Case Title: Howard v. Foster & Kleiser Co.

Citation: 217 Or. 516, 342 P.2d 780

Docket Number: 

State: oregon

Court: Oregon Supreme Court

Date: 1958-12-03T00:00:00Z

Document:
Affirmed December 3, 1958.
Petition for rehearing denied August 4, 1959.
*519 Duane Vergeer argued the cause for appellant. On the brief were Vergeer & Samuels; Wood, Matthiessen, Wood and Tatum; John R. Brooks and Charles S. Crookham; all of Portland.
John J. Higgins III argued the cause for respondent and cross-appellant. With him on the brief were Black, Kendall & Fain; all of Portland.
*545 Vergreer & Samuels and Charles S. Crookham, Wood, Matthiessen, Wood and Tatum and John R. Brooke, Portland, for petition.
Black, Kendall & Tremaine and John L. Higgins, Portland, contra.
Nels Peterson, Frank H. Pozzi, Berkeley Lent, Donald R. Wilson, Charles Paulson, B.A. Green, Burl Green, Donald S. Richardson, James B. Griswold, Phil *546 H. Ringle, Jr., all of Portland, filed a brief as amici curiae.
AFFIRMED.
ROSSMAN, J.
This is an appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment entered by the circuit court in favor of the defendant notwithstanding the fact that the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $25,000. The defendant is an outdoor billboard advertising company for which the plaintiff was working upon one of its billboards at the time of his injury August 26, 1953. The cause was submitted to the jury upon charges of negligence after the trail judge had indicated willingness to direct a verdict. ORS 18.140. The plaintiff sustained injury when the lowest rung of a ladder upon which he had placed his weight broke.
The complaint averred that the defendant failed to observe the demands of (a) due care; (b) the Employers' Liability Law (ORS 654.305 through 654.330); and (c) the Basic Safety Code, Part II, Ladders and Scaffolds, §§ 2.31, 2.32 and 2.40 (promulgated by the Industrial Accident Commission pursuant to ORS 654.005 to 654.100). The complaint charged that the defendant supplied the plaintiff with *520 a defective ladder; failed to inspect the ladder; stored the ladder outdoors; failed to construct the ladder and accompanying scaffolding so that they could bear four times the maximum weight to be borne by them; failed to place a safety rail upon the scaffolding and ladder; failed to provide the plaintiff with a safe place in which to work; failed to warn the plaintiff of the dangers attendant upon his work; and failed to employ every practical device and caution for the safety of life and limb.
The answer denied all charges of negligence. It alleged that the plaintiff was the foreman in charge of the work which he and his helper were performing at the time of the injury, and that it was his duty to have inspected all equipment and to have seen that the requirements of all laws pertaining to a billposter's safety were observed.
The plaintiff-appellant presents the following two assignments of error:
Through William Herschler, the shop foreman of the defendant's Portland plant, the defendant assigns each of its journeymen billposters, such as the plaintiff, *521 to the task of changing the posters upon a large number of billboards entered upon a list which he hands to the journeyman. Generally, a helper works under and assists the journeyman billposter. To take care of a list of billboards that are located outside Portland may require a trip lasting two or three days. Prior to departure, the journeyman is given sufficient money to enable him to discharge the hotel, meal and incidental expenses of himself and his helper. Upon his return to Portland he accounts for the sum that had been entrusted to him. In addition, the journeyman is charged with the responsibility of preparing timecards for himself and his helper. The two are paid on an hourly basis computed from the journeyman's reports. The journeyman billposter decides the order in which he posts the signs; that is, he arranges his route. He also determines the hour for beginning and terminating the day's work. Mr. Odell Homsley, a journeyman billposter in the defendant's employ, was called to the witness stand by the plaintiff and, under examination by plaintiff's counsel, gave the following testimony concerning the journeyman's authority over the helper:
When a journeyman billposter is sent upon an assignment, the defendant provides him with an equipment truck containing all sign-posting equipment needed in the performance of his work. The plaintiff admitted that his truck contained, among other items, a ladder and "a complete scaffolding."
The billboard upon which the plaintiff was working at the time of his injury was 100 feet from Highway 101, a little south of Tillamook. It stood 10 feet above the ground. Three feet lower a platform, called a walkway, extended out from the billboard about three feet and for the length of the board. The billposters walked upon it while performing their work. The Tillamook billboard was 10 feet high between its upper and lower moldings and therefore its upper area was 13 feet above the walkway. Accordingly, a ladder and scaffolding were necessary so that the billposter could reach the upper areas of the board. The Tillamook billboard was similar to the defendant's other billboards and, that being true, the defendant had provided the material needed for easy construction of the scaffolding. The principal item was a ladder of the familiar kind, equipped at its top with a hook. Other items included two planks and a couple of spreaders. The Tillamook billboard, like others of the defendant's billboards, was supplied with all of the material and equipment essential to the erection of the scaffolding. The material lay upon the walkway and consisted of the items just mentioned. In the truck which the plaintiff drove to the billboard there *523 was similar equipment, as the plaintiff freely conceded. The equipment in the truck and that upon the walkway were virtually duplicates of each other. The plaintiff was free to use either; he chose the equipment upon the walkway. No one in the course of the trial questioned the soundness of the equipment in the truck; in fact, the plaintiff's helper used the ladder in the truck to complete the posting of the bill after the ambulance had removed the plaintiff from the scene of his injury. Unlike the equipment that lay in the open upon the walkway, that in the truck had not been exposed to the vagaries of the weather.
The plaintiff acknowledged that one of his duties was to inspect the equipment which he used in performing his work and to report to the defendant's Portland office any defects he found. The defendant provided its journeymen with a supply of printed forms which they used for that purpose. The plaintiff also testified that another of his duties was to take note of posters that were loose and to either repair them or report them to the Portland office. However, our principal concern is with his duty to inspect ladders, scaffolding and similar apparatus which, if defective, affected the safety of himself or his helper.
We have taken note of the fact that the plaintiff testified that the equipment in his truck included "a complete scaffolding"; that is, a ladder, planking, spreader, etc. He conceded that he was at liberty to bring that material to the billboard or use the equipment that lay upon the walkway. He gave the following testimony:
The Tillamook billboard was not upon the list which the plaintiff regularly served, but was assigned to him upon the occasion in question because the journeyman, Mr. Homsley, who normally took care of it, was upon vacation.
When the plaintiff's truck came to the Tillamook billboard, the plaintiff parked it and thereupon he and his helper walked to the board. They brought with them paste buckets, brushes and the poster. After they had performed their work upon the lower part of the board, the plaintiff hung the ladder's hooks over the upper molding of the billboard and put the spreaders in place. The spreaders held the lower part of the ladder from the billboard so that the lower rung was about even with the outer edge of the walkway and two feet above it. When the ladder was in that position its lower rung was about 11 feet from the ground. A couple of planks and another item or two were then put in place and the scaffolding was ready for use. Thereupon the plaintiff picked up his paste bucket and, placing one foot on the bottom rung, raised himself preparatory to putting his other foot on the second step. At that juncture the lower rung broke and he fell to the ground. Inspection revealed that the lower rung of the ladder had dry rot.
*525 In view of the treatment given by the plaintiff's (appellant's) brief to the evidence bearing upon his alleged duty to inspect the equipment with which he worked, we shall now quote some of his testimony upon that subject. Despite assertions in oral argument by plaintiff's counsel to the contrary, there is nothing in the record which indicates whether or not the ladder was painted. The only witness who was questioned on the subject stated that he did not know. Since the Basic Safety Code, Part II, upon which the plaintiff relies, provides, in § 2.34, that ladders shall not be painted, so that defects may more readily be detected, it must be assumed that this ladder was not painted.
Upon direct examination, the plaintiff testified as follows concerning inspection:
Upon cross-examination the plaintiff's attention was directed to the printed forms with which the journeyman billposters were provided to facilitate their report of defects which they observed. The following then occurred:
Mr. Homsley, who normally attended to the Tillamook billboard, as a witness for the plaintiff, swore that it was the duty of journeymen to inspect equipment and report to the defendant's Portland office all defects. For example, he testified:
Homsley testified that upon receipt of a report showing *529 a defective ladder, the following happens:
The ladder which broke under the plaintiff's weight had been exposed for some time to the weather as it lay upon the walkway. After his injury, the plaintiff obtained a ladder, which the jury could find was the one from which he fell, and delivered it to a laboratory. A Mr. B. Neeley Wood, testing engineer for the laboratory, as a witness for the plaintiff, stated that in testing the ladder for defects he lay it flat upon the base of his testing machine and then applied to its rung "a large 150,000-pound Reilly tensile compression machine." He explained:
If he discovered any defects in the rungs by that test he did not mention the fact. Concerning the lowest rung, that is, the one which broke, he said: "The end of the tenon was remaining in the hole." He tested that rung in this way: "I dug at it with a knife" and found that it had been attacked by dry rot. Mr. Wood was asked by plaintiff's counsel:
As we have stated, the record contains no evidence *530 that the ladder from which the plaintiff fell had ever been painted. This is not an instance in which the defect was concealed or was detectible only through the use of a special device or difficult test which the employee was incapable of applying.
It will be noticed that Mr. Wood tested the ladder by laying it flat upon the base of his machine. He swore that a test applied to a ladder while it lies flat is as effecient as if the ladder stood upright. When the plaintiff climbed to the walkway of the Tillamook billboard there lay before him on the walkway the ladder. No one has claimed that he could not have walked upon its rungs as it lay there and thus have given each rung the test of his imposing weight, 225 pounds. Further, it will be observed that Wood discovered the dry rot in the lowest rung by digging into it with a knife. Accordingly, he used nothing but a simple tool the like of which can be found in the kitchen and in most men's pockets. Although the plaintiff swore that he inspected the ladder, he did not reveal the nature of his inspection except to say that he looked at it.
Homsley, aforementioned, testified that he had used the ladder which lay on the walkway of the Tillamook billboard and had found no defect in it. His weight was 138 to 140 pounds.
The plaintiff's helper at the time of the accident, Charles Salmon, swore that after the plaintiff had been taken to a hospital he [Salmon] finished the posting of the billboard, using the ladder which he obtained from the truck.
The record contains no evidence indicating that the defendant charged anyone except its billposters with the duty of inspecting the equipment and paraphernalia *531 with which they worked. The plaintiff acknowledged that he was aware of that fact. Accordingly, when he placed his weight upon the rung of the ladder which broke, he could not have been under a belief that someone else had inspected it.
1. The foregoing completes our review of the evidence. In setting it forth we were obedient to the rule that, in the consideration of assignments of error such as those previously quoted, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.
ORS 654.305 through 654.335, together with 654.990(5) is our Employers' Liability Law as contained in our present compilation of laws. ORS 654.305 says:
ORS 654.310 provides:
The pertinent provisions of Part II of the aforementioned Basic Safety Code follow:
It will be noticed that the section last quoted uses the term "should be." Section 1.6, Part I, of the Basic Safety Code states:
Section 1.7 provides:
The following provisions are also taken from Part I:
2. As will be recalled, the complaint made charges of negligence which were based upon (1) the common-law rule of due care, (2) provisions of the Employers' *533 Liability Law, and (3) sections of the Basic Safety Code. The plaintiff's brief says:
When the applicability of either the Employers' Liability Law or some other rule of law turns upon a disputed question of fact, it is proper to submit the issue of fact to the jury. Hoag v. Oregon-Washington Corporation, 75 Or 588, 144 P 574, 147 P 756.
3. The Employers' Liability Law exacts of employers measures for the safety of employees which are more stringent than those of the common-law rule of due care. Shelton v. Paris, 199 Or 365, 261 P2d 856; Hoffman v. Broadway Hazelwood, 139 Or 519, 10 P2d 349, 11 P2d 814; and Fromme v. Lang & Co., 131 Or 501, 281 P 120. Again, in all instances in which the Employers' Liability Law sets forth the applicable safety measures which must be taken, that statute deprives employers of some defenses which are available in actions governed by the common-law rule of due care. For example, in actions under the Employers' Liability Law, the negligence of a fellow servant is not a defense. ORS 654.330. Contributory negligence mitigates damages under ORS 654.335, but does not bar recovery. If recovery cannot be had in this case under the Employers' Liability Law, it follows that none is available under the common-law rule of due care.
4, 5. Recovery is prevented in this case under the common-law rule because it was the plaintiff's duty, as he admitted, to have inspected the ladder which broke under his weight. His nonperformance of that duty was the proximate cause of his injury under common-law *534 rules, even if it could be said that failure to store the ladder in a place where it would not have been exposed to the weather, or to have taken any precaution exacted by the Basic Safety Code, was a contributing cause. The plaintiff argues that the defendant was guilty of common-law negligence in not having furnished him with safe equipment, but the case at bar is not an instance in which an employee was ordered to use unsafe equipment, or, in the alternative, terminate his employment. The defendant had furnished the plaintiff with two complete sets of equipment, one of which was free from defects, and had charged him with the duty of inspection before making use. If the plaintiff had found that the ladder that lay upon the walkway was unsafe, he was not required to use it, or, in lieu thereof, to quit his employment, for there was available to him the ladder in the truck; in fact, his helper took that very course after the plaintiff's injury and completed the work with the ladder that he obtained from the truck. No matter how the situation is considered, the question of liability under common-law standards returns to the issue as to whether the plaintiff was himself responsible for his injury. Whether viewed under common-law standards as a question of proximate cause, contributory negligence or primary negligence of the principal for which the plaintiff was himself responsible as vice-principal, there is no right of recovery under common-law principles. American Coal Mining Co. v. Lewis, 77 Ind App 394, 133 NE 850; Atchison T. & S.F. Ry. Co. v. Kennard, 199 Okl 1, 181 P2d 234; and Pittsley v. Allen, 297 Mass 83, 7 NE2d 442. In the Pittsley case, the court said:
Atchison T. & S.F. Ry. Co. v. Kennard said:
From the American Coal Mining Company decision, we take the following:
The evidence discloses that the ladder which broke when the plaintiff placed his weight upon it was not in good condition, but the plaintiff's testimony establishes that it was his duty to have inspected the ladder before he used it. Simple inspection of a kind that could readily have been made would have disclosed the defect, and thereupon it would have been his duty to have rejected the ladder. A safe one was available to him in his truck. His failure to have made the inspection bars him from recovery under the common-law principles so far discussed.
We now turn to the Employers' Liability Law. In *536 referring to its provisions, we shall cite them as they appear in ORS, although the plaintiff's injury preceded the revisions which were made to that measure in introducing it into ORS. The changes that were made to §§ 102-1601 through 102-1606, OCLA are inconsequential to this case. ORS 654.305, which is often termed the "and generally clause," and ORS 654.310 are quoted in a preceding page of this opinion.
ORS 654.315:
The complaint sought to bring the duty of the defendant within the exacting safety measures set forth in the Employers' Liability Law. It charged the defendant with negligence in failing to see that (1) "all wood in said ladder and scaffolding had been carefully selected"; (2) "said ladder and scaffolding were constructed to bear four times the maximum weight"; (3) "said scaffolding and ladder had been inspected and tested"; and (4) "said ladder and scaffolding were provided with a strong and efficient safety rail." The complaint also charged the defendant with negligence "in failing to use every device, care and precaution practicable to be used" and then went on in the terms of the "generally" clause of the Employers' Liability Law.
6. It will be noticed that ORS 654.315 requires that owners and foremen shall see that the requirements of the act are met. In seeing to it that the measures for the protection of workmen from injury are taken, ORS 654.315 and 654.320 plainly authorize the employer to appoint foremen and charge them with the duty of *537 complying with the safety measures. Since the act demands that its safety measures shall be actually carried into effect, it is clear that if they are not, and a workman is injured as a result thereof, the mere fact that the employer appointed foremen and charged them with the duty of seeing to it that the safety measures were observed, does not exonerate the employer. But, in this case, it was not the helper, but the foreman who was injured. We must, therefore, inquire whether a foreman, who was charged with the duty of inspection, may recover if he was injured as the result of his failure to have performed that duty.
Moen v. Aitken, 127 Or 246, 271 P 730, Malloy v. Marshall-Wells Hardware Co., 90 Or 303, 173 P 267, 175 P 659, 176 P 589, and Camenzind v. Freeland Funiture Co., 89 Or 158, 174 P 139, are instances in which the employee who was injured was not a foreman. In the Moen case, the decision spoke of the injured employee as "in the lowest scale of employment." The statement of facts which precedes the Malloy opinion says: "Plaintiff was not a foreman and no employee of the corporation looked to him for instructions." In the Camenzind case, the injured workman operated a machine, and his employer's foreman had noticed that the safety measures exacted by the Employers' Liability Law had not been taken.
We now turn to decisions in which the injured workman possessed authority and had accepted the responsibility of seeing to it that required safety measures were employed.
In Nuckolls v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., 192 SC 156, 5 SE2d 862, the plaintiff, temporary manager of one of the defendant's stores, was injured when he slipped on a wet spot on the floor which was *538 due to the failure of the regular manager to have repaired a defective refrigerator. The plaintiff charged negligence in these particulars: failure to provide a safe place to work; failure to inspect; and permitting waste to accumulate on the floor. In affirming judgment for the defendant, the court said:
Then the court cited its earlier decision, Cline v. *539 Southern R. Co., 101 SC 493, 86 SE 17, and declared that case held:
The holding in the Nuckolls case was based on the fact that the plaintiff was the manager of the store and "in full charge and control of the store." The term "nondelegable," therefore, is not an absolute one and there may be some delegation of authority. In the Nuckolls case it sufficed to bar the manager from recovery where his own failure to have discharged his duty was the cause of his injury.
There are a number of decisions which construed the duties of a foreman or other person in charge of the work under the Employers' Liability Law. An oft-cited case is Marks v. Bauers, 3 F2d 516 (9th CCA), wherein the court construed the Employers' Liability Law. In that case, a foreman of the defendant was injured while working on a rock crusher, and it appeared that he could have taken steps to avoid the injury. The court said:
In Schmidt v. Multnomah Operating Co., 155 Or *540 53, 61 P2d 95, the plaintiff [defendant's foreman] was injured when he caught his arm in a machine which it was his duty to maintain, and based his complaint upon the Employers' Liability Law. The court, in commenting on the Employers' Liability Law, surmised that its authors believed that its objectives would be better achieved by imposing the duties created by it, not only upon owners and contractors, but also upon all vice-principals. The decision pointed out that the statute makes no distinction between the groups and that the duties of principal and vice-principal are equal. It ruled that the plaintiff, as the defendant's vice-principal, owed a statutory duty to see to it that the act of negligence charged in the complaint did not occur.
Robbins v. Irwin et al., 180 Or 667, 178 P2d 935, presented controverted evidence as to whether or not the deceased workman, for whose death the action was brought, had charge of the operation in which he was engaged when death struck. If the plaintiff's version was accepted, the situation could be likened to Moen v. Aitken, supra, and Malloy v. Marshall-Wells Hardware Co., supra, but if the defendants' prevailed, the situation was similar to the four cases last reviewed. The trial judge submitted the fact issue to the jury which returned a verdict for the defendants. The resulting judgment was affirmed by this court.
Fields v. Fields, ___ Or ___, 326 P2d 451, affords an impression of the situations which a court will accept as proper delegations of authority. In that case, the plaintiff, who was operating a power-driven spray machine for his father, received injury when his arm was caught by the protruding bolt of a revolving shaft. In answer to the defendant's argument that the plaintiff *541 was a person in charge of the work, the court said:
7. From the decisions just reviewed rules emerge. It is not possible to assign indiscriminately duties imposed by the Employers' Liability Law to mere laborers and thereby gain relief for employers from responsibility. On the other hand, persons may be invested with requisite authority and thereupon may be charged with the duty of inspection or of performing other functions demanded by the act. Thus, it is not possible for an employer to relieve himself of the statutory duty by merely designating a workman to perform it, even if the workman does, in fact, assume the duty and at times performs it. However, in many instances, it is necessary to appoint a foreman or select someone to be a "person in charge of the work." That is especially true in the case of corporations, since they must act through human agency.
8. The Employers' Liability Law clearly contemplates, as we have seen, delegation of authority to foremen, for it makes provision that certain persons, including a "person having charge of the particular work," shall be responsible for compliance with the act. Since an employer must have some discretion as to how he will set up his foremen and vice-principals, the duties imposed upon a particular employee may not be exclusively statutory but may be affected by responsibilities assigned to him by the employer. Accordingly, in an instance such as Moen v. Aitken, supra, in which *542 the employee was in "the lowest scale of employment," it would not have been consistent with the purposes of the Employers' Liability Law to have held that he was charged with supervisory powers of inspection. An employee of that lowly rank was the type of workman whom the act sought to protect. But when a duty of inspection is imposed upon an employee, who has powers sufficient in extent to make him a "person in charge of the particular work," the imposition upon him of a duty of inspection is not a true delegation in the sense of cases such as Moen v. Aitken, supra, and Camenzind v. Freeland Furniture Co., supra.
9, 10. We come now to the application of the principles just developed to the present case. The defendant's operations were not conducted in a single factory or place but over hundreds of miles of highway. Of necessity, the size of the crew which worked upon a billboard was small. In such a situation, it could not have been practical to have one person directly supervise the work of those engaged in billposting unless that person was also actually engaged in the work of posting. We do not understand the plaintiff to contend that the Employers' Liability Law requires, in a case such as this, that a vice-principal must be sent with every two-man crew, whose duties would consist of standing on the ground and overseeing the work after he had inspected the equipment. It is not denied that the plaintiff had a considerable amount of discretion (1) in selecting the order in which the billboards would be serviced; (2) over the expense money for the crew; (3) of inspecting the billboards and the equipment; (4) of ordering the equipment in the truck to be used in lieu of that at the billboard site; (5) in directing the activities of the helper; (6) in reporting or repairing *543 defects which he found. In short, he was the "person in charge of the particular work."
In his brief, the plaintiff quotes from Schmidt v. Multnomah Operating Co., supra, as follows: "It seems that one who has violated a statutory duty could not have a statutory right of action to secure a redress" and then argues that the plaintiff did, in fact, inspect the ladder and, therefore, had not violated the act. While the contention that the plaintiff had properly performed his duty is hard to reconcile with his assertion that the regular journeyman, and through him the defendant, had not properly performed the duty of inspection, we do not think that it realizes the import of the statute. It is not any violation of statutory duty which will prevent recovery by a violator, but the violation by improper performance of a duty which, if performed, would have prevented the accident. It was held in the Schmidt case that, in the absence of legislation to the contrary, a foreman, to whom was assigned the duty of repairing a machine or rendering an operation safe, has no cause of action against his employer if he is injured through a defective condition which resulted from his failure to have performed his duty. See, also, Robbins v. Irwin, 180 Or 667, 178 P2d 935; Straub v. Oregon Electric Ry. Co., 163 Or 93, 94 P2d 681; and Marks v. Bauers, supra. The reasoning which underlies those decisions was well developed in American Coal Mining Co. v. Lewis, quoted in a preceding paragraph.
We shall set forth our views no further. The plaintiff was a foreman and, under the terms of the act which are quoted in a preceding paragraph of this opinion, it was his duty to have seen to it that the ladder was inspected and, if found defective, that it *544 was not used. He failed to perform a duty which he had undertaken. His neglect of duty did not reward him with a cause of action against the employer to whom he owed the duty.
The assignments of error previously quoted lack merit. The challenged judgment is sustained.
PETITION DENIED.
ROSSMAN, J.
The plaintiff-appellant has filed a petition for a re-hearing which, as stated in his brief, charges:
The Petition for a Rehearing is accompanied by briefs filed by counsel for the plaintiff-appellant and by amicus curiae. The attention which those members of the bar gave to this case caused us to analyze all of its issues once more.
We do not believe that we erred when we found that the plaintiff could have readily ascertained the ladder's condition. Since the brief which accompanies the Petition for a Rehearing indicates that the defect in the *547 ladder could have been discovered only through the use of special tools and skills, we will give this claim some attention.
11, 12. No special equipment or ability was needed to detect the ladder's condition. A ladder is a simple utensil with which virtually every one is familiar. The plaintiff used ladders every day in performing his work. Very likely he acquired a more intimate knowledge of their construction, peculiarities and state of repair than any one who worked in the defendant's other departments. In Borden v. Daisy Roller Mill Co., 98 Wis 407, 74 NW 91, 67 Am St Rep 816, it is said: "A ladder is one of the most simple contrivances in general use." In fact, a ladder is so simple and its condition can be so easily ascertained that ladders generally come within the simple tools doctrine. See 3 Labatt's Master and Servant, 2nd ed, § 924a, page 2480 and 56 CJS, Master and Servant, § 390, page 1211. When the plaintiff ascended to this billboard's walkway (platform) the ladder that he shortly undertook to use lay in front of him. He knew that it, like all the other ladders which the defendant kept at its billboard sites, was daily exposed to the weather. He also knew that it was his duty to inspect it. It is common knowledge that objects made of wood deteriorate when subjected to the rigors of fog, rain and sunshine  especially in coastal areas such as the one in which the ladder in question lay.
13. When the plaintiff stood upon the walkway of the Tillamook billboard and the ladder lay at his feet there was nothing, as our previous opinion stated, to have prevented him from walking upon the ladder's rungs as it lay there, or he could have directed his helper to do so. The plaintiff's weight, 225 pounds, would have subjected the ladder to a test more exacting than that given to utensil of that kind if a man of common *548 weight walked upon it. Our opinion mentioned the fact that later, when the ladder was taken to a laboratory and was there tested, it lay flat upon a surface and weights were applied to its rungs.
We do not believe that our opinion erred in the particular to which we just gave attention.
14. We will now consider the plaintiff's contention that an employer who (1) rejected the Workmen's Compensation Act, (2) appointed one of his staff as vice-principal and (3) invested him with adequate authority, may nevertheless be liable to the vice-principal upon charges of negligence if the vice-principal neglected his duties and thereby became injured.
Our opinion said:
In that passage we should not have used the words "contributory negligence."
The evidence, according to our belief, shows that the defendant was not guilty of any negligence except that committed by the plaintiff himself as its vice-principal. Only by attributing the plaintiff's negligence to the defendant does the latter become guilty of any wrong. Had some one other than the plaintiff been injured by the plaintiff's negligence there would be justice in attributing the plaintiff's negligence to the defendant, but when the plaintiff was both wrong doer and victim the fiction whereby the negligence becomes the defendant's misfires. Accordingly, the plaintiff's failure to have discovered the defect in the ladder can not be deemed an act of contributory negligence, *549 for it did not contribute a delict to any wrong committed by the defendant. The plaintiff's failure to have inspected the ladder was the sole act of negligence which brought injury upon him.
15. As our previous decision states, the defendant rejected compliance with the Workman's Compensation Act. Accordingly, in an action by a workman against such an employer ORS 656.024 (2) withholds from the employer as a defense the contributing negligence of the injured workman.
Our opinion cited and quoted from the decisions of many courts which hold that at common law a vice-principal whose failure to have performed his duty subjected him to an injury can not recover from his employer. For example, it quoted from the much-cited decision of Pittsley v. Allen, 297 Mass 83, 7 NE2d 442:
In Drum v. New England Cotton Yarn Co., 180 Mass 113, 61 NE 812, the plaintiff, 27 years old and an employee of the defendant, was injured when one of its ladders which he was using broke. The decision, referring to the plaintiff, said:
*550 We take the following from City of Teague v. Radford, 63 SW2d 376 (Tex):
Sible v. Wells Brothers Co., 148 Ill App 109, states:
16. Many other decisions hold to like effect, that is, if a vice-principal, whose authority was adequate, failed to discharge his duty and was injured thereby, the negligence was his and will not be imputed to his master. If a third person was injured the master will be held responsible on the principle of respondeat superior.
In the present case the evidence fails to disclose that the defendant breached any duty which it owed to the plaintiff and thereby is not liable to him. Only the plaintiff committed a negligent act.
We think that our previous opinion is free from error. The Petition for a Rehearing is denied.