National Enameling & Stamping Co. v. Brady

Schmucker, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant in this case conducted a tinware factory in Baltimore City. In the factory a variety of machines were operated among which was one used to form the thread upon screw caps for tin cans. The equitable appellee was employed at the factory and while engaged in operating ,the threading machine had one of his fingers cut off by it.

The record shows that in operating this machine the tin cap' in its unfinished state is placed upon a die and then a treadle underneath the machine is pressed by the foot of the operator and the threader comes down upon the cap and forms the thread of the screw by compression. The operator then takes his foot from the treadle and with his hand withdraws the finished cap from the die and places another unfinished cap upon it and again presses the treadle with his foot and the operation is repeated. The threader does not come down upon the die until the treadle is pressed but if the latter is held or fastened down the power remains on the machine and the threader goes up and down upon the die continuously. In the present case the injury to the appellee was caused by the threader coming down upon his hand while he was endeavoring to withdraw a finished cap from the die.

The appellee sued for damages for the injury and the verdict and judgment being against the appellant it appealed. The exceptions bring before us for review the action of the Court below in granting the plaintiff’s first and third prayers and rejecting all of the defendant’s prayers and overruling its special exception to the plaintiff’s first prayer. The Court modified the first prayer of the plaintiff before granting it and that prayer as modified presents the substantial issue arising upon the record. ⁶⁴⁸ • At the trial of the case there was evidence tending to show that when the equitable appellee, who is an orphan, was thirteen years old he was taken to the factory by his mother and hired to the appellant, at which time, according to the mother’s testimony, it was distinctly agreed between her and the appellant, by its then superintendent Pumphries, that the appellee was not to be put to work at any machine. She further testified that when Mr. Eckels succeeded Pumphries as superintendent she went again to the factory and renewed with him the agreement as to the character of work to be done by the appellee, and her sister who was present at the interview with Eckels corroborated her account of it.

Eckels testified that he was unble to remember any such interview or understanding but he did not deny their occurrence. • There was also testimony tending to show that during the first year and a half of the appellee’s employment at the fac-. tory he was given only hand work to do but was at the expiration of that- time, by direction of the foreman Eckels put to operating the threading machine, and that after he had worked it but fora few minutes his hand was caught and injured while he was trying to loosen a completed cap from the die. He himself testified that he had no knowledge of the running of the machine and received no instruction how to manage it when he was put to working it. Several of the employees at the factory who had operated the same machine or other similar ones testified that it would require from one to two days to teach a boy how to use such a machine properly or with safety. Much of this testimony was contradicted and other witnesses employed about the factory expressed the opinion that any one could learn to use the machine in a few minutes or one hour and that its operation was not attended with any danger, but as there was direct testimony as the several matters to which we have above referred the Court in granting the plaintiff’s first prayer as modified very properly left it to the jury to determine the weight of the evidence in that connection.

The plaintiff’s first prayer was as follows: “The plaintiff ⁶⁴⁹ prays the Court to instruct the jury that if they find from the evidence that the defendant put the plaintiff to work upon the machine and that the said machine was dangerous to operate and that the plaintiff had no previous knowledge of the mode of operating said machine or of its dangerous character and that the defendant did not warn the plaintiff of the dangers incidental to operating said machine and because of said failure of the defendant to warn or inform the plaintiff of the dangerous character of said machine and without fault on the part of the plaintiff, the plaintiff was hurt while operating said machine, then the verdict of the jury should be for the plaintiff,” to which the Court added “provided the jury further find that the duty of operating the machine was excluded by the contract of employment made with the plaintiff’s mother if the jury shall find the same and that the plaintiff was at the time a boy of about fourteen years of age and that his father was dead.” The appellant excepted specially to the granting of this prayer for want of legally sufficient evidence that the appellee did not know how to operate the machine or that the accident to him was caused by any failure on the part of the appellant to warn him of the dangerous character of the machine. The learned Judge below overruled this exception and his action in so doing meets our approval. The appellee testified directly to both of the facts referred to in the exception. Eckels, the superintendent, who put him to work the machine, admits that he gave him no instructions as to its use, and as we have already said several of the operatives at the factory who had worked on similar machines testified that it would take a day or two to learn to run one of them.

It is true that the evidence was quite conflicting especially as to the appellee’s familiarity with the machine when he was put to work on it but the weight and preponderance of the evidence