Case Name: Maria L. Davis, Adm'rx, Resp't, v. The New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Co., App'lt
Court: New York Supreme Court, General Term
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1893-05-08
Citations: 52 N.Y. St. Rep. 740
Docket Number: 
Parties: Maria L. Davis, Adm'rx, Resp't, v. The New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Co., App'lt.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York State Reporter
Volume: 52
Pages: 740–742

Head Matter:
Maria L. Davis, Adm'rx, Resp't, v. The New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Co., App'lt.
(Supreme Court, General Term, Second Department,
Filed May 8, 1893.)
Master and servant—Negligence—Evidence.
In an action to recover for the death of a servant while shoveling coal in a bin caused by the giving way of a partition, the opinion of a witness as to the sufficiency of the braces or anchors to hold the crib-work is inadmissible. (Pratt, J , dissents.)
(Gerbig v. W. T., L. E. &W. R. R. Go., 51 St. Rep., 534, followed.)
Appeal from judgment in favor of plaintiff, entered upon verdict, and from order denying motion for a new trial. Action to recover for the death of plaintiff’s intestate. The deceased was an employe of defendant and was engaged in shoveling coal in one of the bins, when the partition between the one he was in and the next one gave way, and the coal from that bin and the partition fell on him, causing his death. On the trial one of the witnesses was allowed to testify that anchors of the length used in this structure were insufficient.
Lewis E. Carr, for app’lt; Frank Comesky, for resp’t.

Opinion:
Barnard, P. J.
The death of the plaintiff's intestate was occasioned by the same accident which occasioned the injury to George Gerbig, whose case was heard upon appeal in the court at the last December (1892) term. 51 St. Rep., 534. The questions put to the witness Ferguson, a civil engineer, calling for his opinion as to the safety of the crib which gave way and caused the accident, are similar, in principle, to the questions considered in the Gerbig case. It was therein held that the questions admitted assumed the functions of the jury upon questions of fact.
The judgment and order refusing a new trial should be reversed and a new trial granted, costs to abide event, oil the opinion in the Gerbig case.
Dykman, J., concurs.