The Alaska citizen., 1910-09-05
IMPORTANT MINING DECISION RENDERED
According the Law Now Stands the Miner has Little Chance of Recovery From His Emp oyers for Injuries Sustained
 in the Performance of His Labors

rf~k and peril which he aSSum pl in
 continuing in such work. under said
 apparent conditions. and was rIsN
 apparent to said pIaintin. and a risk
 and peril inscparahly connected with said employment
 The reply denied each and every i allegation contained in the an. wer, . with the exception that il admitted 1 the PlaiHun was employed by. and 1 V"~ working for the defendants. 3t | their mine on Vault creek. on Aug | ust &o l9a>.
 | Al the time plaintiI began work ] in defendants mine on Vault creek ! 8u March 1>. l91S. they had opened l up their mine and were ready Iu be | gin hoi-ting the dirt to the sur
 face. A shaft, about 2uo feet in depth. had teen sunk through frog | ell muck and gravel and tunnels | run from the shaft both up aul down i the creek. the tunnel up the creek | being l6o feet. the one down creek l about lIu feet in length; ne tun- | ncls having been run by means of | thaWiuG the ground using steam | points. the entire ground being frog | eu. and the tunnels had been tim 1 hored with square sets covered with | Iagsing both on The top and sides. l leaving the tunnel in the clear six ! feet high and five feet wide. iH 1 which was laid tracks for the cars | fo carry the waste and pa dit tc | the bottom of the shaft. where it was | hoisted by machinery to the sur | face.
 This work hal uecn comnic,ed | March 1N l9eS. and drifts at right | angles to he tunnel were begun at | a point tarthest from the shalt The drift on the right hand side of the | tunnel in which end of the mine the ! plaiutilf was hurt. was about G0 | feet ill length. and the drift on the | left hand side of he tunnel about | fo feet
 Points were driven into the ground | at regular intervals along he entire | face. first on one side of the tunnel l then on the other. and after having | applied them with steam for some i F or II hours. they were removed | and the ground allowed to cool. and l the points put on the other side of | the tunnel. After making the thaW | there. the points Ver" then taken rC | Jhe opposite end of the mine. in the l tunnel down stream. and the same | means used to thaW both sides of the l tunnel there. Each Ihaw was allow | ed To remain al least one night and | one day before the men began shoy. | cling il into the cars. 10 be taken To the surface.
 After each thaw was taken out. | the point men. before they began 1 taking the new thaW from the face l of the dirt. would lay the lateral | tracks from the main track of the tunnel as close To the face of the unthaWed ground as possible. il he- ing possible 10 put the track closer to the face before thawing than it could be done afterwards, for req
 son that the thaw naturally caused some of the face in which the points l were thaWng to slough down.
 On the morning of August 90,
 l9o>, when the plaintiff was injured. 1 successive thawings had brought the l face of the drifts. on each side of the tunnel upstream. To within so | feet of the foot of the shaft. or. in | other words about one-half the dis lance from the end of the original tunnel 10 the shaft had been min ed.
 The space left, by reason of talk ing out the thawed ground, was filled l by waste gravel and sand being | thrown back by the laborerS. from | the thaws, and was thus kept prac | tiCally filled. The timberS from the | tunnel were also taken out where
 possible and sooner or later that | part of the groand which had been
 mined became fillod with waste CIrt
 and gravel and by reason Of the | fact that the roJt, in time, slHb3ed
 off and fell.
 The l6O foot tum.el upstream con uected with the workings Of an ad- l joining lessee. whose ground was | opened in like manner, and is men, i toned by reason of the fact that l the connection of the two tunnels. | in the early part of March. 1908, 1 gave more than ordinary ventilation to defendants mine, and caused the | steam to escape more rapidly and readily. and to cause the tunnels and workings to cool more quickly after the thawing operations had | ceased, and resulted in less slough | ing from the surface of the drift and | tunnel than would ordinarily have
 been the case had they not had this connection with the adjoining mine. At the time of the accident a new face on the right hand side of the upstream tunnel was being mined The plaintiff with others had finished their work on the left hand side of the tunnel the previous afternoon,
 and had begun cleaning up the waste
 dirt and clearing the tracks on the right hand side. having taken out about three carloads of dirt the evening of the 29th of August, 1908. The men were divided into pairs or partners. as they styled them selves, two shoveling into car, and cars were distributed on the lateral tracks along the face of the drift to accommodate the number of men employed. It was a custom that | the men who worked on the far end of the face, in taking out one thaw, would work on the face nearest the tunnel in taking out the next thaw, 1 for the reason that the men would thus equalize their work in push ing their cars to and from the shaft.
 For this reason the plaintiff and | one Anderson were, on the afternoon
 of the 29th and the early morning of the 30th of August, shoveling into a car at the face along the tunnel, | the plaintiff being the nearest to the tunnel, and while thus working thera and while haDding over in