Temple Cotton Oil Co. v. Skinner

2 S.W.2d 676, 176 Ark. 17, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 671
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 30, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 2 S.W.2d 676 (Temple Cotton Oil Co. v. Skinner) 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
Temple Cotton Oil Co. v. Skinner, 2 S.W.2d 676, 176 Ark. 17, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 671 (Ark. 1928).

Opinion

Hart, C. J.,

(after stating the facts). It is first earnestly insisted that the court erred in not directing a verdict for the defendant. In making this contention, counsel claim, that the court should have told the jury as a matter of law, under the evidence introduced, that the plaintiff assumed the risk. This court has so often said that the employee assumes all risks naturally and reasonably incident to the services in which he engages, where the hazards of the service are obvious and within the apprehension of a person of his experience and understanding, that a citation of authority is hardly necessary. In short, by the contract of service, the servant agrees to bear the risk of all the ordinary dangers incident thereto, and he therefore cannot recover for an injury resulting therefrom. C. R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Grubbs, 97 Ark. 486, 134 S. W. 636, and oases cited.

In asking for a directed verdict, counsel for the defendant relied expressly upon Arkansas Cotton Oil Co. v. Carr, 89 Ark. 50, 115 S. W. 925, and Francis v. Arkadelphia Milling Co., 153 Ark. 236, 239 S. W. 1067. We do not consider these cases as conclusive that the plaintiff assumed the risk.

In the Carr case the servant was engaged in moving stacks of meal from a pile for the purpose of loading them on railroad cars, and was injured by other bags on the same pile falling on him. He was held to have assumed the risk because the undisputed facts showed that the servant was injured while in the discharge of his duties, which required him to constantly change the condition of the working place. In that case the nature of the work in removing sacks made the working place more or less dangerous, and it was the duty of the plaintiff to make close examination of the place to see that it was safe. In the case at bar, the servant was injured by a sack from a different pile falling upon him. He was not ■ required to make an examination of his working place in order to see that it was safe. He was not changing the condition of the working place at all. The danger was created by the acts of other servants in piling the sacks of meal, and it did not result from the act of the servant in removing a sack from the pile of sacks filled with cottonseed meal which fell upon him.

In the Francis case, the court said that the undisputed facts showed that the danger was so patent and open that it might have been noticed by casual observation. The pile of sacks of meal was not only perpendicular, but was leaning* or bulging out at the top. The plaintiff was familiar with the place where he was working, and the condition in which the sacks were left through the negligence of the employees of the defendant was obvious and evident to .any one working* around the stacks of sacks. We cannot say that this is a matter of law here. According to the evidence of Webber Skinner, the pile of sacks of cottonseed meal which fell and injured the plaintiff was not properly stacked. On the top it looked like the sacks were just thrown up there and were not placed close together as they should have been. The defect was one that was not observable unless a close examination was made. The plaintiff had nothing whatever to 'do with stacking the sacks of cottonseed meal, and it was not his duty to examine his working place to see if it was safe. He was not injured by sacks falling from the pile on which he was working to remove the sacks. Hence there was no occasion for him to have observed the pile of sacks which fell and injured him.

Under the facts and circumstances shown by the plaintiff, we do not think the court was required as a matter of law to have instructed a verdict for the defendant on the ground that the plaintiff assumed the risk. On the other hand, we think the court properly left the question of assumption of risk by the plaintiff to the jury as a matter of fact to be determined by it.

The next assignment of error is that the testimony of Webber Skinner was not competent because it was not shown that he had any knowledge of the matters about which he was testifying, and that his testimony wa.s purely speculative, because it was only expressive of his own opinion. We do not agree with counsel in this contention. This witness made an examination of the scene of the accident immediately after it occurred. He examined the pile of sacks of cottonseed meal, and described their condition. He stated facts as they appeared from the condition of the pile of sacks of cottonseed meal, and the jury had a right to give it such force as might be deemed proper, considering his explanation of the way he found the pile of sacks immediately after the accident occurred. St. L. I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Flinn, 88 Ark. 489, 115 S. W. 142; Little Rock Traction & Electric Co. v. Nelson, 66 Ark. 494, 52 S. W. 7, and St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co. v. Barron, 166 Ark. 641, 267 S. W. 582.

Counsel for the defendant also contend that the judgment must be reversed because the court erred in giving instructions Nos. 1 and 3, requested by the plaintiff. The instructions complained of read as follows:

“Instruction No. 1. You are instructed that it was the duty of the defendant to use reasonable care to provide the plaintiff, Cordon Skinner, with a reasonably safe place in which to work; and if you find from a preponderance of the evidence in this case that the defendant, Temple Cotton Oil Company, negligently failed to use such care in the stacking of its meal, by which the plaintiff claims to have been injured, and that by reason of such failure the plaintiff was injured as alleged, without fault or carelessness on his part, then it will be your duty to return a verdict for the plaintiff, Cordon Skinner.”

“Instruction No. 3. You are instructed that, while an employee assumes all the risks and hazards usually incident to the employment he undertakes, he does not assume the risk of the negligence of the company for whom he is working or any of its servants. In other words, ho has a right to assume not only that the master will perform its duty, 'but he has a right to assume that each of the other servants will perform their duty, and if, while in the exercise of ordinary care, he was injured, either by the negligence of any other servant, of the master, he has a right to recover; and if you find from a preponderance of the evidence in this case that the plaintfif, Gordon Skinner, while in the exercise of ordiniary care, was injured 'by the negligence of the master for whom he works or by the negligence of any other servant in the stacking of the meal, by which plaintiff claims he was injured, if you find it was negligently stacked, then your verdict should be for the plaintiff.”

At the request of the defendant the court instructed the jury upon the doctrine of assumed risk as a defense to the action. Counsel for the defendant claim that the instructions copied above are erroneous, under the doctrine laid down in Garrison Company v. Lawson, 171 Ark. 1122, 287 S. W. 396, and Natural Gas & Fuel Co. v. Lyles, 74 Ark. 146, 294 S. W. 395.

On the other hand, counsel for the plaintiff seeks /to uphold the action of the circuit court in giving the instructions under the doctrine laid down in St. Louis, Iron Mountain & So. Ry. Co. v. Rogers, 93 Ark. 564, 126 S. W. 375, 1199.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Reynolds v. Ashabranner
207 S.W.2d 304 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1949)
Pinkerton v. Davis
207 S.W.2d 742 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1948)
Kane v. Carper-Dover Mercantile Co.
177 S.W.2d 4 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1944)
Lee v. Pate
131 S.W.2d 8 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1939)
Missouri Pacific Railroad v. Beard
128 S.W.2d 697 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1939)
Goodin, Adm'x. v. Boyd-Sicard Coal Company
122 S.W.2d 548 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1938)
Missouri Pac. R. R. Co., Guy A. Thompson v. Burks
121 S.W.2d 65 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1938)
Long Bell Lumber Co. v. Tarver
118 S.W.2d 282 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1938)
Vaughn v. Herring
113 S.W.2d 512 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1938)
McEachin v. Martin
102 S.W.2d 864 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1937)
Standard Oil Company of Louisiana v. Milner
88 S.W.2d 824 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1935)
George v. George
88 S.W.2d 71 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1935)
Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Blytheville v. Doud
76 S.W.2d 87 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1934)
Spadra Coal Co. v. White
66 S.W.2d 1072 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1934)
Arkansas Power & Light Co. v. Mart
65 S.W.2d 39 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1933)
McMahon v. McNabb
56 S.W.2d 422 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1933)
Missouri Pacific Railroad v. Bennings
53 S.W.2d 599 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1932)
Owosso Manufacturing Co. v. Drennan
31 S.W.2d 762 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1930)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2 S.W.2d 676, 176 Ark. 17, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/temple-cotton-oil-co-v-skinner-ark-1928.