[Download] "Knute Bakken v. State North Dakota" by Supreme Court of North Dakota # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Knute Bakken v. State North Dakota
- Author : Supreme Court of North Dakota
- Release Date : January 16, 1931
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 74 KB
Description
The plaintiff brought action against the defendant to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained on December 22, 1920, as a result of heavy sacks containing mill products having fallen upon the plaintiff in the warehouse of the defendant's mill at Drake, North Dakota, in circumstances which will be stated below. Upon the trial the plaintiff had judgment for $12,000 damages and costs. The defendant moved for judgment non obstante, which motion was granted, and the plaintiff appeals. The case has heretofore been before this court upon a demurrer to the complaint in which the liability of the defendant for alleged negligence in connection with the operation of its business was determined. See Bakken v. State, 56 N.D. 861, 219 N.W. 834. Upon the trial the following facts were developed: The plaintiff, prior to the employment in connection with which he sustained the injuries complained of, had worked as a section laborer upon the railroad, had done occasional work at the defendant's flour mill unloading cars of coal and worked upon farms during threshing, and the like. A couple of days before the accident in question, the plaintiff, not having steady work, appeared at the defendant's mill early in the morning and inquired of the manager if there was a carload of coal to unload. The manager informed him that there wasn't but that if he would stay at the mill there would be some work for him, as some men were expected there who would need help. The manager anticipated at the time that the work of auditing the mill under the direction of the state board of auditors would be immediately undertaken. He did not hire the plaintiff, but later the latter went to work in the warehouse. The warehouse consisted of two large rooms, a north and a south room, separated by a partition. The south room was almost filled with sacks of mill products, which the auditors desired to count. The audit was made by the Bishop Brisman Company under the supervision of one Livdahl. Livdahl hired the men to help in the warehouse, bossed the job and paid them. At the time of the accident in question, the plaintiff was engaged in loading sacks of mill products on a truck to be moved from the south to the north room of the warehouse. He received no specific directions as to the method of removing the sacks. The room in which he worked was about 20 by 30 feet by 16 feet high. The sacks were piled in tiers reaching almost to the ceiling. The plaintiff's job was to load hand trucks for other men who trucked the sacks into the adjoining room. It appears that in performing his work the plaintiff removed two adjoining tiers of sacks making a sort of channel running through the warehouse. When nearly all the sacks were removed from these two tiers and while the plaintiff was working in the channel thus created, sacks came down from above falling upon and injuring him.