Finan v. E. T. Mason Co.
Finan v. E. T. Mason Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The plaintiff was employed by the defendant company as an engineer in its silk mill. His hours of service were during the day time. The accident which occasioned the injury of which he complains occurred while he was engaged in repairing some overhead steam pipes, about thirteen feet above the floor of the room in which he was working. He was standing upon a ladder furnished by the employer. While so engaged the ladder, resting on the wooden floor of the room, slipped at its base with the result that plaintiff fell to the floor and in his fall sustained his injury. The negligence charged was failure on the part of the defendant to provide plaintiff with a reasonably safe ladder, in that the ladder furnished was not sufficiently spiked at the base to secure it in place. It was developed in the course of the plaintiff’s testimony that the ladder furnished the plaintiff was one he had often used and was perfectly familiar with; that he knew that it was equipped with the proper fastenings, brads and spikes, only upon one side; that these safety appliances projected from the ends of the standards sufficiently to admit of their taking hold of the floor and thus prevent the ladder from slipping, and that he knew further that if the reverse side of the ladder, the one not so equipped, was used, the brads and spikes would not be in contact with the floor and therefore could afford no protection against slipping. It was conceded that if
The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff. On motion by the defendant the court entered judgment for defendant n. o. v. This appeal followed. The case calls for no discussion. An employer is bound to protect his employee from danger reasonably to be apprehended, but not against all possible danger, and least of all against danger occasioned by the employee’s own negli
The assignments are overruled and the judgment is affirmed.
Reference
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- Negligence — Master and servant — Contributory negligence. Where a workman uses in his work a ladder properly fitted with brads and spikes upon one side, which prevent it from slipping, when it is properly placed with its spiked side underneath, and he leaves the ladder-one evening properly placed, with the intention of using it on the following morning, but during the night the ladder is used by some other person, who in replacing it, turns the wrong side of the ladder to the wall, and the workman on the following morning proceeds to use it, without any inspection whatever, and the ladder slips from under him, and he is injured, he is guilty of contributory negligence, and cannot recover damages from his employer for his injuries.