Hennesey

This is an action for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been suffered by plaintiff while in the employ of defendant. Defendant was a stevedore, and was engaged in loading dressed lumber upon the steamer “Aztec” at the Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s dock. The lumber was delivered by the shippers in boxes, which consisted of four boards nailed together, and were about fifteen feet long and eight inches in each of the other dimensions. Sometimes the ends of the boxes were closed by wires, and sometimes they were not. Whether they were usually so closed, and whether it was negli *630 gence to load them on the vessel in the mode adopted, without being so closed, are matters of interest in this case. As the jury found for the plaintiff, we are bound, if necessary to support the verdict, to assume that the jury believed those witnesses who testified that when loaded on the ship in boxes, as this lumber was, the ends of the boxes were nearly always closed, and if not so closed the lumber was very likely to slip out.

The lumber was taken from the wharf by the side of the vessel, where a chain was wrapped around two boxes containing lumber, and one end of the chain, having…