Seewald v. Harding Lumber Co.

Citations

• 49 Wash. 655
• 96 P. 221
• 1908 Wash. LEXIS 644

Syllabus

<p>Master and Servant — Negligence—Employment oe Incompetent Co-servant — Evidence—Question for Jury. The question of the negligence of a master in employing an incompetent engineer to run a donkey engine, used in hauling logs by a cable, is for the jury, where it appears that the engineer was a young man, about nineteen years of age, sent out by an employment office the evening before, that he was nervous and excited in attempting to operate the engine, and caused injury to the hook tender by starting the engine at full speed when directed to start it slowly; it being the master’s duty to make a reasonable effort to learn his qualifications.</p> <p>Same — Assumption of Risks — Incompetent Fellow Servant. A hook tender does not, as a matter of law, assume the risk from the incompetency of the engineer of a donkey engine, where the engineer had worked but a few hours and was not known to the hook tender, whose duties in the main called him to a place where he could not carefully observe the engineer’s manner of work.</p>