McNamara

Action to recover damages for a personal injury suffered by plaintiff, alleged to have been caused by the negligence of defendants in constructing a scaffold on which they employed plaintiff to work as a hod-carrier, and by the breaking and falling of which plaintiff was injured.

The cause was tried by a jury. Verdict and judgment for plaintiff in the sum of four thousand five hundred dollars. Defendants appeal from the judgment, and from an order denying their motion for a new trial.

At the time of the accident the defendants were constructing a building known as the “ California Hotel and Theater,” on Bush street, in the city of San Francisco. Some time before the accident the defendants departed from this state, and did not return before the commencement of this action; but during their absence they were directly represented here by Mr. E. F. Preston, as general superintendent of the construction of the building. Mr. Preston employed J. M. Wood as architect and general manager upon the ground. James Mclntire was employed as foreman of the work, and he, generally, employed the laborers—masons, bricklayers, hodcarriers, etc.; but the architect employed George Scarf, a…