Globe Indemnity Co. v. Henderson

STTJRTEVANT, J.

The plaintiffs recovered a judgment against the defendant in the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars for damages and the defendant has appealed, bringing up the judgment-roll and a bill of exceptions.

Morris & Muller, as general contractors, were engaged in erecting a brick garage on the southeast corner of Broadway and Twenty-fourth Streets, in Oakland. George L. Masow, one of the plaintiffs, was working for the contractors as a carpenter, and at the time of the accident hereinafter mentioned was standing on some planking which rested on the rafters. The defendant, H. B. Henderson, as an independent contractor, was engaged in hoisting the rafters into place. The rafters, more properly called trusses, were made of wood and after each one had been constructed it" was about sixty feet long from tip to tip, about twelve feet high, and, when the planks had been nailed together, the dimensions of a cross-section were eight by ten inches. The weight of one of these trusses was such that the defendant was using a gin pole thirty-seven feet six inches high, supported by four guy lines. While one of the trusses Was being raised into place one of the guy lines tore loose, the gin pole toppled over, and the plaintiff Masow was injured, and for the injuries so received he brought this suit to recover damages.

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In their complaint the plaintiffs aver that the Globe Indemnity Company is a New York corporation doing business in California, and as such was the insurance carrier of Morris & Muller; that after the accident the Globe Indemnity Company furnished Masow with hospital and medical expenses and has been and now is paying him workmen’s compensation. The court found all of said alie

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gations to be true. The appellant in his brief attacks each of those findings as not being supported by the evidence: In reply to appellant’s contention the respondent states that the evidence shows that since the accident the plaintiff has received compensation from the Globe Indemnity Company amounting to about eleven hundred dollars, exclusive of his doctor and hospital expenses, and that Dr. Shade treated Masow, acting upon the request of the Globe Indemnity Company. Such testimony, standing alone, is not sufficient to support the allegations regarding the Globe Indemnity Company and the judgment in favor of that company is not supported by the evidence.