Solomon

The appeal is from a judgment based upon the verdict of a jury for five thousand dollars against the defendant, in an action for damages for the death of plaintiff’s minor son, Joseph Solomon, aged nine, who, with twenty-five or thirty other boys, was playing with a playground apparatus in the school yard of the Westwood public school in the county of Lassen. The apparatus broke, a portion thereof striking him and causing his death. This apparatus was a swing constructed as follows: A white fir tree about twelve inches in diameter standing in the school yard was sawed off about twelve or fourteen feet from the ground. An iron pin or bolt was driven or placed perpendicularly in the top of the stump. On that pin a wheel was placed horizontally so that it revolved around the pin. A nut on the top of the pin prevented the wheel from coming off, and an iron washer was placed under the hub of the wheel and resting on the top of the stump of the tree. The evidence does not show the diameter of the wheel but it was described as being the front wheel of a dump wagon and weighing from eighty to one hundred and twenty pounds. Six ropes were attached to 'the rim of the wheel and they hung…