Armour v. Hahn

Mr. Justice Gray delivered the opinion of the court. He' stated the facts in the foregoing language, and continued : This court is of opinion that the Circuit Court erred in not rendering judgment for the defendant on his demurrer to the plaintiff’s evidence. There was no evidence tending to prove any negligence on the part of the firm of which the defendant ivas a member, or of their superintendent, or of the foreman of the gang of carpenters. The obligation of a master to provide reasonably safe places and structures for his servants to Avork upon does not impose upon him the duty, as towards them, of keeping a building, Avhich they are employed in erecting, in a safe condition at eArery moment of their AArork, so far as its safety depends upon the due performance of that work by them and their felloAvs. The plaintiff Avas not a minor, employed in Avork Avhich Avas strange to him, but was a man of full age, engaged in ordinary Avork of his trade as a carpenter. The evidence ■ tended to shÓAV that he and one of his comrades Avere directed by their foreman to push the joist out on the projecting sticks of timber, not that he told them to go out themselves. The projecting timber upon Avhich the plaintiff placed his foot Avas inserted in a Avail which Avas in the course of being built, and Avhich at the time had been bricked up only so far as to be on a level Avith the upper surface of the tipiber. The usual course, as the plaintiff himself testified, was to put the timber in, and leave it in that way temporarily, and aftenvards build the wall up over it. It is not pretended that the stick of timber Avas in- itself unsound or unsuitable for its purpose. If it Avas at the time insecure, it Avas either by reason of the risks ordinarily incident to the state of things in the unfinished condition of the building'; or else by reason of some negligence of one of the carpenters or bricklayers, all of whom Avere employed and paid by the same master, and Avere Avorking in the course of their employment at the same place and time, with an immediate common object, the erection of the building, and therefore, *319 within the' strictest limits of thd rule of law upon the subject, fellow servants, one of whom! cannot maintain an action ■ or injuries caused by the negligence of another against their common master. Hough v. Railway Co., 100 U. S. 213 ; Randall v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 109 U. S. 478. The judgment of the Circuit' Court must therefore be reversed, and the case remanded for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion. Judgment reversed.