McElroy v. Swenson Construction Co.

247 S.W. 209, 213 Mo. App. 160, 1923 Mo. App. LEXIS 15
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 8, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 247 S.W. 209 (McElroy v. Swenson Construction Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McElroy v. Swenson Construction Co., 247 S.W. 209, 213 Mo. App. 160, 1923 Mo. App. LEXIS 15 (Mo. Ct. App. 1923).

Opinion

BLAND, J.

This is an action for damages for personal injuries. Plaintiff recovered a verdict and judgment in the sum of $6,000 and defendant has appealed. Defendant urges that its instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence should have been given.

The facts stated in their most favorable light to plaintiff show that on or about the 4th day of October, 1918, and for sometime prior thereto, plaintiff was work *163 ing for the defendant wrapping wire around steel columns for reinforcing concrete to be poured later, when a heavy piece of iron known as an angle-iron fell seven stories from above striking him on his left shoulder breaking his collar bone in several places. The Bell telephone company was erecting a building at 11th and Oak Streets in Kansas City, Missouri. The building covered an area of 150 by 200 feet. The steel frame work had been set in place to the eleventh floor. Christopher and Simpson Iron Works Company had the steel contract and the employees of said company on the day in question were engaged in riveting the steel girders on the 9th floor of the building. The entire 10th floor at the time of plaintiff’s injury was planked over and on this planking rested a derrick which was being used for raising steel to be'Cet above the 10th floor and to bring up other materials. There was no planking on the 9th floor except such as was necessary to afford scaffolding for the riveters. The 8th floor was entirely planked over except for a space of about twenty-five feet square known as a panel. There was no planking on the 7th floor. The 6th floor had been planked over but this planking had been removed to the 10th floor except for the space immediately below the panel on the 8th floor,

The rivets being used weighed from two ounces to one and a-half pounds. They were heated on the 8th floor and thrown to the 9th floor where the riveters would use them to bolt together the beams and girders. The riveting was completed by the battering down by a riveting machine of the end of a rivet opposite its head. Before riveting the riveters would take off the angle-iron that fastened the beam and the column of the steel that had been put in place and put it on a near-by beam. At the time in question one of these angle-irons, weighing twenty or thirty pounds, was taken off and placed upon a beam and the process of riveting started. The vibration of the riveting machine jarred the angle-iron off the beam. On its way down the angle-iron struck *164 a cable, went through the panel on the 8th floor, struck the boards immediately below on the 6th floor, bounced off, continued uninterruptedly down to the second floor where plaintiff was working and struck him as above described.

There was an ordinance pleaded providing that the contractor for the steel work and the owner of the building should “thoroughly plank over the entire tier of iron or steel beams on which the structure of iron or steel-work is being erected except such spaces as may be reasonably required for the proper construction of such iron and steel work and for the raising or lowering of materials to be used in the construction of such buildings or such spaces as may be designated by the plans and specifications for stairways and elevator'shafts.”

The testimony shows that these panels in the floors were left open for the purpose of hoisting various materials and tools from a lower floor to a higher one and while there is testimony in the record that the open panel on the 8th floor was left open for the purpose of taking-up the board and materials thereon, consisting largely of tools, to the 6th floor, the evidence further shows that instead of taking up the board and material that was left, Christopher and Simpson, on account of steel being-delivered on the ground, “went overboard” and started with the derrick to raise steel to be put in place above the 10th floor. So the panel remained open about a week which caused complaint to be made by the employees of Christopher and Simpson Iron Works Company. Plaintiff had been working on the job about a month. He started with the basement and had got as far as the second floor where he was doing the wrapping,. He knew that the riveters were working above him; he could see them working when he went to work. He testified that he did not kno-w that there were any holes in the planking above him; that he looked up and saw no daylight. He testified that Ms foreman told him to do the particular work at the particular place where he was *165 doing it at the time he was hurt. There was no connection between defendant and the Christopher and Simpson Iron Works Company.

The cause of action stated in the petition which was submitted to the jury, alleges that the defendant carelessly and negligently ordered and directed plaintiff to work on the second floor of the building while the panel above.was open on the 8th floor and the steel riveting gang was working on the 9th floor; that the defendant knew, or could have known by the exercise of ordinary care, “that a piece of iron might and would fall from” the 9th floor through said open panel and strike plaintiff.

Defendant insists that its demurrer to the evidence should have been sustained for the reason that there was no negligence of the defendant shown; that the ordinance permitted the panel to be left open for the raising and lowering of materials used in the construction of the building; that there was no obligation on the part of defendant to put any planks or flooring in place in the building; that the angle-iron was not caused to fall by any person connected with the defendant; that there is no evidence that defendant had any knowledge with reference to the handling of this angle-iron or the condition of the flooring; that there is no evidence tending to show that defendant could have anticipated that the servants of Christopher and Simpson would let this angle-iron fall so it would strike a cable and be deflected and go down through an opening in the 8th floor and bounce off. and go down through the other floors and finally strike plaintiff who happened to be at the particular place the iron struck when the building was 150 x 200 feet in area,.

We think there is no merit in these contentions. We think there is no question but that the panel was negligently left open by Christopher and Simpson and that by the exercise of ordinary care defendant could have discovered the situation before it ordered plaintiff to work at the place where he was struck. The presence *166 of this opening with men working with rivets, angle-irons and other materials above and throwing heated rivets to each other, and the fact that the riveting gang was placing angle-irons upon beams and that they would likely fall off by reason of the vibration that was caused by the riveting, all could have been known to defendant by the exercise of ordinary care. It was not necessary to show that defendant could have foreseen everything that intervened to cause the angle-iron to fall in the way it did. All that was necessary to show was that defendant could have reasonably anticipated that something might have occurred causing material to fall through the open panel in such a way thát it would likely strike its workmen beneath. [Mummaw v. S. W. Tel. & Tel. Co., 208 S. W. 476; Wright v. K. C. Terminal Ry. Co., 195 Mo. App. 480.]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
247 S.W. 209, 213 Mo. App. 160, 1923 Mo. App. LEXIS 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcelroy-v-swenson-construction-co-moctapp-1923.