Perkins v. Morgan Lumber Co.

Citations

• 68 Fla. 503
• 67 So. 126

Syllabus

<p>Death by Wrongful Act — Proximate Cause — Assumption of Risk — Pleading Evidence.</p> <p>1. Where a declaration in a suit for damages for the death of an employee of a saw mill company, shows upon its face that the occurrence by which the deceased lost his life was the result of an unavoidable accident for which the defendant mill company was in no way responsible, a demurrer to such declaration is properly sustained.</p> <p>2. The declaration in a suit for damages for the death of an employee of a saw-mill company showed upon its face that such employee while holding the position of lumber inspector in and about the saw-mill of the defendant company, and while standing beside a revolving platform designed and used for conveying timber or logs to a revolving circular saw by it to be cut in two, had his foot to slip and fell upon such revolving platform and was by it projected upon such revolving circular saw and thus lost his life. Such declaration also expressly alleged that this slipping and falling by the deceased was unavoidable and without any default on the defendant’s part. Held: That this slipping and falling by the deceased was the proximate cause of his injury, and not the exposed or unguarded condition of such saw, and that the defendant was not liable therefor: Held further, That the deceased being employed in a responsible capacity in and about such sawmill, and being familiar with the positions, working and connections of the different implements and machinery there in use that were patently obvious, must have known that if he permitted his body to get upon and remain upon such revolving platform that it would inevitably project him upon such revolving saw, and that it would result in his very great or fatal injury, and that by accepting and continuing in the employment of tlie defendant mill company with full knowledge of the patent dangers there surrounding him, he assumed such obvious risks, and the defendant is not liable for the injury that res