Kinsey v. Colleton Cypress Co.
Kinsey v. Colleton Cypress Co.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
This is an action for damages for a death by wrongful act.
Grady Kinsey was at work cutting down trees for the defendant company. He had only a few days’ experience in cutting down trees. The men who cut down the trees worked in pairs. The deceased and another new man worked together for a few days. They came to the conclusion that it was better to get coworkers of experience, and the deceased took J. H. Varn as his coworker. The cutters were assigned certain territory in which to cut. These workers selected the trees they were to cut and the order in which they were to be cut. They came to a place where there was a live tree to be cut and near it a dead tree. They cut the *237 live tree, and when it started to fall Varn ran west as the tree was falling to the east. The deceased ran. For some unaccountable reason the dead tree fell on him and crushed his head. The administrator brought suit for his death.
At the close of the plaintiff’s evidence the defendant put in no testimony, but moved for a directed verdict. This motion was refused.
(b) The next allegation of negligence is like the first— a failure to warn the deceased of the dangers of felling trees. What .is said above determines this specification, and it cannot be sustained.
*238 (c) This also complains of want of instruction to an inexperienced servant, and is not sustained by the evidence,
Judgment reversed'.
Reference
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- I.. Master and Servant—Proof of One Specification of Negligence as Cause of Injury Sufficient.—In action for an employee’s death, plaintiff is required to prove only one specification of negligence as the proximate cause of the injury. 2. Master and Servant—Failure to Instruct Woodcutter PIeld Not Proximate Cause of Injury.—Failure to instruct a new woodcutter could not be the proximate cause of his death by the falling of a tree other than the tree that was being cut; the testimony utterly failing to connect the fall of the dead tree with the fall of a live tree that was cut down. 3. Master-and Servant—Care Reouired in Furnishing Safe Place for Workman Felling Trees.—It is not the duty of a master to free the woods of dead trees before its employees enter upon their work of felling trees, and master is only liable for negligence in failing to provide a reasonably safe place considering- the dangerous nature of the work, and recovery cannot be had for the death of an employee through the fall of a dead tree while he was running after felling a live tree where there is no evidence connecting the fall of a dead tree with the felling of the-live tree.