Fowler Packing Co. v. Enzenperger

Citations

• 77 Kan. 406
• 94 P. 995
• 1908 Kan. LEXIS 278

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Master and Servant — “Factory Act” — Protection of Employees. The principal purpose of that provision of the factory act which requires owners or operators of manufacturing establishments properly and substantially to enclose or secure elevators, hoisting-shafts and well-holes is to protect the lives and limbs of employees at work in such establishments.</p> <p>2. - Failure Properly to Enclose Elevator — Prima Facie Evidence of Negligence. Two freight-elevators, without enclosures or coverings, were operated in a single enclosed shaft, in a six-story packing-house, and while barrels were being loaded on one of the elevators through a door of the shaft at the sixth floor a barrel was allowed to fall down the shaft upon an employee then at work upon the other elevator at the fourth floor, thereby injuring him. Held, in an action to recover damages for the injury, that the failure of the owner of the packing-house to enclose and make secure the elevator on which plaintiff was at work was prima fade evidence of negligence within the meaning of the factory act, and that the defendant is liable to the plaintiff for the injury suffered by him in consequence of such neglect.</p> <p>3. -Instructions — Master’s Duty to Guard Machinery. The statement of the court in an instruction that the defendant was required to enclose and secure the elevators did not impose a higher duty upon the defendant in this case than is prescribed by the statute which provides that elevators shall “be properly and substantially enclosed or secured, in order to protect the lives and limbs” of employees. (Laws 1903, ch. 356, § 1.)</p> <p>4. Petition — Injury to Employee — Specific Reference to “Factory Act” Unnecessary. In order to avail himself of the proteetion of the factory act it was not necessary that plaintiff should plead or make specific reference to that act in his petition. It is sufficient to plead such acts of negligence as bring the case within the ru