Bush v. Independent Mill Co.

Citations

• 54 Wash. 212
• 103 P. 45
• 1909 Wash. LEXIS 974

Syllabus

<p>Master and Servant — Negligence — Appliance — Proximate Cause. Where, in stepping over a shaft, the overalls of an employee were caught upon an unprotected, projecting set screw in a collar, the proximate cause of a resulting injury is the negligent failure to use a sunken set screw which would have avoided the danger.</p> <p>Master and Servant — Injuries'—Death of Servant — Performance of Duty — Question for Jury. Where an employee took an oil can and ascended a ladder to oil machinery, which it was his duty to do eight or ten times a day, and was killed by being caught on an unguarded set screw on the way to the machinery, there is a question of fact for the jury as to whether he was killed while in the performance of his duty.</p> <p>Same — Cause of Death — Evidence—Sufficiency—Question fob Jury. In an action for the death of an employee, there is sufficient evidence of the cause of his death to require submission of the case to the jury, where it appears that, as required to do eight or ten times a day, he started with an oil can evidently to pass a line shaft upon which there was an unguarded set screw, in order to oil machinery, that his trouser’s leg was found caught by the set screw, torn and wound around the shaft, and he was hurled to the floor, receiving injuries from which he died.</p> <p>Master and Servant — Assumption of Bisks — Duty to Servant. The fact that an employee as an oiler was also a millwright, does not preclude a recovery for his death caused by contact with a set screw, when the testimony shows that he could not make any alterations without obtaining the consent of the foreman, and that the foreman knew of the unguarded condition of the set screw and did not direct it to be safeguarded.</p> <p>Same — Duties of Servant — Evidence—Materiality. In an action for the death of an oiler, who was also a millwright, expert evidence as to the duties of a millwright is inadmissible where the deceased was not employed in such duties.</p> <p>Trial —