Wooll

Defendants prosecute this appeal from a judgment entered in favor of the plaintiff for damages in the sum of $15,000 for personal injuries alleged to have been incurred by reason of defendants’ negligence in the maintenance and operation of a pile-driver. The State Compensation Insurance Fund intervened merely to insure its lien on any judgment recovered by plaintiff, the intervener having theretofore compensated the plaintiff under the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act for these injuries, which were received by the plaintiff while acting within the scope and course of his employment. The plaintiff and intervener have stipulated for such a lien, and there is no question raised on this appeal as to the propriety of such action.

The defendants were contractors engaged in driving piling to support the aqueduct line of the East Bay Municipal Utility District across the delta of the San Joaquin River. A heavy, sled-like platform weighing approximately fifty tons carried the pile-driver and progressed with the construction work by being skidded over large cross-timbers laid on the ground surface before it. The driver was moved by its own power applied to cables, the latter…