Perry v. Angelus Hospital Association

The plaintiff, May Perry, was employed by the defendant to operate an ironing-machine, commonly called a "mangle," in the laundry of the hospital conducted by the defendant. The action is for personal injuries sustained by her while so engaged. She being a married woman, her husband is made a nominal party plaintiff. There was a trial by jury, a verdict being given for plaintiff for eleven thousand *Page 313 five hundred dollars, for which amount the court entered judgment. The defendant appeals from the judgment, and from an order denying its motion for a new trial.

The mangle operated by plaintiff consisted of a large hollow drum or roller heated with steam to a degree sufficiently hot to iron and dry linen and other clothing brought in contact with it by means of two or three smaller rollers rapidly revolving immediately above it. In front of these rollers there was a flat polished board leading up nearly to the point of contact of the upper and lower rollers, upon which board the articles to be ironed were placed. Across the board about six inches from the point of contact of the rollers there was a one-inch iron pipe intended for a guard, but set high enough above the board to enable the plaintiff's hand to pass under the pipe far enough to come in contact with and be drawn between the rollers. The contrivance was defective, because it often became necessary to push the wet cloth under the guard with the hand, in order to make it reach the rollers. While plaintiff was in the act of passing a towel over the table and into the mangle her fingers were caught and drawn between the rollers where, before the machine could be stopped, or her hand could be withdrawn, the palm of her hand and fingers were severely burned.

The appellant first contends that the demurrer to the complaint should have been sustained, because the complaint did not sufficiently aver negligence, and fails to allege the master's knowledge of the alleged defective condition of the machine. The complaint, in substance, alleges that in feeding the cloth into the mangle the cloth had to be pushed over the board to a point where it would be caught by the revolving rollers and thus pulled in between them, that to do this the operator had to pass her fingers and hands under the pipe set for a guard until they were practically in contact with the two rollers while they were rapidly revolving, one above the other, that there was no guard "that would in any way keep the hands and fingers of the operator from being caught between the rollers," except said pipe which was set so high that the hands would pass under it, and that because it was without a "guard that tended to keep the fingers and hands of the operators out of the rollers, the said mangle was an unsafe and dangerous machine to operate." It was the duty of the master to use ordinary care to furnish reasonably safe *Page 314 machines to the servant with which to do the work. He "cannot be heard to say that he did not know of defects and dangers that he might have ascertained by the exercise of reasonable care." (Roche v. Llewellyn etc. Co., 140 Cal. 563, 569, [74 P. 147]; Sterne v. Mariposa etc. Co., 153 Cal. 522, [97 P. 66]; Alexander v. Central etc. Co., 104 Cal. 532, 539, [38 P. 410].) The above allegations clearly show that the defendant failed to perform this duty. The dangerous character of the machinery, if these averments are true, was patent to ordinary observation. Ordinary care to perform the duty would have resulted in the discovery of the danger. The defendant cannot be heard to say it did not know that which the ordinary observation, which its duty required it to make, would have made known. While the complaint does not expressly say the defendant's conduct causing the injury was "negligent," the facts stated show that the defendant failed to use ordinary care. This is the proper office of a pleading. The demurrer was properly overruled.