Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Co. v. Jones

Citations

• 130 F. 813
• 65 C.C.A. 363
• 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4227

Syllabus

<p>1. Master and Servant — Duty of Master — Safe Place to Work.</p> <p>It is the absolute duty of a master to provide a reasonably safe place in which the servant shall work, having regard to the kind of work and the conditions under which it must necessarily be performed.</p> <p>2. Same — Inspection of Mine — Right of Miner to Rely on Performance of Duty by Owner.</p> <p>It is not .the duty of a miner employed to operate a drill in. a mine to inspect the timbering or the condition of the rock above him, but he has the right to assume that the master has performed his duty in making the place where he is directed to work reasonably safe, and to proceed with his work in reliance on such assumption, unless a reasonably prudent and intelligent man, in the performance of his work, would have learned facts from which he would have apprehended danger to himself.</p> <p>3. Same — Assumption of Risk.</p> <p>While a person entering voluntarily into a contract of service assumes all the risks and hazards ordinarily incident to the employment, and such as are liable to arise from defects which are patent and obvious to a person of his experience and understanding, he does not ordinarily assume risks arising out of the negligence of the master.</p> <p>4. Same — Injury of Servant — Fellow Servants.</p> <p>A mine owner cannot avoid liability for the injury of a miner, arising from his failure to perform the absolute duty he owes to employes to make proper inspection, and to provide a reasonably safe place for the miners to work, by delegating such duty to one who is in another respect a fellow servant of the miner injured.</p> <p>If 3. Assumption of risk incident to employment, see note, to Chesapeake & O. R. Co. v. Hennessey, 38 C. C. A. 314.</p> <p>If 4. See Master and Servant, vol. 34, Cent. Dig. § 393.</p>