Jacobsen v. Rothschild

Citations

• 62 Wash. 127
• 113 P. 261
• 1911 Wash. LEXIS 658

Syllabus

<p>Master and Servant — Fellow Servants — Signals — Presumptions — Evidence—Sufficiency. Where a winch tender testified that he “let go” a sling load of ties in obedience to an order from the foreman in charge of the work, the presumption that the signal was given by the hatch tender is overcome, and the finding of the jury to that effect controls, although the foreman denied that he gave the signal.</p> <p>Same — Fellow Servants — Who Are — Signalman and Foreman. Where workmen are compelled to depend upon signals, the master’s duty of conveying the signals is nondelegable, so that a hatch tender giving signals would not be a fellow servant of the foreman of the crew.</p> <p>Master and Servant — Defective Appliances — Evidence—Sufficiency. Where an injury resulted to a stevedore through the inability of the winch driver to make the winch obey the lever, testimony by the winch driver that he told the foreman that the winch was defective, whereupon he was directed to do the best he could with it, is sufficient to warrant the submission to the jury of an issue as to the defective condition of the winch.</p> <p>Master and Servant — Safe Place to Work — Instructions. It is not reversible error to instruct that the master owes the duty to furnish his servant with a safe place to work, instead of instructing that he must exercise ordinary care in furnishing a safe place, where the instruction is qualified by another to the effect that the master is not an insurer of the safety of the place, but that the law imposes upon him the duty of exercising a reasonable degree of care in the furnishing of a safe place.</p> <p>Damages — Personal Injuries — Excessive Verdict. A verdict for $1,500 for the loss by a stevedore of two toes, is not so excessive as to warrant the supreme court in setting it aside, where it appears that the plaintiff lost two months’ time, during which he suffered great pain, and it is impossible for him to bear the full measure of his former burden in the sa