Title: Ecklund v. Barrick
Citation: 144 N.W.2d 605
Docket Number: 10269
State: south-dakota
Issuer: south-dakota Supreme Court
Date: August 29, 1966

144 N.W.2d 605 (1966) Edwin ECKLUND, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. W. N. BARRICK and Hugh Mayes, Defendants and Respondents. No. 10269. Supreme Court of South Dakota. August 29, 1966. *606 Stephens, Riter, Mayer &amp; Hofer, Pierre, Joe H. Neumayr, Gettysburg, for plaintiff and appellant. Martens, Goldsmith, May &amp; Porter, Pierre, for defendants and respondents. BIEGELMEIER, Judge. In this action for damages for personal injuries to a ranch employee by a horse about to be broken, the Memorandum Decision of the trial judge on defendants' motion for judgment notwithstanding the jury verdict states the situation and law applicable thereto which meet the approval of this court on appeal. It is hereafter set out. Somes notes as to the evidence and record known to the trial judge, but not in that Decision, are added to further explain it. The trial judge wrote: The court having properly granted defendants' motion, the judgment appealed from is affirmed. All the Judges concur. [1] This was preceded by defendants' motions for directed verdict at the close of plaintiff's evidence and all the evidence to comply with SDC 1960 Supp. 33.1705; when first made their counsel argued it rather strenuously. At that stage of the trial the judge stated to defendants' counsel further argument was not necessary, "if the jury goes against" defendants he would consider it on a motion for judgment n. o. v. [2] Several large scale photographs of the barn, its stalls and especially the stall and gate involved with similar horses in it are part of the record. These show the wooden gate 4½ feet high, both with and without the rope fastening. The gate is substantially constructed and heavily hinged on one end. One photo shows a horse with a hackamore; it resembles and serves as a halter and also used in riding in place of a bridle; it is partly of braided rope to give it more strength. A twenty foot rope is tied to it and to a post to slow the horse down as he is turned out of the gate. [3] Plaintiff's testimony was: "I raised my head up and the horse hit me on top of the head". Ron Werdell (Wardell), one of the men helping to break these horses, was a witness for plaintiff. His testimony: "Well, you see, these horses, their heads stick over the gate, their neck there, and well, that horse just threw his head right up and came down, that is the way they do". We believe anyone familiar with horses would be mindful of this tendency. [4] The testimony of plaintiff on this phase was: "Q But when you came down there you had worked around these horses enough before so you knew they were being green broken, isn't that so? A I guess so. Q Now isn't it a fact that you have been around horses enough in your work * * * on ranches, that you would know they are liable to do make sudden movements, Edwin? * * * A Ya, at times different horses do different things, too." Plaintiff admitted he had helped catch and tie up wild horses on defendant's ranch and knew the horses in the stall were horses that the men were breaking.