Muska v. Economy Block Co.

101 N.W.2d 38, 9 Wis. 2d 369
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 2, 1960
StatusPublished

This text of 101 N.W.2d 38 (Muska v. Economy Block Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Muska v. Economy Block Co., 101 N.W.2d 38, 9 Wis. 2d 369 (Wis. 1960).

Opinion

Dieterich, J.

The sole issue presented on this appeal is whether any of the credible evidence in this case will sustain the jury’s finding of negligence on the part of the truck driver, employee of the Economy Block Company. No issue is raised as to the matter of damages.

On August 2, 1954, about 1:30 or 2 p. m., Herbert Muska suffered a back injury while engaged in lifting and pushing a concrete lintel from a delivery truck onto the second-floor deck of a partially completed commercial building located at North Seventy-Second and West Burleigh streets in the city of Milwaukee. He was employed as a mason by Acme Construction Company, one of the contractors engaged in erecting the building.

A lintel is a rectangular block of solid concrete used in connection with windows and doorways to support surrounding brickwork. The particular lintel was 10 feet in length, eight inches high by four inches wide, and weighed between 300 and 400 pounds. This lintel along with several others had been delivered to this jobsite by a truck driver for appellant, Economy Block Company. The truck was backed in a southerly direction to the building. The lintels were piled lengthwise on the floor of the truck with the tail gate extended, and were piled with the eight-inch side vertical and the four-inch side horizontal. The truck box was about eight feet in length and the tail gate extended another 20 inches.

The truck platform was 18 to 20 inches from the ground level and was backed up almost even with the north edge of a scaffold abutting the north side of the building. The scaffold rings were five feet high and five feet wide and have three 12-inch planks laid horizontally on them.

Herbert Muska and the truck driver commenced to lift the south end of the first lintel, each standing on the opposite sides and facing each other, the eight-inch side of the lintel being in a vertical position. They proceeded to lift and slide [371]*371the south end of the lintel off the truck until it rested on the edge of the scaffold which was about three and one-half feet higher than the truck platform. The north end of the lintel remained on the truck platform.

Then they climbed onto the scaffold and again grabbed hold of the south end of the lintel in the same fashion and slid the lintel southward and upward until about one foot of the south end rested on the edge of the second-floor deck, the north end still resting on the truck platform. The north edge of the second-floor deck was about eight feet from the truck platform. Muska and the driver then proceeded to climb down and return to the truck platform for the purpose of lifting the north end of the lintel and pushing or sliding it up to the second-floor deck. Muska is five feet, nine inches tall and the driver is about six feet tall. Each grabbed the north end of the lintel on opposite sides, facing each other. Muska was standing directly on the truck platform, whereas the driver was standing on top of other lintels and his feet were thus eight inches higher in elevation. Both men lifted the end upward, and Muska extended his arms fully in a vertical position. The driver, because of his height and the fact he was standing on eight-inch lintels, was about 11 inches higher than respondent and did not have his arms fully extended vertically. While in this position and in the process of sliding the lintel southward, the respondent was injured.

Testimony of Herbert Muska — direct.

“Q. Now, where were you standing when you were raising this lintel? A. I was standing on the truck platform where the lintel had been moved from. . . .
“Q. Were you being helped by anybody at that time? A. Yes, by the driver of the truck.
”Q. Where was he standing? A. He was standing on the opposite side of me, on top of the lintels that were left on the truck. . . .
[372]*372“Q. Then what did you do? A. We bent down and picked it up, and we had our arms stretched. I had my arms stretched full length, as high as they would go.
"Q. Where on the lintel were your hands? A. Near the back. I would say within about six inches of the back of the lintel or the bottom of the lintel which was picked from the truck.
“Q. Where were his hands? A. He had one on one side of mine and one on the other side, if I recall right.
“Q. Now, will you describe this position again you told us you were in ? A. I had my arms stretched the full length what I could about my head.
“Q. . . . where was the south end of the lintel, the farthest end from you? A. That was resting on the second-story deck.
“Q. Was the very end resting on it or what part? A. No, I would say it had about a foot slant, something like that.
“Q. In other words, about a foot of the lintel was beyond the edge of the deck, is that right? A. Yes.
“Q. In relation to the deck of the second story, where was the end that was closest to you? A. I would say that was about a foot lower than what the deck would be.
“Q. All right, now, when you had this in this position, with your hands you said about six inches from the end. A. Yes.
“Q. The south end of the lintel a foot over the edge— beyond the edge of the platform. A. Yes.
“Q. And the other end about a foot — how far did you say, six inches to a foot ? A. I would say from six inches to a foot slant to it.
“Q. Lower than the edge. In that position, what happened? A. Somehow or other, he left go for a short period. In doing that, I weaved back, then I weaved ahead. Then he got his hold again on the lintel.
“Q. What do you mean it weaved? A. When he left go or something somehow, the full weight, it weaved me; it swayed me; I swayed back and swayed ahead, and he caught hold of it again.
"Q. You say the full weight of what? A. The lintel.
[373]*373“Q. Did you notice anything happen when that happened? A. Yes, it was just like if you took and ripped a newspaper in two is what it sounded like. I had pain right away, but I didn’t think too much of it.
“Q. Where was the pain? A. Just below the belt line in my back.
“Q. Will you describe this pain, the intensity, what kind of pain was it ? A. It wasn’t — I wouldn’t say a sharp pain, but it was a pain. It weakened me, and I’m weakened right now from it.
“Q. What did you do then ? A. We worked that lintel onto the deck.
“Q. How? A. By sliding it.
"Q. ■ . . When you say you were sliding it, were just the two of you sliding it at that point? A.

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Bluebook (online)
101 N.W.2d 38, 9 Wis. 2d 369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/muska-v-economy-block-co-wis-1960.