Southern Cotton Oil Co. v. Walker

51 So. 169, 164 Ala. 33, 1909 Ala. LEXIS 235
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedDecember 16, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 51 So. 169 (Southern Cotton Oil Co. v. Walker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Cotton Oil Co. v. Walker, 51 So. 169, 164 Ala. 33, 1909 Ala. LEXIS 235 (Ala. 1909).

Opinions

ANDERSON, J.

Count 1, as amended, is framed under subdivision 1 of tbe employer’s liability statute. —Section 3910 of the Code of 1907. While this count avers a defect in a flue connected with tbe linter, in addition to a defect in tbe machine in not being equipped with a reasonably sufficient appliance for properly raising tbe breast of said machine and bolding said breast up while said machine was being cleaned out, tbe proximate cause of tbe injury is ascribed in said count as resulting from tbe failure to have tbe machine equipped with tbe proper appliance for raising the breast and bolding it up when being cleaned out. Tbe defective flue is not alleged as tbe proximate cause, but tbe reference thereto is merely descriptive of conditions existing and which may have contributed indirectly to tbe injury. Tbe direct cause is alleged to be due to tbe kicking of tbe lever produced by tbe falling of the breast, and that tbe breast would fall because there was no sufficient appliance for raising and bolding it up while the machine was being cleaned or unchoked. Tbe trial court did not err in overruling the demurrers to this count.

Amended count 2 is also under subdivision 1 of tbe employer’s liability statute. Tbe injury is charged to have resulted from the kicking of tbe lever while plaintiff was pressing it, and which kicking owing to its defective condition, resulted either from tbe fact that it was sprung or that tbe nut to tbe bolt, passing through the binge Avhich attached tbe lever to tbe breast of tbe machine, produced a shoulder upon which lint Avould accumulate and wrap, and which would prevent said lever from bolding up after it was raised. Nor. do we think that tbe shoulder upon tbe bolt in tbe hinge was a foreign substance, and not, therefore, a part of tbe lever. Tbe count avers that tbe bolt Avas in [48]*48the hinge which attached the lever to the breast, and the bolt and hinge, therefore, -became on inherent part of the lever. The second count, as amended, was not subject to the demurrers, which were properly overruled.

The injury, as charged in count 21, resulted from the moving, jumping, or kicking of the lever while plaintiff was pressing it, and which did so as a result of its being insufficient to hold up the breast at all times, and when pressed, on' the occasion in question, it jumped or kicked, thereby causing the injury. The trial court did not err in overruling the demurrers to this count.

The trial court did not err in sustaining the demurrers to pleas 2 and 3. — Ala. Chemical Co. v. Niles, 156 Ala. 298, 47 South. 239.

Plea 5 was defective, and the demurrer thereto was properly sustained. If not otherwise bad, it fails to aver that using a stick was the proper, or only safe, or the safer, way to unchoke the machine.

Plea 7 was defective. If not otherwise bad, it fails to set out any facts showing that it was negligent for the plaintiff to have worn a coat at the time. It does not aver that it was obviously or necessarily dangerous to wear a coat at the time, or that the only safe way was without a coat.

A plea of contributory negligence should set out the facts constituting the negligence. Plea 8 was therefore had for failing to set out the constituents of negligence. It was not necessarily negligence on the part of the plaintiff, to attempt to relieve the linter of its choked •condition while the machine was in motion. It is not averred that it was obviously dangerous to do so, nor are any other facts set out showing that it was negligence to so unchoke the linter while the machine was [49]*49moving. — Creola Co. v. Mills, 149 Ala. 483, 42 South. 1019.

' Plea 9 was had. The fact that plaintiff failed to stop the machine before uncholdng it was not per se negligence, and the plea fails to aver that it was his duty to stop it, or that the only proper and safe way was to stop it, before uncholdng the same. The general averment that he negligently unchoked it while running does not suffice.

Plea 20 may be good as per the interpretation given the plea in the case of Going v. Steel & Wire Co., 141 Ala. 537, 3 South. 784; but as so construed it is,' in effect, the same as plea ll, under which the defendant got the benefit of said plea 20.

The true doctrine as to the assumption of risk has been often declared by this court, and we quote from the case of Gainer v. So. R. R., 152 Ala. 191, 44 South. 652, 654: “The doctrine of ‘volenti non fit injuria’ applies under the employer’s liability act, and where an employe, knowing and appreciating the danger and risk, elects voluntarily to encounter them, and is injured, he cannot maintain an action to recover damages for the injury sustained. But if the employer undertakes, expressly or impliedly, to remedy the defect and remove the danger within a reasonable time, such an undertaking or assurance is an assumption by the employer of the risk incident to the duties of the employment during such reasonable time, and if the employe is injured in the meantime, by reason of the risk and danger thus assumed by the employer, the latter will be responsible for the injury. If the employe remains in the service, •and continues to encounter voluntarily and with a knowledge and appreciation of the risk, without such assurance, or after the time within which the defect should have been remedied and the danger removed, ae[50]*50cording to such undertaking or assurance, tbe risk becomes his own. An examination of all our cases will show that, in order to place the risk, after notice, on the employer, there must be shown a promise, either express or implied, to remedy the defect. — Eureka, Co. v. Bass. 81 Ala. 200, 8 South. 216, 60 Am. Rep. 152; L. & N. R. R. Co. v. Stutts, 105 Ala. 368, 17 South. 29, 53 Am. St. Rep. 127; Bridges’ Admr. v. T. C. I. & R. Co.,. 109 Ala. 287, 19 South. 495; Patnode v. Harter, 20 Nev. 303, 21 Pac. 679.”

As long as the period is running which is conceived to be covered by the promise, the defense of an assumption of the given risk cannot be relied upon by the master. — 1 Labatt, Employer’s Liability, § 425. Again, this author, in discussing the period covered by the promise, in section 429, says: “The circumstances accompanying the promise are sometimes of such a nature as to-show that the servant was placed under a peremptory and immediate obligation to discard the defective instrmkentalitv altogether, or to discontinue its use until it should be restored to a normally safe condition. But in the great majority of the instances the mere fact of giving the promise necessarily implies that the servant is expected to go on working. Sometimes the promise is given in words which obligate the master to bring about a restoration of normally safe conditions within a definite time. Under such circumstances it is presumably the duty of the servant to determine,.immediately after the giving of the promise, whether he will incur a risk which he may possibly have to endure for the entire specified period. More usually, however, the time at which the promise is to be fulfilled is not expressly mentioned. The legal effect of the promise is then considered to be that normally sáfe conditions will be restored in a reasonable time.”

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Bluebook (online)
51 So. 169, 164 Ala. 33, 1909 Ala. LEXIS 235, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-cotton-oil-co-v-walker-ala-1909.