Sanders v. Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Co.

171 N.W. 523, 205 Mich. 339, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 491
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedApril 3, 1919
DocketDocket No. 19
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 171 N.W. 523 (Sanders v. Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sanders v. Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Co., 171 N.W. 523, 205 Mich. 339, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 491 (Mich. 1919).

Opinion

Stone, J.

The plaintiff, as administratrix of the estate of her deceased husband, • Hiram E. Sanders, brings this action under the survival act of the State of Kansas, to recover damages for the injury and resulting death of her decedent caused by. the collapse of a- derrick or scaffolding on which he was working at the time, which was being used in constructing a tile silo, for one J. W. Tron, on June 3, 1915, in Mitchell county, State of Kansas. Mr. Tron, a contractor, had purchased the derrick directly from the manufacturer, the defendant company. Mr. Sanders died eleven hours after the injury, and as a result thereof. He was a mason by. trade, was a strong, able-bodied, intelligent and industrious man, 52 years of age, and had followed his trade for about 15- years and had earned from $800 to $1,000 a year.

The derrick in question had a center pole made of one 20-foot piece of 4-inch gas pipe, and some 10-foot sections, and at the time of the accident the center pole was about 50 feet high which was held in a vertical position by four guy cables. Around the vertical pole were two collars held at a fixed distance from each other, by three rods with screw thread and nut adjustment. On each of these collars were 12 wings or flanges. To the flanges on the upper collar were bolted 12 pieces of angle iron, which were to form the joists.of the derrick, and upon which the plank of the [341]*341platform was to be laid. These 12 joists radiated from the center collar to the circumference of- the silo (which was round) and were supported in a horizontal position by 12 other pieces of angle iron, which extended from a point near the end of each joist to the lower collar, to which they were bolted. These latter braces — or struts, as they were technically called— are shown by members numbered 6 and 7 on exhibit “D,” hereto attached. Both the joists and struts were

two-piece members, arranged with' bolts and symmetrical holes so that the length of the member could be increased, or diminished to fit varying sizes of silos. [342]*342The whole contrivance was arranged to be raised on the vertical upright by means of a pulley and tackle, as the work on the silo wall advanced. To hold the derrick in a vertical position while a new section of the upright pole was being put in place, and the guy wires were consequently loosened, and also to help support the platform as the work of building the silo progressed, four shoe arms extended from the lower collar, as shown in exhibit “D,” to the inside walls of the silo, where the arms terminated in large plank shoes held in position against the silo wall by small chains, which were attached to the ends of the joists above. This is a brief description of the so-called “Kalamazoo Erecting Derrick” shown in the exhibits in the record, upon which plaintiff’s decedent and his son Lester E. Sanders were working on the morning of June 3, 1915, when suddenly two or three of the struts “buckled.,”' and allowed the horizontal joists to fall, precipitating the two men to the bottom of the silo, a distance of about 35 feet — resulting as above stated.

Of the 150 derricks which the defendant had manufactured and sold, at the time of the trial, the derrick in question was the only one about which there had been any complaint relating to the parts breaking or giving away.

Mr. Tron had purchased the derrick from the defendant’s agent at Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Tron had the contract for building the silo. In setting up the derrick his directions were followed. He had before him printed directions, and the assembling diagram exhibit “B.” The deceased read the instructions and he and his son assisted in assembling and erecting the derrick, after the foundation had been constructed, and the instructions and cut were referred to while the derrick was being erected. Upon this subject Mr. Tron, a witness for the plaintiff, testified:

[343]*343“Mr. Sanders and I had this tally sheet and assembling diagram between us. I examined it and read it over. . I understand that No. 12 in the diagram was the lower collar of the derrick as erected, and I also understand that No. 7 constituted the lower part of one of the braces that was to be fastened to No. 12. I did not understand that No. 8 in this exhibit was to be bolted to No. 9 and was then to be bolted to the collar marked No. 12. The bolts were too short to bolt these two pieces together. From the diagram it looked as though No. 8 was bolted on the collar and No. 7 onto brace No. 8. It looked that way on the diagram at the time we were putting up the derrick, but it could not be done that way. I did not put it on that way because I could not. The outer end of No. 8 was attached to No. 9, and that was attached to the shoe on the inside of the silo. As a matter of fact, instead of fastening it to the collar, as the direction showed, I fastened it up here at this point on the brace about 18 inches from the collar, about that far away from where the tally sheet, and the assembling diagram showed they should be fastened. At that time I knew that No. 8 was to be fastened to No. 9, and that there was a shoe on the end of No. 9 which was supposed to be slipped up tight against the inside of the silo wall for the purpose of furnishing support for the center pole. After we got the derrick assembled, there were four or five extra pieces of angle iron, in addition to those used.
“When the derrick was shipped to me, I was short eight pieces of angle iron, and I telephoned Kansas City, to the company’s agent, and he finally shipped me some others, and he shipped me more than was needed, and for this reason there were four or five pieces left.
“It was impossible for me to attach the shoe rod to the lower collar as directed in exhibit ‘D’ because the bolts were too short to fasten the two pieces of iron to those wings on the collar. There were twelve of these wiags on the collar, and there were twelve braces to go to them, so there were no wings left for these shoe rods. They had to be bolted through the braces to the wings and the bolts were not long enough. All of the bolts furnished were of the same length, [344]*344just long enough to bolt two pieces together. I did not know it was necessary to undertake to get any larger bolts to bolt No. 8 .to the collar. I didn’t attempt to get any. Larger bolts than I had, would have enabled me to bolt them tog-ether at that point' and carried out the directions. Instead of that I took the shorter bolts and bolted it 18 inches up the braces. It would have only taken a bolt about an eighth of an inch longer.”

The purpose of the shoes spoken of was to keep the center pole from weaving back and forth; there was a tendency for it to weave back and forth when the derrick got up 25 or 30 feet from the ground. The shoes would reach out from the side and stop the weaving. These shoes, were kept against the sides of the silo except when moving the platform, and were used for tightening, and holding stiff the center pole. The derrick first showed signs of weakening when the deceased and his son got up to a point about 30 feet from the bottom of the pit; they then took some 2x6 timbers and braced them against the bottom of the pit, and angled them up against the center pole to help make the pole more rigid and stop the weaving to a certain extent.

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Bluebook (online)
171 N.W. 523, 205 Mich. 339, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 491, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanders-v-kalamazoo-tank-silo-co-mich-1919.