Jackson v. Southern Pacific Co.

This is an action brought to recover damages for personal injuries by an employee. Verdict and judgment were for plaintiff, and defendant appeals from the judgment and an order denying its motion for a new trial.

Plaintiff was employed by defendant to run a pumping plant consisting of a boiler and two steam pumps, one of the latter being supposed to pump continuously and the other used as a relief. Plaintiff’s duties during his shift were to fire the boiler, look after the pumps, keep one of them going continuously and the reservoir full of water. The boiler was fifty to seventy-five feet from the well, and the pumps were thirty to forty feet down in the well and reached by ladders, the relief pump being some six feet below the regular one. The well was eight or ten feet square, timbered with six by six or eight by six timbers placed about six feet apart, and lagging or planks set in behind the timbers to keep the rock and earth from falling in, and was covered on top by a platform in which was a manhole two by three feet, covered with •a trap, through which descent was made into the well. The well was located between the railroad tracks and the foot of the mountain, and the…