Van de Bogart v. Marinette & Menominee Paper Co.

106 N.W. 805, 127 Wis. 104, 1906 Wisc. LEXIS 166
Wisconsin Supreme Court·Decided January 30, 1906·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinion

SiebegkeR, J.

It is urged that plaintiff assumed the risk •of the negligence of which she complains as the cause of her injury. If she knew, or under the circumstances ought to have known, the danger of which she now complains as negli.gence, then she assumed the risk and cannot recover. There is no dispute but that she was in the proper place for the per-[109] formau.ee of ber duty at tbe time of tbe accident. Sbe bad but little general knowledge of maebinery and sbe did not understand tbe relation of one part to tbe others. Sbe bad no-special knowledge of tbe construction and operation of the machine in question aside from a general impression that she-gathered while observing it in operation. It appears that sbe did not know that set-screws were used to fastened tbe slitters-to tbe revolving shaft. So far as tbe record shows, these set- ■ screws could not be seen when tbe shaft was in motion, and. plaintiff did not see tbe shaft and the attachments except when in operation. It is claimed that tbe warning given ber of the-danger of injury to ber fingers from tbe knives and of getting' ber band caught in tbe slitters was sufficient to apprise ber of tbe danger from tbe set-screws bolding tbe slitters in position on the shaft. It is not apparent bow such a warning could, lead ber to know of ibe existence of tbe set-screws,.or of tbe danger of coming in contact with them. Knowledge of tbe liability of injury to ber bands by contact with tbe knives or slitters in removing tbe paper shavings from them, and an appreciation of the risk arising from tbe use of these set-screws,, are widely different things, and any information imputable-to ber as to tbe former furnishes no ground for bolding that this would naturally have informed ber of the danger incident-to tbe latter.

It is also contended that tbe court erred in submitting tbe question of plaintiff’s contributory negligence, and whether or-not, in view of ber age, intelligence, discretion, and judgment,, sbe ought in tbe exercise of ordinary care to have discovered and understood tbe dangers to which sbe was exposed. Knowledge of all obvious dangers is imputed to an adult servant and' be assumes all risks incident to them. Tbe same rule applies to minors in so far as their age, intelligence, discretion, and' judgment enables them to comprehend and appreciate these obvious dangers. We think tbe court held correctly in sub* mitting these questions to tbe jury upon tbe facts and circum[110] •stances shown by the evidence. It did not appear that she in fact knew of tbe danger, and it cannot be said as a matter of law that in view of her age, intelligence, experience, discretion, and judgment sbe ought to have discovered and understood it. Chopin v. Badger P. Co. 83 Wis. 192, 53 N. W. 452; Luebke v. Berlin M. Works, 88 Wis. 442, 60 N. W. 711; Benne v. U. S. L. Co. 107 Wis. 305, 83 N. W. 473; Thompson v. Edward P. Allis Co. 89 Wis. 523, 62 N. W. 527.

It is claimed that the question of proximate cause is not covered by the verdict or by the court’s instructions to the jury. The jury by the special verdict found that the defendant was negligent in using the set-screw on the machine at the place and in the manner it did, and that it thereby rendered •the plaintiff’s working place unsafe; that plaintiff’s hair naught on this set-screw while she was engaged in the performance of her duty and that it thereby caused her injury; and that a man of ordinary intelligence and prudence should reasonably have anticipated that the presence of the set-screw, would cause some injury to employees working about the machine. Taking these facts as so found, it appears that the injury was actually caused by defendant’s negligence; that it was the natural and probable result of it; and that defendant as a person of ordinary intelligence and prudence ought, in the light of attending circumstances, to have foreseen that it would probably cause some one injury. This sufficiently covers all the essential elements of proximate cause, and the court was not required to give further explanation than it did in submitting the question of proximate cause to the jury.

It is contended that the court gave the jury general instructions on questions of ultimate fact and thereby transgressed the rule requiring that instructions be confined to an explanation of the questions of the special verdict, without informing the jury of the legal effect of their answers to- the questions. It is averred that the instructions plainly informed them of the legal effect of their findings on negligence, contributory [111] negligence, and assumption of risk. An examination of tbe charge shows that this claim is well founded. Before giving instructions on the- special verdict on different aspects of the case, the court charged the jury generally concerning the nature and theory of plaintiff’s case, and the classes of facts they would need to consider in negligence cases, and then stated what he intimates had been communicated to them by counsel:

“If this injury was the result of a pure accident for which nobody was to blame, of course the defendant is not liable, and the plaintiff has no right to recover anything from them. . . . In other words, there can be no liability on the part of anybody resulting from a pure accident. It requires something-else in order to create a liability.”

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Van de Bogart v. Marinette & Menominee Paper Co., 106 N.W. 805, 127 Wis. 104, 1906 Wisc. LEXIS 166 (Wis. 1906).

106 N.W. 805 (Van de Bogart v. Marinette & Menominee Paper Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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