Stephens

The action was one by an employee against his employer on account of alleged personal injuries. Plaintiff was employed by defendant and engaged in operating an electric grinder, the motor of which was fed from the trolley wires of defendant. The appliance provided by defendant for the work comprised a grinder, a motor and wires feeding such motor, together with ground wires. This appliance had been in successful operation for some time and had been used the preceding day by plaintiff. Before the accident, neither the foreman of defendant, under whom plaintiff was performing his duties, nor the plaintiff knew of any defect in either the motor or the grinder. The morning of the accident, for some cause, the apparatus proved to be out of order. This the foreman attributed to a broken ground wire, the condition of which had been noticed before leaving the shop in the morning. The foreman directed plaintiff to repair this wire where broken, which was done, and when plaintiff undertook to operate the machine it developed that the defect was not cured. The foreman then, assisted by plaintiff, cleaned the commutator, and believing that this would relieve the difficulty, the foreman…