Sullivan v. Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad

88 Mo. 169
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 15, 1885
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 88 Mo. 169 (Sullivan v. Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sullivan v. Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, 88 Mo. 169 (Mo. 1885).

Opinions

Rat, J.

This is an action for damages, for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff, who is a carpenter, and who was engaged,- at the time, with other carpenters, under a foreman named Prather, in taking down an ice house for defendant, in Kansas City, Missouri. The pe. tition charges that, in order to take off the roof of said ice house, defendant furnished for plaintiff, and his fellow workmen, scaffolding which consisted of planks, placed upon tie beams. That said scaffolding was defective, insufficient and insecure, and improperly constructed ; that it was constructed of planks that were too [176]*176short, and that the plank rested on a tie beam, in which there was a large knot, which rendered it weak and unfit for the support, of the scaffold, and that, on account of such weakness, a part of said tie beam, upon one end of which said scaffold rested, fell down, leaving one end of the scaffold without support. That defendant knew of the defect in the beam, and of the unsafe and dangerous condition of the scaffold, and failed to provide against said defects, and failed to notify plaintiff of the same, but suffered him, while wholly unaware of danger, to step upon the scaffolding, which immediately gave way and precipitated him to the ground, etc. The answer was a general denial, and, also, a plea of contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff, which was denied generally in the plaintiff’s replication. The carpenters began the work of taking down the ice house about seven o’clock in the morning.of February 18, 1878. In the division of the work, it seems that the plaintiff and two of the others went on to the roof to saw the same in sections, while Prather and the rest went inside the building to fix the uprights and staying. During the forenoon, and about ten o’clock, something was heard to crack, and the foreman, Prather, who was then on the roof with Sullivan, after ascertaining the condition of the tie beam, had a section of the roof (the first one,, perhaps, that had been sawed out) let down and placed over it, so that the section lay over it as a scaffold. Plaintiff, as well as the others, assisted in letting down the section, and it remained there during the day, until all the other sections' that had been sawed out, except one or two, perhaps, had been taken down. While the carpenters were engaged, about three o’clock in the afternoon, in removing the said section which had been let down in the morning to cover the tie beam that had the knot hole, and had cracked, the plaintiff stepped onto a part of the defective beam, and was immediately thrown down and suffered severe [177]*177and permanent injuries. Such portions of the evidence as we deem material will be noticed hereafter.

As to the instructions given for the plaintiff, we may say that the second, which relates solely to the question whether Prather, the foreman, was a fellow servant or representative of the defendant; and the fourth, which relates to the measure of damages, are, in the view we have taken of the case, immaterial, and are, therefore, omitted. The first and third are as follows :

“1. The jury are instructed that if you believe» from the evidence, that in the ice house in question the tie beam ran from one side of the building to the other, and consisted of two pieces of timber, or lumber, which were spliced or beamed together at the middle of the building, and that defendant, in order to take off the roof of said house, furnished plaintiff and his fellow workmen scaffolding, which consisted of planks placed upon said tie beams, and that said scaffolding was defective, insufficient and insecure, and by being so constructed that the plank rested upon a tie beam in which was a large knot which rendered it weak, and which was not fitted for the support of a súaffold, and that by reason of said weakness a part of said tie beam, upon one end of which said scaffold rested, gave way and fell down, leaving one end of said scaffolding wholly without support and in a dangerous condition, and that the foreman of defendant knew of said tie beam being in such a weak and insecure position, and that he knew it had become cracked, broken and unsafe, and that he knew of all said facts for such a length of time before the happening of the injury in question, that he could have, by the exercise of ordinary care and prudence, remedied said defect, and thereby prevented the injury, then you can find for the plaintiff.”

“3. The jury are instructed that, while it is true [178]*178that if plaintiff was aware of the defect in the scaffolding in question, and that said defect was so glaringly ■defective that a man of common prudence, or common ■■sense, would not have gone upon the same, then he cannot recover; yet, you are further instructed that if plaintiff did not know of the dangerous character of said ■defect, and that the foreman, of defendant did know of it, and did make any statement in the hearing of plaintiff, to the effect that the defect in the tie beam was not unsafe or dangerous, and that plaintiff relied upon the same, then plaintiff was not guilty of such contributory •negligence as will preclude a recovery on part of plaintiff, providing you believe plaintiff was- directed by said foreman to do the work which obliged him to go upon .said scaffolding.”

It is not necessary, we think, to set out in this case defendant’s instructions, given or refused. The plaintiff-had a verdict.for seven thousand dollars upon which judgment was duly entered, and defendant appealed the cause to this court.

It will be observed that the condition of the tie beam and scaffolding, whether the same were weak and broken, defective, insecure and dangerous, and, also, the knowledge of the foreman in relation thereto, are all properly submitted to the jury in the first instruction, and there was ample evidence showing, or tending to show, the facts thus submitted, but-the contributory negligence of plaintiff, which was set up in the answer, and his -knowledge, if any, of the defective and dangerous condition of the tie beam and scaffold, which was within the issues made, as to whether or not he ‘ ‘ stepped on the tie beam wholly unaware of danger,” and entirely ignored by this instruction, and a verdict authorized for plaintiff without regard thereto. Upon the trial, the plaintiff testified, on cross-examination, among other things, as follows :

[179]*179Q. “ There were planks laid along there on the tie beams?” A. “I don’t know. I stopped right there; that is, over this broken tie beam.” Q. “You did not know what it was that was broken; - when did the foreman tell you this?” A. “Before it broke. He said there is a knot there, but he thought it was safe.” Q. “ He told you before this fall that it was broke, but 1 e thought it was safe?” A. “Yes sir.” Q. “You heard this before you went on it, did you ? ” A. “Yes, sir.” * * * Q. “ How long before the fall did you hear him say this about this knot-hole?” A. “Some four hours before.that. That was the first section we took down.” Q. “How came it you laid this section down and left it and took down the others first?” A. “ The foreman told us something cracked about ten o’clock. The foreman went down and satisfied himself that something was unsafe. He said some of the men «aid it had to be repaired. He said to let down that section ■of roof and make a staging of it.” * * * Q. “Now I want to ask you if the foreman did not state that he let the staging down there to cover the defect, to keep from getting on this defect? ” A. “ He went down and saw this, and we did not know the extent of the break.

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