Westberg

Leonard Westberg, a longshoreman, brought an action against J. R. Hanify Company, a corporation, to recover damages for injuries sustained by him while employed by said corporation in stowing lumber, which was being loaded on the steam schooner Ryder Hanify, which lay at a dock at Portland, Or. The ease was tried before a jury, which found a verdict for the plaintiff, upon which judgment for $4,000 and costs was entered against defendant, who, by writ of error, brings the case to this court.

The cause of action is based on the alleged negligence of the plaintiff in error in furnishing for use in the work of loading its schooner a sling of insufficient strength for the task, with the result that, while a load of lumber was being hoisted, the sling which held it together broke, and defendant in error was struck by pieces of lumber which fell with considerable force upon him.

There are several theories upon which the accident might be accounted for. The load may have been excessive, as a consequence of the order of the master of the vessel in charge of the work to include in one load a quantity of lumber which, without his intervention, would have furnished material for two; or the…