(Download) "Novash v. Crompton & Knowles Loom Works" by Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Novash v. Crompton & Knowles Loom Works
- Author : Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
- Release Date : January 30, 1939
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 70 KB
Description
RONAN, Justice. The plaintiff for four months previous to his accident, which occurred on November 1, 1933, had been employed by the defendant as an oil extractor. It was his duty to remove the shavings, chips, filings and other waste that resulted from the operation of certain machines. These machines used oil as a cutting lubricant, and a stream of oil was applied to the cutting tool which was a part of each machine. The machines were equipped with certain guards and splash pans to prevent the oil from going onto the wooden block floor. There was considerable oil used in the department in which the plaintiff was employed and some spraying of oil from the machines. It was a part of the plaintiff's work to shovel the waste from where it was deposited in the base of the machine. It was immersed in oil and was shoveled into a pan with holes in the bottom which permitted the oil to drip into a pail upon which the pan rested. The pan was left upon the pail a sufficient time to permit the oil to drain from the waste, and was then put upon a truck with other pans and brought to the oil extractor. While lifting one of these pans to the truck the plaintiff's foot slipped on account of some oil which was upon the floor and he was injured. The jury found for the plaintiff. The case is here on the defendant's exceptions to the denial of its motion for a directed verdict, to the refusal of the Judge to grant certain requests for rulings, and, to portions of the charge. There was evidence that the plaintiff, who was employed on 'the night shift,' one-half hour after he commenced work at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, reported to the foreman that there was oil upon the floor in one of the aisles between the rows of machines and that the oil was not covered with sawdust; that he was told by the foreman that he would take care of that and for the plaintiff to 'go on your job and work'; that later on, between 6 and 7 o'clock on that afternoon, while working in this aisle in the performance of his duties, the plaintiff slipped on the oil, which had not been covered with sawdust, and received the injuries for which he seeks compensation. It was the duty of another employee to see that any oil on the floor was covered with sawdust, and to replace sawdust saturated with oil with fresh sawdust, whenever the situation arose that required such action. Although a supply of sawdust was available, the jury, upon the evidence, could find that, notwithstanding the plaintiff's complaint to his foreman, the defendant negligently permitted the oil to remain upon the floor without being protected by a covering of sawdust, and that such failure resulted from the carelessness of the foreman in not heeding the plaintiff's warning after he had assured him that he would take care of the matter, and from the negligence of the employee who was charged with the duty of seeing that the danger from the presence of oil was removed by the application of sawdust. The defendant was not insured under G.L.(Ter.Ed.) c. 152, the workmen's compensation act, and the negligence of a fellow employee of the plaintiff did not constitute a defence. Watkins v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, 290 Mass. 448, 195 N.E. 888; Greem v. Cohen, Mass., 11 N.E.2d 492.