Lindquist v. King's Crown Plaster Co.

117 N.W. 46, 139 Iowa 107
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJuly 9, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 117 N.W. 46 (Lindquist v. King's Crown Plaster Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lindquist v. King's Crown Plaster Co., 117 N.W. 46, 139 Iowa 107 (iowa 1908).

Opinion

Dkemek, J.—

Plaintiff, as administrator. of his son’s estate, brings action to recover damages for the death of the son, Edward W. Lindquist, resulting from his being caught in a shaft in one of defendant’s mills, and receiving injuries from which he died. It is claimed that the son was in defendant’s employ, and that defendant negligently failed to perform its common-law and statutory duties in the construction, and care of its machinery. Defendant denied all negligence on its part, pleaded contributory negli[109]*109gence on the part of the son, and averred that when injured the boy was a mere volunteer, engaged in a dangerous work for which he was not employed, and against which he had been warned. A jury was called, and at the conclusion of plaintiff’s evidence, on defendant’s motion, a verdict was directed for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. We shall assume for the purposes of the case that defendant was guilty of negligence in not covering or guarding its machinery as required by section 4999a2 of the Code Supplement of 1907, and in not providing belt shifters as required by that act. And the only questions in the case as we view it are these: (1) Was defendant’s failure to comply with the statute the proximate cause of the injury? (2) Was Edward Lindquist a volunteer in doing the service he was performing when injured ? (3) Was he guilty of such contributory negligence as to defeat recovery by his administrator ?

It appears from the testimony that when injured the boy was a little over sixteen years of age. Defendant is a corporation operating a brick plant and plaster mill in the city of Cedar Eapids. In connection with these, it was also operating a sand pumping plant. These plants were in different buildings something like seventy feet apart. Plaintiff’s son was employed by defendant to work in the brick plant, and had been at this business about three months at the time he received his injuries. He was set to work at a machine called the “ mixer.” Eor two or three days prior to the time he received his injuries, the brick mill had not been running, and plaintiff was set to work peeling logs outside of and to the east of the plaster mill. Inside the plaster mill was what is known as a “ fibroid machine,” operated by a belt from a shaft some ten or twelve feet above the floor of the building. This shaft extended north and south, and was something like four feet from the west wall of the building. A belt came down from a pulley on this shaft to a pulley on the south side of the machine. About four feet [110]*110south of the shaft pulley the shaft was supported upon a post and cross-timbers, and at the side of this boxing was a collar around the shaft about an inch and one-half wide, which collar was fastened to the shaft by a set screw. One Whit-sell, an employe of the defendant was in charge of the fibroid machine, and on the afternoon of the day when plaintiff’s son received his injuries the belt which connected the shaft with the machine pulled apart where the ends were laced together. On the breaking of the belt, Whitsell got a ladder and set it up against the west wall of the building behind the shaft, so that it extended about a foot higher than the shaft, and about half way between the pulley and the boxing. Thereupon he undertook to repair the belting standing upon the floor near the machine. When the belt broke, Linquist was outside the building, engaged in peeling logs, and there was nobody in the room where the machine was housed save Whitsell. Without present direction from any one, Lind-quist left his work and went into the room where Whitsell was at work, went up the ladder, and' held the belt away from the shaft while Whitsell was repairing it. The shaft was two or three inches in diameter and a little rusty, so that, unless the belt were held away from it, it would pull upon the belt. Whitsell said that he did not need any help relacing the belt, that he could have done it himself, and that there was no necessity for any one to hold the belt away from the shaft. It very clearly appears that Whitsell did not ask or invite Lindquist to assist him in the repair of the belt,, although it appears that he knew of his presence upon the ladder. One Knight was a superintendent of defendant’s entire plant, and a man by the name of Louden was foreman of the plaster mill under Knight. While Lindquist was upon the ladder, holding the belt from the shaft, Louden came into the mill about the time the repairs upon the belt had been completed, and, noticing the boy, ordered him to get down from the ladder, to let the machinery alone, that he had no business up [111]*111there, and to go to his work of peeling logs. Lindquist got down, and went about the work which he was directed to perform. The belt was put in place, and within five minutes it again broke, and Whitsell proceeded to repair it again. When he commenced the lacing, there was no one upon the ladder.

We now quote from Whitsell’s testimony verbatim regarding what occurred:

When the accident happened, I had not got the belt laced together, had only taken two stitches, and there were four to be taken altogether. It was about half done. I know nothing about Linquist coming in and going up the ladder, neither saw nor heard him; and nothing was said to me by any one. I did not ask Linquist to go upon the ladder the last time to hold the belt. I didn’t need any help about doing the lacing. I could have done it myself. I did not need any one to hold the belt off the shafting. The first I knew of Linquist being there was the ladder broke and the belt flew out of my hands, and wrapped around him and the shafting. I then looked up, and he was whirling around the shafting. I ran at once, and shut off the machine. At the time I ran to shut off the machinery, there was no one else there in the room but Linquist and I. I had to go to the engine room some fifty or sixty feet to shut off the machinery. Then I came back, and ran through the other part of the room, and gave warning to Cy Louden, who was looking at him. When I knew something was wrong, that the ladder broke and the belt pulled out of my hand, and looked up and saw Linquist hanging, I couldn’t tell in what way he was hanging, because he was whirling around the shaft. I could tell after I got back and had. stopped the mar chine. He was hanging then facing the east. We thought his head was off when we first looked up there, but he was hanging by his arms, with his body on the west side of the shaft.

Prom the injuries received Linquist died the next day.

[112]*112i. master and voiunteer service: evidence. [111]*111Plaintiff claims that the boy’s clothing was in some manner caught by the set screw which held the collar on the [112]*112shaft against the boxing, and that he was wound around the shaft and enveloped by the belt, and thus re-eeived his injuries. There is some dispute , . . . _ . m the testimony or m the mierences to be derived therefrom regarding this matter, but, as we have said, we think there was enough to take the ease to the jury upon the question of defendant’s violation of the factory act to which we have referred being the proximate cause of the injury. The boy was not employed to work in the plaster mill, and the testimony shows he had never been in it prior to the day he received his injuries. His work was about the brick plant and primarily about the mixer, although his duties required him to oil some of the machinery in the brick plant before it started in the morning and at 1 o’clock in the afternoon.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
117 N.W. 46, 139 Iowa 107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lindquist-v-kings-crown-plaster-co-iowa-1908.