Callan

The plaintiff brought this action to recover damages for an injury sustained by him while in the employ of the defendant. The defendant in December, 1892, had entered into a contract with Major W. H. Heuer, of the corps of engineers, acting on behalf of the United States, for constructing a breakwater or jetty on each side of the entrance to Humboldt Bay, and in April, 1893, had hired the plaintiff as a laborer to work on the jetty. In constructing the jetty, trestle-work was built out from the shore, on which was laid a double railroad track on which to carry rock and other material with which the jetty was to be formed. This trestlework was constructed of bents of piling sixteen feet apart, each bent consisting of four piles upon which a cap was fastened, and across these caps were laid stringers, upon which were placed the rails on which the cars were to run. Brush mattress work was constructed about the trestlework and sunk to the bottom of the sea, and on this brush work was deposited rock, thus forming a rip-rap embankment to constitute the jetty. The mode of laying the brush mattress was as follows: After some of the bents had been placed in position and the track laid…