Atolia Mining Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

HENSHAW, J.

Review to consider an award of the Industrial Accident Commission. J. D. Mason was employed as a miner by the Atolia Mining Company, petitioner herein. He was working on a night shift. His hours of labor ended at 2 o’clock A. M. It was a part of the duty of the men of the shift to drill blasting holes, load them with explosives and fire the shots at the end of their work. Upon the morn

[692]

ing of Ms injury he and two of his fellows had drilled fourteen holes, had loaded them, and when upon the point of leaving the mine had lighted the fuses and ascended the shaft about one hundred feet, where they waited, listened, and counted the explosions, as it was their duty to do. They counted but twelve explosions instead of fourteen. The evidence shows that it is the mining practice under such circumstances either to report the missed shots to the superintendent, or for the miner to safeguard the property and prevent injury to the next shift worMng in the same place, by making investigation and doing something toward remedying the conditions. It is further in evidence that in small mines such as the Atolia, the established mining practice is for one or another of the departing shift which has fired the shots to investigate and, if possible, remedy the dangerous situation left by the charges which have not exploded; also that because of the smoke, gas, and fumes caused by these explosions it is prudent to wait a reasonable length of time for their dissipation before visiting their locality. Under these circumstances it is shown that plaintiff, an experienced miner, who declares that it was “second nature for me to do those things; I have done it all my life,” went to Ms tent about two hundred yards away, washed his face and hair, for he worked bareheaded, and returned to the mine. His fellows on the shift lived a longer distance from the mine and they went on home. He revisited the scene of the explosions about twenty minutes after. His investigation disclosed that all of the shots had been fired, which not infrequently occurs, as sometimes two or more of them go off simultaneously and the detonation sounds as one discharge. So he ascended the shaft and, carrying his miner’s light, proceeded to his tent. Guards had been placed around the mine to prevent theft of its ores (“high-grading,” as this form of theft is called by the miners). While he was walking to his tent he was, without warning and while still carrying his light, shot from the rear by one of the guards employed by defendant.