Dush v. Harbison-Walker Refractories Co.
Dush v. Harbison-Walker Refractories Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This was an action brought by an employee to recover damages for injury sustained while engaged in work for his employer. The defendant company’s business was the manufacture of fire brick; the plaintiff’s task in connection therewith was to run the clay and other stock from the bins where placed, to the pans in which it was to be ground. The distance was inconsiderable; as a witness stated, about the length of the court room. Extending from the bins to the pans a railway track had been laid on a runway, slightly elevated above the floor. The clay or other material required to be carried were pushed along and over this runway in cars provided. Directly over the runway was a skylight in the roof of the building. In the early part of June, 1915, the plaintiff, whose employment was what we have above indi
In a very careful and satisfactory charge, the learned trial judge submitted the case to the jury, with the result that a verdict was rendered in favor of the plaintiff. A motion for judgment n. o. v. was refused, and the appeal is from such order of refusal. The negligence of the defendant was. abundantly established. No complaint is made of the finding of the jury in that regard; nor to the finding that the plaintiff was injured in the way he testified. While there are several assignments of error, they all go to the refusal of points submitted, which, to have affirmed, would have been equivalent to giving binding instructions for the defendant. Since we are about to state our conclusion with respect to the controlling question in the case, these assignments need not be considered. The case presents a single question calling for consideration here. Did the fact that plaintiff continued
Reference
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- Dush v. Harbison-Walker Refractories Company
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- Syllabus
- Negligence—Master and servant—Safe place to worlc—Defect in slcylight—Rain—Slippery floor—Assumption of rislc—Promise to repair defects—Case for jury. In an action by an employee against a manufacturing company to recover for personal injuries sustained in consequence of falling upon a runway made slippery by rain water which fell from a defective skylight in the roof of the building, where it 'appeared that plaintiff had previously slipped and fallen without sustaining any injury, that he at once made complaint to defendant’s Superintendent, who promised to have the necessary repairs made; that no repairs were made but that plaintiff continued to work until the time of the accident which occurred almost four months after the complaint was made, the questions whether plaintiff had assumed the risk and whether a reasonable time had elapsed for defendant to make the repairs were for the jury and a verdict for the plaintiff will be sustained.