Talbert

Plaintiff appeals from an adverse judgment in an action to recover for personal injuries.

Plaintiff was injured during the course of his employment as a painter. He was the foreman in charge of painting the exterior of the Lankershim Hotel in Los Angeles. His injuries occurred when one side of an electrical swing stage upon which he had been working, gave way and precipitated him 50 feet to a Safeway scaffold below.

The electrical swing stage had been rented by defendant to plaintiff’s employer 23 days before the accident, and had been in use by plaintiff during most of that period. Defendant testified that this stage was inspected after each rental and all necessary repairs made. On October 3, 1951, plaintiff noticed that on one or two occasions the stage dropped between one and three inches with a “clicking noise” while in operation. He conceded that while working on other stages he had also experienced the sensation of a slight dropping of the stage, which often occurs as the result of the settling of the hooks in the firewall or the slipping into place of a wound cable which had been piled up on one area of the drum during the rotating process. However, he stated the…