Kirby Lumber Co. v. Hamilton
Kirby Lumber Co. v. Hamilton
Opinion of the Court
This suit was brought
by appellee against appellant to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence of appellant. Several grounds of negligence were pleaded, but the only question of negligence submitted to the jury was whether defendant had used reasonable care to furnish plaintiff with a safe place in which to work. Defendant answered by denying the several allegations of negligence contained in the petition, and specially pleaded that the place referred to in plaintiff’s petition was constructed and arranged in the usual and customary manner of places in which the work required of plaintiff was usually performed. It further pleaded that defendant was under no obligation to warn plaintiff of any danger that might attend the performance of his work in such place, but that plaintiff was warned of such danger. Assumed risk and contributory negligence on the part of plaintiff were also pleaded by the defendant. The evidence shows that at the time of the accident in which plaintiff received his injuries he was employed by the appellant and was engaged in moving heavy pieces of lumber, which were piled upon an elevated platform or scaffold at appellant’s sawmill. This platform was 16 or 18 feet high, and at the place where plaintiff was put to work there was no railing around the edge of the platform. Plaintiff, who was a minor about 19 years old and weighed only 95 pounds, was directed by Mr. Miller, a vice principal of appellant, to go upon this platform and assist a negro employé of appellant in placing the lumber thereon on a skid by means of which it was slided onto trucks. In handling a piece of lumber 32 feet long, ■ 16 inches wide, and 3 inches thick, plaintiff was knocked over the edge of the platform, and fell to the ground, and thereby received the injuries for which this suit was brought.
Plaintiff testified:
“At the time of the accident I had not noticed the height of the platform, though I did notice it afterwards. I -never noticed it before. I noticed it after I got up from my injuries caused by the fall. The platform was between 16 and 18 feet from the ground. The work I was doing required me to be about 3 feet from the edge of the platform. There were no rails around the platform to guard or to keep people ■from falling off where we were working along there. Lumber was stacked all around the edge of the platform in the neighborhood of where we were working. They pulled this lumber out to the edge of the platform on trucks; they did not have any live rollers there. * * * While we were doing that work I got knocked off the platform. At the time it happened the negro and I were handling the timber, and the negro gave it a quick jerk, and pulled it around, and knocked me off. He jerked one end of the timber, and the timber was suspended in the center on a skid, and he gave a quick jerk on his end, which swung my end around, and threw me off. Yes, it knocked me off, and I fell to the ground from the top of the timber deck, a distance of from 16 to 18 feet. I did not know that the pisoe where I was at work was a dangerous place, and nobody explained the danger to me, and nobody showed me how to avoid the dangers. I was not strong enough to do that work. The foreman told me to go ahead that day, and he would put me back to my old job to-morrow; that is what he said to me when I told him I was not able to do that work. What I said to him about my ability to work, that is, about having been sick, I told him I was not able to do the work, it was too heavy for _ me, and he told me to go ahead that day. I did tell him about being sick, and about having been sick, and I was sick most of the time up to that time. I did tell him the work was too heavy for me. Then he told me to go ahead, and it would be all right that day, that he would put me back to my old job the next day. He said I could do the work that day. * * *
“Going back to the time of the accident, it happened this way: I was on one side of a piece of lumber, shoving it; I was not strong enough, and had to go back behind it and shove it. The negro at the other end gave it a quick jerk and threw me off. Bly back was to the edge of the dollyway where I fell off. * * * I was fixing to push it when the accident occurred. The negro gave the piece a quick jerk and slipped me off. If I had been strong enough to pull that plank without getting behind it and shoving it, this would have aided me on that occasion, and prevented the accident. I did get behind it and attempt to shove it, and this man slipped me off. I do not know the name of the negro; he was a transient negro, just come in there. I did not know anything about him.”
Eugene Hamilton, plaintiff’s brother, testified as follows:
“I was present on the occasion when Mr. Miller told my brother to go over and help that negro load the timber. 1-Ie did not give him any warning about the danger and how to avoid it. When Mr. Miller told my brother to go over there and help get this timber out, my brother told him he. could not handle the timber, and Mr. Miller said it would be all right to work the balance of that evening, it was only a very short time to quitting time, and he told him it would not hurt him to do it just that evening. * * * The way that negro did his work he just jerked things around in a violent and rough manner. My brother was very small. I had not noticed that negro at all up to that mornihg. I had not noticed him before that morning. * * * I saw my brother knocked off of the platform. The platform did not have any guard rails or any other safety appliances or devices.” ■
By an agreement signed by counsel for both parties it is made to appear that an error occurred in the entry of the judgment in the court below, in that the judgment as entered was for a less amount than the verdict of the jury after deducting therefrom the remittitur of $412, filed by the plaintiff, and appellant agrees that, in event the judgment is affirmed, it shall be reformed so as to award plaintiff the amount found by the jury, less the remittitur.
It follows from our conclusions upon the assignments above discussed that the judgment should be affirmed, and in accordance *549 with the agreement above stated should be reformed; and it is so ordered.
Reformed and affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Kirby Lumber Co. v. Hamilton.
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