Peterson v. Twentieth Century Fox Films

YORK, P. J. This is an appeal from a judgment on the verdict, whereby plaintiff recovered $15,000 for injuries sustained by him under the following circumstances:

Respondent Peterson enlisted in the United States Navy in September of 1942, and at the time of his injury had the rating of motor fireman first class. Appellant was engaged in the production of a motion picture called “Guadalcanal Diary, ’ ’ and to add realism to one of the scenes which depicted the landing of marines, charges of explosives, known as “bombs” or “ash cans,” were dropped overboard from a boat and detonated. On July 1, 1943, respondent was instructed by his commanding officer, Lieutenant Scoffield, to [588]report at the dock where his boat was moored and follow further instructions which would be given to him there. After respondent reached the dock, he received no further instructions from the Navy, and all the orders he took were given to him by representatives of appellant. Respondent was unaware that he was to work on a motion picture until he reached the dock, where he was met by a representative of appellant who told him to take his boat out, maneuver around an inactive boat, which was about a quarter of a mile from shore in the boat basin at Oceanside, California, unload some men from the inactive boat into his own boat, and take off. In accordance with such instruction, respondent boarded a 36-foot Higgins craft, accompanied by his crew of two men and two men from 20th Century Fox, named Chapman and McLaughlin, and proceeded to the inactive boat, circled it and unloaded approximately 16 marines from that boat into his own boat and started south toward San Diego. Respondent testified that “When we got about 20 or 30 yards away from the inactive boat was when we were supposed to push the charge off ... at that time ... I had the boathook in my hand from pulling alongside the other boat . . . and I was told to push the first charge off, which I did . . . with the boathook. ... I was curious and I looked back . . . and I saw Mr. Chapman kneeling down over the battery with the wire in his hand and then I looked back at the bomb and it blew up and sent water up into the air . . . almost immediately after that they said ‘push the second one off’ . . . and I did, and I no sooner got it off the side than the boat went up ... I mean the charge of dynamite blew over on the side of the boat. ... At that time I was dazed and I remember being thrown from where I was standing, halfway over the side and somebody pulling me back in. . . . From then on I don’t remember a thing until I was in the sick bay.” It was only a couple of seconds between the two explosions, the second of which caused respondent severe injuries, and occurred from 15 to 30 minutes after he had reported at the dock. The first bomb was detonated by touching the two points of the battery to the wires leading to the bomb. The second bomb exploded prematurely, the cause of such explosion being unknown. To the questions put by a juror and the court, respectively: “Who placed the charges, did the Navy boys place the charges or did the men from the studio ? . . . Who placed the charges on the boat! Who prepared