Brockman v. Aldous

CRAIL, P. J.

This is an appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment of nonsuit. Defendants Aldous were general contractors in the construction of a building in Los Angeles and defendant Knox was their general superintendent of construction. The plaintiff was an employee of the Cement Gun Construction Company. The general contractors sublet a contract to the Cement Gun Company to put a gunite finish on a certain outside wall of the building. The contract for this work was in writing and provided for the furnishing of the necessary scaffolding by the general contractors. The scaffolds were built by the general contractors under the direction of their general superintendent and were used in the first instance during the construction of the building. Thereafter they were furnished to the Cement Gun Company crew to do the gunite work. Plaintiff was a member of this crew, and after plaintiff had worked two and one-quarter days on the scaffolds, one of them broke, causing plaintiff the injuries complained of. The plaintiff’s contention in the trial court was that the defendant negligently furnished said scaffold and negligently directed its use by plaintiff. At the close of the plaintiff’s case the court granted a nonsuit as to defendant Knox on the ground that there was no evidence that he had anything to do with the construction of the scaffold and as to the general contractors on the ground that there was no substantial evidence of negligence on their part and no evidence that there was anything defective about

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the scaffold. The sole question necessary for us to determine is whether there is any substantial evidence tending to support the above alleged facts.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiff, the scaffold in question was twelve feet high and was what is ordinarily known as a “jackhorse”, having two legs on one end and no legs on the other and depending upon the weight of the platform and the persons on it to brace the end of its header against the building. The header was about 4% feet long, made of 2-inch by 4-inch material. All other parts of the scaffold, including the 12-foot legs, were made of 1-inch by 6-inch boards. The braces and stays were made of the same 1-inch by 6-inch material. The plaintiff was working on this scaffold when one of its legs broke, the scaffold collapsed and he fell to the ground. There was no unusual motion before the collapse of the scaffold. The foreman of the plaintiff’s crew testified that Mr. Knox, the general superintendent of the defendants, told him that these scaffolds were for their use, and when the foreman told him that they did not look so good—that they looked kind of flimsy, the superintendent said, “Well, we have been using them here for weeks and if they held us they should be good enough for your people.” He also testified that one leg of the jack-horse broke about six inches below the bottom of the side braces, that it broke at an angle of 45 degrees, split in two, broke straight through the wood from one flat surface to the other, and when one leg broke the platform in falling broke the other leg and plaintiff was thrown to the ground.