Nordin v. Lovegren Lumber Co.

156 P. 587, 80 Or. 140, 1916 Ore. LEXIS 34
Oregon Supreme Court·Decided April 11, 1916·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

Mr. Justice McBride

delivered the opinion of the court.

1-3. It appears that it was plaintiff’s duty to snipe the logs upon the under side; “sniping” being nosing [143] off or beveling tbe end of a log so that there would be less friction and resistance as it was being hauled. There were two snipers; the duty of one being to snipe the upper half of the log as it lay upon the ground where it had fallen, and of the other, the plaintiff in this instance, to wait until the log was drawn out a short distance and turned over by means of the cable, and thereafter to snipe the side which had been next to the ground as the log lay originally. Two cuts or sawlogs had been made from one tree. The larger of these, the butt cut, had been already sniped as it had fallen, and while it was being taken out plaintiff was engaged in sniping another log about 85 feet distant, and not in view of the log that was being taken out. There was no swamper employed by the defendant; a swamper being a man whose duty it is to cut away brush and logs which have a tendency to obstruct the progress of a log which is being hauled out, thereby rendering the operation of hauling easier as well as safer. On the contrary, the logs were dragged out without regard to obstructions from logs or small trees in the vicinity. When the first log was hauled out, the front end of it near where the cable was attached necessarily struck against a small fir tree, and as,- a result of this impact the rear end slued around with such force that it was thrown against a clump of vine maple trees from 20 to 30 feet in height, bending them suddenly to the ground. The trees, being of a tough, springy nature, sprang back to their original position, as soon as the log was removed, and there appears to have been nothing left to indicate to a person who had not witnessed the circumstance that there was any danger likely to result from standing in their vicinity. With the exception of plaintiff, every member of the crew, including Hedin, in fact saw the collision of the [144] first log -with the small fir tree and its rehound against the vine maple, and were thereby warned of the unsafety of standing near the maples when a log was being hauled out. When plaintiff had finished his work on the log he had been sniping, and after the first log above mentioned had been hauled out, he came up to the vicinity of the second log in order to be ready to snipe it upon the under side as soon as it should be drawn from its bed and turned over for that purpose, and, in ignorance of the fact that the first log had collided with the fir tree and rebounded against the maples in such a way as to make them a menace to anyone standing near them, he stood in such a position that they were between him and the log that was to be hauled out. Nobody warned him, and it is not shown that anybody noticed him before the accident. There is evidence tending to show that the acting foreman was walking up the track made by the previous log, and was in such a position that he could have seen him, but he states that he did not, and did not know that plaintiff was in the vicinity. The second log was made fast to the cable and the engine started at full speed. When the log came in contact with the small fir tree which had caused the farther end of the first log to slue around and strike the vine maples, the result was the same as before, and one of the trees was bent or whipped down with such force that it struck plaintiff upon the head, inflicting injuries from the effect of which he was rendered incapable of speech, is paralyzed on one side, and will be practically helpless for life. In all this testimony we find nothing to justify any instruction as to contributory negligence or assumption of risk. The nature of plaintiff’s duties required him to be where he was or in that immediate vicinity ready to snipe the log without delay the min[145] ute it was drawn ont and turned over. He was ignorant of the fact that the impact of the first log with the fir tree had caused it to strike against the maples, while the foreman knew that fact and knew that plaintiff was employed at that time at another place. The risk was not so open and obvious that he can be said to have assumed it. It was a risk which, while known to the foreman in immediate charge of the work, was unknown to plaintiff, and a risk which the employment of a swamper, or in the absence of a regular swamper one of the other hands under the direction of the foreman, could have obviated. It requires no argument to demonstrate the fact that the work of getting out sawlogs by means of an engine and cables is a work involving risk and danger of injury to the employees, and the manner in which the- work was conducted in defendant’s logging camp without any previous swamping. or removal of obstructions rendered it doubly dangerous.

4. It was for the jury to say whether the failure of the defendant to remove the fir tree which was the original obstruction which caused the log to swing around, or the failure to remove the maples which were the immediate agents producing the injury, were either or both the neglect of such precautions as would have been proper under the circumstances.

5. The question as to whether there was a negligent failure to warn plaintiff was also a proper matter for their consideration, and there was no ground for a nonsuit. The case is similar in many respects to Blair v. Western Cedar Co., 75 Or. 276 (146 Pac. 480), and, as the opinion in that case answers many of the contentions urged here, they need not be further considered. In addition to that ease the following cases may be cited as indicating that injuries occurring under [146] circumstances similar to the case at bar properly come within the purview of the Employers’ Liability Act: Wolsiffer v. Bechill, 76 Or. 516, 146 Pac. 516; Bridal Veil Lumber Co. v. Pacific Coast Casualty Co., 75 Or. 57 (145 Pac. 671); Lang v. Camden Iron Works, 77 Or. 137 (146 Pac. 968); Yovovich v. Falls City Lbr. Co., 76 Or. 585 (149 Pac. 941); Wheeler v. Nehalem Timber Co., 79 Or. 506 (155 Pac. 1188). To sum up the evidence upon this branch of the case it may be said that there was no evidence of contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff and no evidence of any assumption of risk.

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Nordin v. Lovegren Lumber Co., 156 P. 587, 80 Or. 140, 1916 Ore. LEXIS 34 (Or. 1916).

156 P. 587 (Nordin v. Lovegren Lumber Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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