Soto

Herbert Soto, son of the plaintiff, Tovina Soto, was killed while in the employ of defendant, and his mother had judgment in this action for damages for his death. Defendant appeals from this judgment.

One eye-witness furnished all of plaintiff’s evidence of the tragedy, and, taken with the admissions of the pleadings and certain formal evidence of two relatives of the deceased, this testimony supplies all the facts before the court in the ease, no evidence being offered for the defendant.

The facts are as follows: On the second day of November, 1913, and for a long time prior thereto, the defendant was engaged in the construction of a dam in the Calaveras Valley in Santa Clara County, and in connection with the work operated a stationary steam-engine which rotated a drum, on which ran a wire cable. This cable was attached to a metal scoop, or scraper, which it pulled back and forth over a gravel pit to the top of a sieve, or screen, supported by timbers. On the last-named date, the defendant was employed moving rock under this structure. Velasquez, the only eye-witness, testified that he was driving a team of mules at about 8 o’clock in the evening, and had reached a switch of…