Holt v. Henry

McCOMB, J.

From an order granting defendants’ motion for a new trial on the ground that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict of the jury, plaintiff appeals.

The record discloses that early in 1941 the county of Los Angeles purchased a ten story building at 800 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, to be used as an office building. The county entered into a contract with Mr. Nichols, a general building contractor, to modernize the structure. One phase of the work to be done by the general contractor was to cut

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a twin elevator shaft through all floors of the building. This work included the construction of forms for the pouring of concrete for the walls of the elevator shaft. After concrete is poured into the forms and has hardened the forms are removed. This process is called “stripping” the concrete.

Defendant James Q. Henry had an independent contract with the county to furnish and install two elevators in the shaft. Defendants Johnson and Watkins were in the employ of defendant Henry. Plaintiff was a laborer employed by Mr. Nichols, the general contractor.

The general contractor’s work had progressed to the point where the concrete had been poured into the forms in the elevator shaft. Immediately thereafter defendants Johnson and Watkins, employed by defendant Henry, constructed in the east half of the elevator shaft at a point mid-way between the floor and ceiling of the tenth floor, a platform called a “grasshopper skip.” This skip was constructed from lumber and nails lying about the premises. The lumber had been used previously by the general contractor for the construction of cement forms, and later stripped from the hardened concrete. The two main supports for this platform were two-by-fours, ten feet long. Prior to the accident hereinafter described, the platform had been used to support as many as four workmen on several occasions, and appeared to be safe.

On July 7, 1941, plaintiff’s employer instructed him and another workman to strip the forms in the elevator shaft on the ninth and tenth floors. While performing this work plaintiff climbed upon the “grasshopper skip” above mentioned, and while removing one of the boards in the forms the platform upon which he was standing collapsed and he fell 106 feet to the bottom of the shaft, sustaining serious injuries.