Stevens
Stevens v. S. F. & North Pac. R.R. Co.
Opinion
lead Opinion
Searls, J.
Defendant had judgment in this cause. Plaintiff moved for a new trial, and this appeal is prosecuted from an order denying such motion.
The action is by plaintiff as administratrix of her deceased husband, Joseph Stevens, to recover damages for his death while in the employ of the corporation defendant, alleged to have been caused by its negligence.
The defendant at the time of the injury complained of was conducting a steam ferry between the city of San Francisco and Point Tiburón, in Marin county, using for that purpose a steamer called the James M. Donahue.
On the 16th of August, 1887, the deceased was a fireman and oiler on said steamer under W. H. Wiggins, who was engineer of the vessel.
The complaint avers that the business of oiling some part of the machinery when the engine was in motion was dangerous and full of peril to the life of the oiler; that it was the custom among oilers to attend to the oiling of the more dangerous portions while the steamer was lying idle at its landing, and the engine motionless;' that it was the duty of the engineer to give the oiler notice before starting the engine; that on the sixteenth day of August, 1887, while the steamer was at *561…