Midland Steel Co. v. Daugherty

59 N.E. 486, 26 Ind. App. 272, 1901 Ind. App. LEXIS 253
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided February 19, 1901·No. No. 3,360·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

Robinson, J.

Upon the first appeal in this case the judgment of the trial court was reversed because of error in sustaining a motion in arrest of judgment. Daugherty v. Midland Steel Co., 23 Ind. App. 78. The motion in arrest was then overruled, and judgment rendered on the general verdict in appellee’s favor. Erom that judg[273] meat this appeal is prosecuted, and the only question discussed is that the court erred in overruling appellant’s motion for judgment on the jury’s answers to interrogatories.

The jury answered that appellee is thirty-one years old; on October 10, 1895, he had been working for about three months in appellant’s open hearth department; in connection with the furnaces were used two pits in which were placed moulds weighing about 2,000 pounds, and in which were cast ingots or billets of steel about four feet long and of different thicknesses, and weighing 1,000 to 2,400 pounds; for the purpose of lifting the moulds and ingots from the pit,.the company used a hydraulic crane, consisting of an upright cylinder in which was a piston to which was attached a horizontal beam about twenty feet long, so constructed as to be given a rotary motion covering the whole area of the pit; this beam carried a trolley running upon wheels, and on the underside of the trolley were four heavy metal chains, on the lower end of which were hooks for attaching objects to be moved; by forcing water into the cylinder, the piston and beam were raised, and objects attached to the chains could be swung around to any desired place within sweep of the beam; the water was turned in and shut off by means of levers. Just before appellee was injured, ingots, to which he assisted in attaching the chains, were raised from the pit and swung around to be let down, when a hook of one of the chains caught to one of the ingots. The man in charge of the beam then caused it to move to loose the chain. At this time the trolley was standing out further toward the end of the beam than opposite the place where the chain was fast, and when the beam was moved up this caused the trolley to start suddenly toward the upright part of the crane, the chain came loose, and the four chains swung violently toward appellee, one of them striking him. Appellee was standing between where the trolley then was and the upright part of the crane, [274] remained there until after the chain was loosed and a fellow workman called to him, saw the crane pull the fastened chain without making any effort to get out of reach of the chain when the crane started until the chain parted from the ingot. In the pit where appellee worked, and plainly visible, there had been quantities of scrap, dirt, sand, clay, brick, and steel billets, for six days or more, and on account of these there was not room safely to work on the side of the pit, and had they not been there he would have had more room; there were billets or ingots lying on top of the dirt, sand, etc., which was not the proper place for them, and it was while removing these billets that appellee was hurt; the place where appellee worked was sufficiently lighted. The crane was out of repair because of leaking valves, the water valves on the hydraulic pumps were worn, untrue, and out of repair, did not fit tight in their seats, causing the pump to leak badly; these defects caused the crane to move irregularly; the leakage lessened the power by which the crane was operated and made it more difficult to control; it was more difficult to manage and more dangerous because of its moving irregularly, and because “the force had to be applied more suddenly, the crane was harder to start, and when started could not be readily stopped”, the diminution of the power which operated the crane made it more difficult to stop it because of force thrown on suddenly, and the diminution of the power operating the crane affected the control and starting and stopping the same when there was no load “by jerking the chain loose from the ingot.” The water that raised the beam passed in at the bottom, and the leakage lessened the pressure, and jerks, or sudden and uncontrollable motions, were imparted to’ the crane “by opening wide the valves and suddenly applying all the available pressure”; the crane was rendered uncontrollable, “on account of being suddenly started it is not so easily stopped”; the motion of the crane which released the chain that struck appellee was an upward motion; the [275] catching of the hook on the ingot, the raising of the crane to loose the hook, the release of 'the hook, and the sudden motion of the trolley and the consequent swinging of the chain to and against appellee was the proximate cause of his injury; the movement of the crane to get the chain loose and the jerking loose of the chain was the cause of appellee’s injury; it was the duty of the ingot gang to keep the space about the casting pits clear; it would take from fifteen to thirty minutes to put on new valves which appellant kept ready for use; after, the hook broke loose from the ingot there was not time and no effort was made to stop the motion before the chain struck appellee; the backward motion of the trolley on the beam toward the upright part of the crane was caused from the fact that the trolley was further from the upright part than was the chain where it was fast to the ingot, and then the chain tightened by raising the beam; it was a very short time after the crane started to release the hook before appellee was struck; after the trolley started back the stopping of the beam would not have stopped the motion of the trolley; there was no communication of power to the trolley from hydraulic pressure; the crane could not be promptly stopped by the party in charge of it. Appellee informed the superintendent that the crane was out of repair, and asked him when he would repair it, and the superintendent said he would have it repaired in four or five days. Such answers as call for conclusions and such as are conflicting with each other need not be further noticed.

It is unnecessary to refer to the numerous cases declaring the rules to be applied in determining whether a motion for judgment upon the answers to interrogatories should be sustained. The general verdict finds the material facts averred to be true, and all reasonable presumptions and intendments must be indulged in its favor. The specific facts found in answers tó interrogatories must stand without any presumptions in their favor. To control, they must not only [276] be inconsistent with, the general verdict, but must be consistent with each other. And in determining whether there is such a conflict that the special answers will control, all the specific facts found must be construed with any other facts that might have been proved under the issues.

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Midland Steel Co. v. Daugherty, 59 N.E. 486, 26 Ind. App. 272, 1901 Ind. App. LEXIS 253 (Ind. Ct. App. 1901).

59 N.E. 486 (Midland Steel Co. v. Daugherty) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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