loaded train of cars, and the plaintiff was injured. On that morning the conductor had taken a train of cars in from the plat to the drift, and had taken them to a place between 900 and 1,000 feet south of the crosscut.

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Related

Aho v. Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co.
154 N.W. 52 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1915)
Arfman v. Tamarack Mining Co.
153 N.W. 661 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1915)

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Bluebook (online)
152 N.W. 907, 186 Mich. 18, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 653, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lahti-v-tamarack-mining-co-mich-1915.