Winkleman v. City of Adrian

115 N.W. 461, 151 Mich. 519, 1908 Mich. LEXIS 633
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 17, 1908
DocketDocket No. 48
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 115 N.W. 461 (Winkleman v. City of Adrian) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Winkleman v. City of Adrian, 115 N.W. 461, 151 Mich. 519, 1908 Mich. LEXIS 633 (Mich. 1908).

Opinion

Blair, J.

This ease has been submitted to three juries and is now before this court for the second time. The first report of the case will be found in 145 Mich. 280, where a sufficient statement of the case will be found. The plaintiff has remarried since the second trial. A new trial was ordered by this court, and the jury, upon such trial, having found a verdict for plaintiff, defendant again brings the case to this court for review.

Defendant’s counsel contends that a verdict should have been directed for defendant, in accordance with our previous decision, and, unless the testimony presented by this record is substantially different from that in the record previously reviewed, this contention must prevail.

Plaintiff’s counsel insists that the record is substantially different, the testimony of the following witnesses showing that Salzwedel did not have charge of the building but that Andrew J. Wood did, viz., William Jones, Isaac Thompson, Frank Johnson, Henry C. Lentz, John Edmunds, and Fred Witt. On the other hand, it is argued that the testimony of defendant’s witnesses that Salzwedel did have charge of the construction was thoroughly impeached and the jury might properly diregard it.

Jones, Johnson, and Thompson testified at the previous trial. Edmunds, Lentz, and Witt were new witnesses. The testimony of Lentz is unimportant. Witt testified:

“Q. Ask him who was the foreman and boss of that sewer ?

“A. Wood.

“Q. Ask him who built the curbing?

“A. He says he don’t know because he wasn’t there.

“Q. Well, ask him if he ever worked on the curbing ?

“A. No, sir. He said there were others that done that.

“Q. Ask him what others did it ?

“A. He says he couldn’t say, because he didn’t work at that place, he was a block away.

[521]*521“Q. No, I don’t mean the day he got killed but other times.

“A. No, he says he hasn’t worked there any of the time, he said he was a block away from where these men worked right along.

“ Q. Ask him if there was more than one boss there— more than one foreman ?

“A. No.

“Q. Was Mr. Wood the boss of all the men there ?

“A. Yes.”

Edmunds testified, among other things, as follows:

“Q. I ask you who gave the directions as to how the curbing should be built ?

“A. Why, the foreman, I heard him tell them when they commenced to go up hill there, it wasn’t so deep, and not so solid curbing to start on, but I heard Mr. Wood telling them, ‘Be careful, boys, and build your curbing so you are safe.’

“Q. And did Mr. Salzwedel have anything to say about it, any more than the rest of them ?

“A. Why, he seemed to act to be the leader of it, he laid the tile, and put down the crosspieces as many as he wanted, it seems, so to suit him. Mr. Wood gave the men orders about putting in the curbing. Salzwedel was a sort of leader, he was doing the main work of putting in the sewers down in the bottom, in getting the full depth of it, Salzwedel had, as far as I understood it, he had a perfect right to get as many curb planks in there as he wants to, and as many crosspieces as he wants to. Mr. Wood didn’t hinder him from having what he wanted to be perfectly safe.

“Q. Yes; and Mr. Wood had charge of all the men at the time they were building this curbing ?

“A. He did.

“Q. And he gave each and every one of them their orders ?

“A. He gave them orders to build the curbing and build them so they could be working in a safe place.

“Q. Yes.

“A. And I noticed that when the curbing was built, he often went by himself, he would kind of drive a plank down a little, if he thought they wasn’t quite deep enough for them to keep them from caving in on each side.

[522]*522etQ. You said — you attempted to explain there about the foreman putting in the curbing — you talked about Wood, and then you talked about the foreman; what do you mean by that ?

“A. That foreman, Mr. Wood, he was the foreman of the sewer.

“Q. Yes; but you say down below, when you were working there, and putting in shoring and curbing that Mr. Salzwedel told you how he wanted that put in ?

“A. Well, Mr. Westerman, I’ll— If a man gives me the job to put in those tile and curb them, and gives me the right to have what I want to save myself, I consider that I am boss, I use my own judgment there about, so that „I think that I am safe to put in my big tile; they were big tile they were putting in there. * * *

“A. If he wasn’t perfectly satisfied that that was safe to put his tile in here, there would be nobody to hinder him from having what he wanted.

“Q. Yes, he always did have what he wanted, didn’t he ?

“Q. And he gave his orders for what he wanted ?

“A. He did; and if he didn’t get just what he wanted—

“ Q. He would ask Wood for it ?

“A. Yes, and he got it, so if he didn’t get what he wanted there would be no blame for it.

Q. Nobody to blame for it but himself ?

“A. It seems so. * * *

Q. But as to the general direction of the men who were working, as to putting in that curbing, Mr. Wood gave the orders to them as to how to put that in ?

Q. And what directions were given by Mr. Wood ?

CiA. Well, I have already explained the direction he was giving, he gave the directions to put in that curbing and put crosspieces enough in there so that Mr. Salzwedel could be safe in there.

“ Q. Yes, the number of crosspieces, Mr. Salzwedel could have as many crosspieces, of course, as he wanted ?

“A. He could have what he wanted, yes.

Q. And if any of the other men called for anything there, they could have it ?

“A. Yes. * * *

Q. Well, but your claim is here that Mr. Salzwedel seemed to have charge of that part of the work.

[523]*523“A. Why, wouldn’t it be natural, Mr. Westerman, when I am in there, that I have charge to get what I want to be safe ?

Q. Yes; well, he directed the other men, if he thought he wanted something, didn’t he, and told them where to put it, and how he wanted to put it, Mr. Salzwedel did F

“A. Why, he wouldn’t tell them what to do, but if he called for an extra plank to go down there, there was men up above to give it to him. * * *

Q. And you thought from what you saw, or you believe from what you saw, that Mr. Salzwedel was directing how he wanted it to keep himself safe down there ?

“A. Why, sure thing. * * *

“Q, Well, who was directing the general construction ?

“A. Mr. Wood ordered the curbing built there.

“A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
115 N.W. 461, 151 Mich. 519, 1908 Mich. LEXIS 633, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/winkleman-v-city-of-adrian-mich-1908.