Robinson

Plaintiff bad judgment below for $40,000 as damages for personal injuries suffered by him while be was- employed by defendant in decking logs. Tbe accident happened in Wallowa county, Or., December 29, 1924. Defendant was engaged in gathering logs from territory adjacent to its logging railroad and piling them alongside tbe track, preparatory to loading them on cars for transportation to its mill.

Described generally, tbe machinery or “skidder” consisted of a railroad flat car with a donkey engine on each end of it, equipped with drums, pulleys, sheaves, blocks, cables, and other appliances commonly used in such operation. The main cable, approximately 1,000 feet in length, was drawn from the drum out into the woods and attached to a choker line, which was looped about one end of the log, and in this way the log was dragged endwise to the place where the deck was to be made. When the forward end reached a point where it was desired to place the log, the decker applied a decking hook, attached to another cable, to the other end. The operation then was such that, as this line was drawn taut, the hook engaged firmly with the log and remained attached until that end was drawn in, so…