Young

This was an action for wrongful death based on diversity of citizenship. 1 It was tried by the District Court sitting without a jury. Plaintiffs, all citizens of the State of Texas, are the widow and minor children of Herbert "Weldon Young, deceased, who met a tragic and violent death on March 3, 1954, when a portable elevator collapsed as it was being prepared for removal from a housebuilding job in Los Angeles County.

Some description of the parties named, and those before the Court, seems essential.

The elevator had been manufactured by Sam Mulkey Co., Inc., a Missouri corporation, not served as a defendant. The Aeroil Products Company, Inc., a Delaware corporation, doing business in California, was named and served. It had assembled the manufactured portable elevator in Los Angeles. H. L. Weigert (not a defendant), was a roofing contractor, living in Los Angeles County, California, who employed the decedent. Weigert purchased the portable elevator from Structural Materials Company, a California corporation (which never had had physical possession of the equipment but which had in turn paid Aeroil Products Company for the machinery). Aeroil Products delivered the portable…