Poinsett Lumber & Manufacturing Co. v. Longino

213 S.W. 15, 139 Ark. 69, 1919 Ark. LEXIS 351
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 26, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 213 S.W. 15 (Poinsett Lumber & Manufacturing Co. v. Longino) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Poinsett Lumber & Manufacturing Co. v. Longino, 213 S.W. 15, 139 Ark. 69, 1919 Ark. LEXIS 351 (Ark. 1919).

Opinion

SMITH, J.

An instruction numbered 1 given by the court below states the issues of fact out of which this litigation arises, and we copy it as constituting in part a statement of the facts:

“1. In this case the plaintiff, Tom Longino, as administrator of the estate of Don Longino, deceased, sues the defendant, Poinsett Lumber & Manufacturing Company, to recover damages, and alleges that in connection with the operation of defendant’s business in the town of Trumann, it has a series of tanks so constructed as to hold boiling water, and that said tanks are enclosed by movable covers over the same, said covers being so constructed that they may 'be raised or lowered by means of weights; that said tanks are at all times kept closed by said covers except when the employees of the defendant company are engaged in placing timber in them to be steamed, or taldng timbers from them before being manufactured. Plaintiff alleges that on the 14th day of December, 1916, his intestate, Don Longino, was in the employ of the defendant company, and while in the discharge of his duty, and without fault upon his part, and under the direction of the person in authority and control, was required to go to a place at or near the end of said row of tanks and in undertaking to perform said duty fell into one of said tanks containing boiling water and as a result thereof was injured, from which injuries he died on the 4th day of March, 1917; that said injury was the result of the carelessness and negligence of the agents, servants and employees of said defendant in failing to keep the door of the tank into which deceased fell, closed, and in carelessly and negligently allowing the same to remain open; that the conditions of the-door of said tank was unknown to said deceased and could not have been known to him in the exercise of ordinary care for his own safety.”

We adopt the designations employed in the instruction set out and will refer to the injured servant as the deceased and to the corporation by which he was employed as the defendant. The injury of deceased, and his death as a result of his injuries, is admitted, but the defendant denies that it was guilty of any negligence, and alleged that the danger of falling into the tank was obvious and was a risk assumed by the deceased, and that deceased fell into the tank as a result of his own carelessness or of some accident for which it is not responsible. Complaint is made of certain instructions given by the court over defendant’s objection. And it is also insisted that no case was made for submission to the jury. And, in addition to these defenses, it is insisted that the court erroneously excluded certain testimony relating to the mental capacity of deceased at the time he executed a release to the defendant, which was offered in evidence.

Deceased was a man of intelligence, thirty-two years old, and, according to the testimony offered on behalf of his administrator, had begun work on the day preceding his injury about noon and was injured about 6:40 a. m. the next day. There were twenty-six of these tanks, and in obedience to the order of his foreman deceased went to the opposite end of the row of tanks to deliver an order and in returning fell into one of the tanks by reason of the door having been left open by some employee other than deceased. The steam arising from the tanks with the fog which it formed, combined with the lack of light at that hour of the day, rendered it impossible for him to see the open tank and thus avoid the injury. Deceased’s screams attracted the attention of one Wood, his fellow servant, who pulled deceased from the tank of boiling water, and as he did so deceased asked who had left the door of the tank open. Deceased and Wood were designated as hookers, it being their business to fasten the hooks into the blocks, that were being manufactured, for the purpose of drawing them out of the tanks. On the part of the defendant the testimony was to the effect that it was the duty of deceased and Wood to open and close the doors of the tanks on which they were working, and that only one tank was supposed to be open at a time, and that if for any reason any other door was open it was their duty to close it. That the order to this effect was given, not only to keep the water boiling hot, but to prevent employees from falling into the tanks.

The court gave a very elaborate charge, and the instructions told the jury that no recovery could be had if it was the duty of deceased to close the door of the tank into which he fell, unless the door had been left open by some employee of defendant other than deceased and deceased did not know and in the exercise of ordinary care could not have known that the door had been left open. So that the case was submitted to the jury to determine whether or not deceased had left the door open and, if not, whether he was guilty of negligence in having failed to close it. And a recovery would also have been denied under the instructions given if deceased had been guilty of negligence in falling into the tank, although he did not leave it open and was not guilty of negligence in failing to see that it was closed. These were the questions of fact which have been resolved against defendant, by the verdict of the jury.

The circumstances stated made a question for the jury whether deceased was guilty of contributory negligence ; and likewise supported the finding, which the jury must have made, that the injury was not the result of one. of the assumed risks of the service.

It is very earnestly insisted that no recovery should be had because the injury had resulted from the deceased’s violation of a rule or order promulgated for his own protection and that of other employees, in that he did not see that the door of the tank not at the time in use was closed. But the jury was told that if it appeared from the evidence that it was the duty of the deceased to close the door of the tank into which he fell, and that he failed to do so, then there would be no liability on the part of the defendant for the injury sustained. The court properly refused to tell the jury that there could be no recovery if Wood, or some other employee, left the door open, because an instruction to that effect would have imposed upon deceased the assumption of the risk resulting from the negligence of a fellow-servant, and employees of corporations have been relieved by statute from the assumption of that risk. The instructions did tell the jury that no recovery could be had if deceased was guilty of negligence in being ignorant of the fact that the door was open, and the defendant was not entitled to a more favorable declaration of the law.

There was testimony to the effect that it was the duty of deceased and his fellow-servant Wood to remain at the mill until 6 p.

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Bluebook (online)
213 S.W. 15, 139 Ark. 69, 1919 Ark. LEXIS 351, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/poinsett-lumber-manufacturing-co-v-longino-ark-1919.