Rector v. Bryant Lumber & Shingle Mill Co.

Citations

• 41 Wash. 556
• 84 P. 7
• 1906 Wash. LEXIS 1006

Syllabus

<p>Master and Servant — Negligence—Unguarded Chipper — Assumption oe Risk — Question for Jury. Upon a conflict in the testimony as to whether a saw, used for the purpose of chipping off the top part of the larger logs, could be advantageously guarded, under the factory act, the question is one of fact for the jury and not of law for the court, where there was ample testimony, if believed, to establish the fact that it could be guarded.</p> <p>Same — Contributory Negligence. Where a workman comes in contact with unguarded machinery which he is not operating, the rule as to his contributory negligence is different from the rule where the machinery is under his immediate control.</p> <p>Same — Knowledge op Danger — Contributory Negligence — Question por Jury. Whether a sawyer, who was injured in giving a signal by throwing up his hand, coming in contact with the revolving knives of a chipper over the sawyer’s pit, is guilty of contributory negligence, is a question for the jury, where it appears that the distance from the floor to the chipper was seven or eight feet, that ten inches of sawdust had accumulated in the floor of the pit, but the foreman did not have the same removed when it was called to his attention at the noon-hour, and where the other methods of giving the signal were by a rope of which the plaintiff had no knowledge, or by leaving his position and going around the end of the log; since a person is not guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law simply because he had previous knowledge of the danger.</p>