Grady

Plaintiff, while working for defendants as a carpenter in the construction of a lumber shed, stepped upon a rafter which broke, precipitating him to the ground and causing injuries for which the trial judge awarded damages in the sum of $2,140. Defendants’ appeal raises the questions as to whether they violated any duty they owed plaintiff, i. e., whether they were negligent, and whether the evidence supports the findings.

Defendants as employers did not carry workmen’s compensation insurance, nor were they self-insured. Plaintiff therefore invoked the provisions of section 29b of the Workmen’s Compensation, Insurance and Safety Act of 1917 (Stats. 1917, p. 831, as amended; Deering’s Gen. Laws 1931, vol. 2, p. 2272), which provides that if any employer shall fail to secure the payment of compensation as set forth in said act, an injured employee, in addition to making application for compensation with the industrial accident commission, “may bring an action at law against such employer for damages, the same as if this act did not apply”, and further stipulates “that in such action it shall be presumed that the injury to the employee was a direct result and grew out of the…