Twohy Bros. Co. v. Kennedy

295 F. 462, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 3190
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 4, 1924
DocketNo. 4087
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 295 F. 462 (Twohy Bros. Co. v. Kennedy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Twohy Bros. Co. v. Kennedy, 295 F. 462, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 3190 (9th Cir. 1924).

Opinions

GILBERT, Circuit Judge.

The defendant in error obtained in the court below a judgment against the plaintiff in error for damages for personal injuries sustained. The action was brought under the provisions of the Employers’ Liability Law of Arizona.

A motion is interposed to strike out the bill of exceptions for the reason that it was not filed in the District Court in due time. It appears from the record that judgment was rendered on May 19, 1923, and that the bill of exceptions was filed on the 31st of the following July. In the meantime, on June 18, a motion for a new trial was denied, and an order was made extending the time to file the bill of exceptions until July 8. On August 2 an order was made nunc pro tunc that the time within which the bill of exceptions might be filed be extended 25 days from July 8. It is to be conceded that, if the court had on August 2 lost its jurisdiction to permit the filing of the bill of exceptions, it could not by a mere order nunc pro tunc reinvest itself of that jurisdiction as of July 8; but there is nothing in the record to show that on August 2 the April term of the court had expired, or that the court had lost jurisdiction to allow the filing of the bill of exceptions. The case does not come within the rule announced in O’Connell v. United States, 253 U. S. 142, 40 Sup. Ct. 444. 64 L. Ed. 827, and Exporters v. Butterworth-Judson Co., 258 U. S. 365, 42 Sup. Ct. 331, 66 L. Ed. 663. The motion is denied.

The plaintiff -in error asserts that the complaint is insufficient to state a cause of action under the Employers’ Liability Law of Arizona (Rev. Stats. 1913, §§ 3153-3162), and contends that the complaint shows affirmatively that the injury was not caused by any danger or risk inherent in or attributable to the occupation in which the defendant in error was engaged. The complaint alleges in substance that the plaintiff while engaged on his employer’s road construction plant in [464]*464the capacity of a carloader and while loading the cars, and while stepping from one car to another “the sand and gravel on the car on which the plaintiff stepped gave way,, causing the plaintiff’s foot to slip off said car, thereby causing his leg to strike against and upon the top rough edge of said car.” These allegations of the manner in which the accident occurred do not necessarily show that the occupation was not a hazardous one. The plaintiff in error was engaged in the operation of a plant in which it used a string of cars driven by a gasoline motor engine and which cars were being loaded by a steam shovel with sand and gravel. It will be readily seen that the operation of such a plant may be attended with danger and hazard to employés. This is further shown in the present case by the fact, which, while it was not alleged in the complaint, was proven on the trial, that at the time when the defendant in error stepped from one car to another the motor started up and the train moved.

In Arizona Employers’ Liability Cases, 250 U. S. 400, 39 Sup. Ct. 553, 63 L. Ed. 1058, 6 A. L. R. 1537, the court sustained the sufficiency under the Arizona Employers’ Liability Law of the complaint of one Veazey, who was injured while working in the construction of a flotation system at a mill or reduction works. Veazey alleged that while he was standing upon a timber incorporated in said flotation system, and engaged in bolting and fastening together the timbers thereof, at an elevation above the floor of the mill of 10 feet, he slipped from the timber and fell to the ground. The statute (section 3156) declares hazardous “all work in mills, shops, works, yards, plants and factories where steam, electricity, or any other mechanical power is used to operate machinery and appliances in and about such premises.” It is clear, we think, that the defendant in error was employed in a plant •within the meaning of the statute, a plant with appliances operated by electricity, and that the case shown by the complaint comes within the statute ás the same has been construed, by the Supreme Court'of Arizona. That court has held, it is true, that the act requires more than that accident arise out of and within the course of the employment, and that the injury must have occurred while the employé was at work in his occupation and must have been occasioned by a risk or danger inherent in the occupation. Arizona Eastern R. Co. v. Matthews, 20 Ariz. 282, 180 Pac. 159, 7 A. L. R. 1149; Arizona Copper Co. v. Burciaga, 20 Ariz. 85, 177 Pac. 29. But if it is true, as the-plaintiff in error contends, that the accident in the present case arose, not from the inherent hazardous nature of the employment, but from the negligent act of starting the movement of the train at the moment when the defendant in error was about to step from one car to another, the answer to the contention is found in Consolidated Arizona Smelting Co. v. Egich, 22 Ariz. 543, 199 Pac. 132, where it was held that the employer is liable when the injury is caused hy an accident which arises from the manner in which the hazardous business is carried on.

Error is assigned to the ruling of the trial court in permitting the defendant in error to ask a physician, called as an expert, whether, assuming the injury to the leg of the defendant in error to be such as was testified to by him, and that that injury was followed by atrophy and paralysis of certain muscles of the leg, that condition would be [465]*465the result of the injury. Objection was made on the ground that the question stated facts not in evidence and failed to state all the facts in evidence as jo the physical condition of the defendant in error. It is now argued that the question so propounded left out of consideration the fact that soon after the accident the defendant in error had been taken ill with typhoid fever, on account of which he was confined in a hospital for a period of 94 days. That ground of objection was not suggested at the time when the testimony was offered, nor did the objection then made direct the attention of the court to any omitted facts or misstatement of facts. The objection was clearly insufficient to preserve the right of the plaintiff in error to urge the ground of objection which is now made.

It is contended that the court erred in denying a requested instruction that, if the jury found that the defendant in error was suffering from the ailment known as toe or foot drop, they must be satisfied from the preponderance of the testimony that it was caused by the injury to his leg, and that if they were satisfied that it was caused by typhoid fever, or if their minds were evenly balanced as to whether or not it was caused by typhoid fever, their verdict should be for the defendant in the action. To tins it is to be said, first, that there was no evidence whatever that typhoid fever could have produced the ailment so described; and, second, the trial court properly saved all the rights of the plaintiff in error by instructing the jury that, if they found that the defendant in error was suffering from toe or foot drop, before they could find a verdict for him on that question, they must be satisfied from the preponderance of the evidence that the same was the natural and probable result of the injury sustained to his leg, and not from some other cause.

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

Related

Jewel Tea Co. v. City of Troy
80 F.2d 366 (Seventh Circuit, 1935)
McDonald v. Harding
57 F.2d 119 (Ninth Circuit, 1932)
Walton v. Southern Pac. Co.
53 F.2d 63 (Ninth Circuit, 1931)
Puget Sound Nav. Co. v. Nelson
41 F.2d 356 (Ninth Circuit, 1930)
United States v. Konstovich
17 F.2d 84 (Fourth Circuit, 1927)
Miles v. Lavender
10 F.2d 450 (Ninth Circuit, 1926)
Arizona Eastern Railroad v. Head
224 P. 1057 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1924)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
295 F. 462, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 3190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/twohy-bros-co-v-kennedy-ca9-1924.