Case Name: Conrad Geibel, Appellant, v. James W. Elwell, Respondent
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1897-06
Citations: 19 A.D. 285
Docket Number: 
Parties: Conrad Geibel, Appellant, v. James W. Elwell, Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: Appellate Division Reports
Volume: 19
Pages: 285–291

Head Matter:
Conrad Geibel, Appellant, v. James W. Elwell, Respondent.
Negligence — a boy injured while endeavoring gratuitously to free the stern line of a vessel leaving a pier — inviting one into a dangerous place.
The mate of a brig lying at a pier, which had been loosed from all her moorings except the stern line, and to which a tugboat had just been fastened, as the vessel began to move called to some boys who were playing upon the pier to cast off the stern line, and while they were complying with the request, and one of their number, a boy of eleven years of age, who was unfamiliar with the movements of vessels, had his back to the vessel and was reaching up in order to lift the hawser over the top of the spile, which was higher than his head, a heavy anchor, which was suspended from her port cathead by three or four feet of chain, dragged along the side of the pier and its stock struck the spile and crushed the boy’s extended arm, rendering its amputation necessary.
In an action brought against the owner of the vessel to recover for such injury, Held, that the question whether a ■ dangerous situation had not been created by the management of the brig, into which the plaintiff had been invited without notice or knowledge thereof, should have been submitted to the jury;
That the owner was liable for the acts of those in charge of the brig and, if the plaintiff was induced by them to enter into a dangerous situation, for the injury resulting therefrom;
That the mere gratuitous rendering of such a service by the plaintiff did not create, as between him and those on the brig, the relation of fellow-servants.
Appeal by the plaintiff, Conrad Geibel, from a judgment of the Supreme Court in favor of the defendant, entered in the office of the cleric of the county of Hew York on the 8th day of June, 1896. upon the dismissal of. his complaint by direction .of the court after a trial at the Hew York Trial Term, and also from an order entered in said clerk’s office on the 26th day of October, 1896,. deny-' ing the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial made upon the minutes.
The action is brought to recover damages, for the loss of the plaintiff’s right arm, by reason, as alleged, of the negligence and carelessness of the defendant on the 21st day of April, 1884. It appears from the testimony on the part of the plaintiff that the manner in which his injuries were received was as follows:
On the day mentioned,, the plaintiff, at the time eleven years old, and a number of other boys were playing on the pier at the foot of East Fifth street, Hew York city, on the north side of which the brig Keystone, owned by the defendant, was lying moored. The pier had eight spiles along its north side, sixty feet apart, the eastern or outer spile being about three feet from the end of the pier, and there were lamp posts on the pier one hundred feet apart. The brig was lying bow in, so that her port side was .next to the pier and her stern was twelve or fifteen feet inside the end of the. dock. From her port cathead, an anchor weighing about 1,200 pounds was hanging by three or four feet of chain. The vessel was broad in the bow and her - catheads extended out, so .that the anchor stock was hanging over the dock two or three feet. The plaintiff had never been on any other pier, and not very often upon that one5 he had never done any work upon docks or vessels, and • did not observe how the anchor was hanging. The brig was fastened with a bow line leading to tfie fifth spile on the pier, a breast line with the bight around the fourth spile and a stern line to the outer spile; besides these, she had- out spring lines. The bow and stern lines were nine-inch hawsers. A tugboat came to move the brig to the south- side of the pier' at Sixth street, and took a line from -the starboard quarter. There were on the brig the' captain, the acting mate and, another-man. The mooring lines of the vessel were singled out to some extent, and the mate who was forward called to the boys playing on the dock to cast off - the bow line from the fifth spile. A man who was in a shanty on the dock heard this request of the mate, came out. and reproved him for making.it and drove the boys away, telling them they would get hurt there. The man cast off the bow line, and one of the-boys threw off the breast line.. The boys then. went to play about a pile of lumber on the south side of the dock. After the bow and breast lines were cast off, the brig began to move out and the mate was called aft by the captain. The flood tide was running, and the vessel’s stern swung off from the pier and her bows swung in so that her head rigging was over the pier. The mate called or beckoned to the boys again to cast off from the outer spile the stern line, which he was paying out as the vessel moved out of the dock. A number of the boys, the plaintiff among them, responded, and, after lifting the bight of a line' off a cleat on. the dock next west of the east spile, began to lift the nine-inch hawser off the spile. The top of the spile was higher than the plaintiff’s ■ head, so .that to get the hawser off he had to extend his arms upward. As he was so engaged he was facing the river, and his back was towards the bow of the vessel. After the vessel began to move, with her bows in over the pier, the anchor stock struck a lamp post, twisted the top of it off and bent down the other part, and then swinging by its three or four, feet of chain, with the rapid movement of the vessel, raked along, its flukes digging and scratching the sides of the pier until the stock struck the outer spile, just at the moment that the plaintiff, with the assistance of some of the other boys, had succeeded in lifting the hawser off. In striking the spile, the anchor stock crushed the plaintiff’s right arm, as it was extended upward, against the spile. The anchor then swung clear, and the vessel went out into the river and was taken into the Sixth street pier by the tug. The boy was taken to the hospital and his arm amputated.
The plaintiff also introdúced the testimony of shipmasters, tending to show that the manner of towing the vessel out of the dock by casting off all lines but the stern line was unusual and unseamanlike, and that the anchor, when hanging at the cathead, should have been stopped up short, and not have had three or four feet of chain by which to swing.
At the close of the plaintiff’s case, on motion of the defendant’s counsel, the court dismissed the complaint, to which ruling the plaintiff excepted and moved for a new trial, which was denied^ and from the judgment and order thereupon entered the plaintiff appeals.
Christopher Fine, for the appellant.
R. D. Benedict, for the respondent.

Opinion:
O'Brien, J.:
The learned trial judge stated that he would assume that there was negligence in the management of the brig by those in charge of her at the time of the accident, but in granting the motion to dismiss the complaint he concluded as matter of law that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence,, and that those in charge of the brig were fellow-servants of the plaintiff, and that for their negli-' genee as against the master he could not recover. In determining whether the disposition thus made was correct, the plaintiff, under the well-settled rule, is entitled to the most favorable inferences and deductions that can be drawn from the testimony and proofs.
Upon the question.-of defendant's liability there was sufficient evidence to justify the inference that through his servants he had created a dangerous situation, into which plaintiff was induced to enter.' Without repeating all such evidence, it clearly appears that those on the brig made no provision, before she was moved or while she was in the act «of moving, to have any one upon the pier who could release the lines or hawsers; and that the manner of casting off the hawsers was such that, instead of the brig being under the control, either of the men on board of her or the tug which was engaged in pulling her out from the pier and up stream, her stern was pulled around, permitting her bow to swing in against the pier, so that an anchor weighing about 1,200 pounds, which was swaying and dangling from three to four feet below the cathead and reaching over the pier, hit the spiles, breaking a lamp post, scratching the dock, and taking off the arm of the plaintiff while he, with other boys, was engaged, at the request of those on board the brig, in the very act of casting off the stern line, There was evidence, therefore, from which the jury could have inferred that, by the management. of the brig, those on board of her had created a dangerous situation, which was perilous to all upon the pier, who, without notice or knowledge of such danger, might be reached by the anchor and the rigging pendent about the bow of the swinging, brig. It was fo.r the jury further to determine whether it was dangerous for a child of eleven years, which was the age of the plaintiff, to undertake to .cast off from a spile at the end of the pier, and within the line of - movement of the bow and swaying anchor, a nine-inch hawser which connected the stern of the brig to the pier, If such was dan gerous work for the plaintiff to engage in, it was evidence from which-negligence could be inferred on the part of those who invited or induced the plaintiff to enter upon the danger without warning, and rendered liable for the injuries sustained by the child those responsible for placing him in such position. When the brig commenced to-swing stern out, with the bow over the pier, it became necessary to-release the stern line; and thus it was fairly to be inferred that a dangerous emergency was present, requiring the assistance of some one on the pier to extricate the brig by loosing the stern line from the spile. It was in such an emergency, according to the plaintiff's testimony,, that he was requested to undertake for the defendant, and for the protection of the defendant's property,in the emergency thus existing, this dangerous work.' - We do not think it will be . seriously questioned that the defendant was liable for actions of the three employees in charge of the brig-who were at the time managing it in his business and for his benefit. Indeed, the- emergency made the act of the mate, or of the person who induced the plaintiff and the other boys to undertake the task, the act of the defendant. As there was, therefore, evidence from which the jury might infer that the dangerous situation created by the management of the brig was due to the defendant's employees, and that the plaintiff was invited to enter upon a dangerous work in an emergency, without warning him of the danger or instructing him as to how it could be avoided, then for injuries received while engaged in such work the defendant might be held liable, unless the plaintiff contributed by his own negligence to the accident from which his injuries flowed.
If there was a question of fact as to whether the plaintiff was 01-was not guilty of contributory negligence, then it was improper to-take that from the jury. The respondent, however, in upholding the ruling made by the trial judge, insists that the plaintiff,, as matter of law, was guilty of contributory negligence. In support of this contention he urges that the accident happened in broad daylight, and that the position of the vessel and her anchor was open and apparent to anybody who came upon the wharf; that the plaintiff saw her as he went on the wharf; that he was old enough to know that a moving anchor would hurt him if it struck him, and that he must keep out of the way ; and that when, some time before the accident,, he was called upon to cast off the brig's bowline, he was'told by a man on the dock to go away, that he would get hurt there. As to this latter testimony, the plaintiff denies having heard -such warning; but even if he did, lie was not injured at that time, "for, as the testimony shows,, he with the other boys went to another part of the pier and was there engaged in play,, and it was. some -time afterwards that, the dangerous emergency to which we have ^alluded having arisen, being suddenly called upon, he undertook to -comply with the request of the mate or those on board the brig to throw off the stern line. There is nothing to show, that the plaintiff knew there was any danger in complying with the. request; but the testimony is that lie had never before done such-work; that he had not observed the position of the anchor, and that' he had never before been on any pier or dock, except this' one on which he was hurt, and only a few times on that. We have, moreover, the evidence that scarcely any time elapsed between the request to remove the stern line and the crushing of the plaintiff's arm; that he did not .see the anchor until it struck him, and that, in running to the spile . at .the east end of the pier and in casting off the- stern line therefrom, his back was necessarily towards the bow.of the brig and' the anchor. Having no knowledge, therefore, about' the movements of vessels, as to tlieir proper or improper handling, or as to whether the casting off of a line was right or wrong, or whether it was dangerous, these should not ah, as matters of. law,-be determined against the plaintiff, who, so far as his testimony shows, without- any notice or warning of danger or risk, ran on being requested to remove a line, in the act of removing which he received his injuries. Hor do we think there is any force in the suggestion that he should have looked, and if he had, that he 'would have seen the anchor was coming'.along over the pier; because, according to one of the witnesses, there was but the. briefest space of time between the call to remove the hawser,, which was. responded to'by the plaintiff and the other boys, and the time when the anchor struck the spile and crushed the •plaintiff's arm; as'expressed by the witness, .the anchor came against the-spile with a rapidity like " the click of a- watch." We think, therefore, that the question of the' plaintiff's contributory negligence was one of fact and should not. have been determined as a matter of law, because he was entitled to the benefit of. the rule, which is sustained by many cases, that " if the plaintiff is suddenly put into peril, without having sufficient time to consider all the eircnmstaneés, he is excusable for omitting some precautions or making an unwise choice under this disturbing influence; although, if his mind had been clear, he ought to have-done otherwise, especially if his peril is caused by the defendant's fault." (1 Shearm. & Redf. on Reg. § 89.) "A party who places another in peril cannot complain if he does not exercise the best judgment in extricating himself from such peril." ( Voah v. Northern Cent. Ry. Co., 15 N. Y. 323.)
We also regard, as without force, the argument that any negligence shown as against the master of the brig was that of fellow-servants of the plaintiff, and that the complaint was rightly dismissed on that ground, because we can think of no legal principle that can be invoked which would make a boy like this plaintiff, who never had any relation with the master or his employees beyond going to their assistance in an emergency, a fellow-servant of those who created the emergency. There certainly was no express hiring, and the mere gratuitous rendering of such a service did not impliedly create, as between the plaintiff and those on the brig, the relation of fellow-servants. As we think it was error, therefore, for the learned trial judge to so hold, and to determine as matter of law that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence, it follows that there should be a new trial.
The judgment is accordingly reversed and a new trial ordered, with costs to the appellant to abide the event.
Van Brunt, P. J., Williams, Patterson and Ingraham, JJ., concurred.
Judgment reversed, new trial ordered, costs to appellant to abide event.