Cranford

The plaintiff below appeals from an order granting a new trial to the defendant who, in turn, appeals from the judgment entered upon the verdict of the jury which found against him.

The plaintiff, an airplane-student flight'instructor employed by the defendant, was severely injured as a result of the crash of an airplane owned by the defendant while it was coming in for a night landing at the Oxnard airport. At the time of the accident the plane was being piloted by a student named Jacques who was being supervised and assisted by the plaintiff. The defendant Cranford’s workmen’s compensation insurance failed to cover the plaintiff as an employee, and accordingly, the plaintiff was entitled to and did sue his employer, the defendant, on the theory that the defendant was negligent in supplying him with a plane that was defective and that as a proximate cause thereof the plaintiff was injured. Under the facts of this case, as they are alleged by the plaintiff, the Labor Code (§ 3708), which is here controlling, presumes that the injury sustained by the plaintiff “was a direct result and grew out of the negligence of the employer, and the burden of proof is upon the employer, to…