Opinion ID: 2352303
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: busman and rosen, inc.

Text: This defendant first contends that judgment should have been entered on its behalf because the evidence established that the plaintiff was a licensee on the scaffold and the only duty owed by this defendant was to refrain from willful or wanton injury. This conclusion would be proper if the premise were correct. To establish the propriety of the premise resort must be had to the evidence. It is conceded that the scaffold was erected by this defendant and that this defendant knew the plaintiff would use the scaffold. The contract between this defendant and the Carlson Company provided, inter alia, that the scaffolding erected by this defendant was not to be removed without the consent of the Carlson Company. An inference is thus created that this defendant contemplated the use of the scaffold by the plaintiff. There was testimony that in construction work, of the nature here involved, cooperation among the various trades is customary. In support of such a prevailing custom, the evidence discloses that certain cleat boards were nailed to wooden beams on the roof by the carpenters, employees of this defendant, and were left there by the carpenters, upon completion of their work, for use by the roofers, of which the plaintiff was one, in the performance of their work. It is observed that the scaffolding was erected on the side of the building and provided a means for the plaintiff to reach the roof and make use of the cleat boards which were left there by the carpenters for the plaintiff's use and benefit. These facts are suggestive of an implied invitation by this defendant for the plaintiff to use the scaffolding as a necessary incident to the performance of his work. This is particularly true since it would be unrealistic in a project of this nature, where the work of the mechanics is overlapping, for each subcontractor to erect scaffolding solely for his own use so that several sets of scaffolding would be required to be erected for work on the same building. Moreover, there was evidence from which the jury could determine that an express invitation had been extended by this defendant, through its foreman, James Hazekamp, to the plaintiff to use the scaffold. An express invitation was testified to on behalf of the plaintiff. It is urged by this defendant that its foreman, Hazekamp, had no authority to permit employees of other contractors to use the scaffold and that he, in fact, did not authorize the plaintiff to use the scaffold. Whether or not Hazekamp did authorize the plaintiff to use the scaffold and whether Hazekamp had authority, either real or apparent, to bind his principal in this respect were questions properly submitted to the jury under the existing circumstances. There was testimony that Hazekamp knew that the plaintiff and the other roofers, as well as the tinsmiths, were using the scaffold; that Hazekamp was in charge of the carpenters; that his job was to see that the buildings were put up in a workmanlike manner and to govern the men under this defendant's contract; and that another part of the scaffold on the same building was still being used by the carpenters at the time the plaintiff was working on the part of the scaffold which collapsed. There was sufficient evidence to justify an inference that Hazekamp had control of the facilities used by the carpenters under his jurisdiction and apparent authority to authorize the use of such facilities by the plaintiff. In Erie R.R. Co. v. S.J. Groves & Sons Co., 114 N.J.L. 216 ( E. & A. 1934), the court said, at page 219:    The question in every case depending upon the apparent authority of the agent is whether the principal has by his voluntary act placed the agent in such a situation that a person of ordinary prudence, conversant with business usages and the nature of the particular business, is justified in presuming that such agent has authority to perform the particular act in question; and when, as here, the party, relying upon such apparent authority, presents evidence which would justify a finding in his favor, he is entitled to have the question submitted to the jury. A review of the evidence convinces us that whether or not the plaintiff was an invitee of the defendant, Busman and Rosen, Inc.; and if an invitee, whether this status arose through an implied or an express invitation; whether this defendant placed Hazekamp in a position of apparent authority to extend an express invitation to use the scaffold; whether an express invitation was actually extended pursuant thereto; and whether the plaintiff was justified in relying thereon, were all questions properly submitted to the jury. This defendant next contends that there was no evidence of negligence on its part and that the trial court erred in charging the jury that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur was applicable to this defendant. It is, of course, basic that negligence is a fact which must be proved and which will never be presumed; nor will the mere proof of the occurrence of an accident raise a presumption of negligence. This proposition has long been established and was recently reiterated by this court in Callahan v. National Lead Co., 4 N.J. 150 (1950). However, where circumstances attending the occurrence of an accident are appropriate for the application of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur the doctrine may be invoked for the purpose of raising an inference of negligence for consideration by the jury. The rationale of the rule has been stated by Mr. Justice Heher, in Cicero v. Nelson Transportation Co., Inc., 129 N.J.L. 493 ( Sup. Ct. 1943), at page 496, to be as follows: The rationale of the rule is that there is in the circumstances reasonable evidence of the defendant's negligence. The question is whether in the absence of an explanation by the defendant, the occurrence is such as reasonably warrants the inference of the want of the requisite degree of care on his part. Do the circumstances attending the occurrence of the event, tested in the light of common knowledge and experience, furnish reasonable grounds for the conclusion that if due care had been exercised by the person having control of the instrumentality causing the injury, the mishap would not have occurred? If such an inference is sustainable on the ground of probability, a prima facie case is established. This is so here, if there was evidence that defendant had the management and control of the instrumentality which caused the injury. The doctrine has been considered by this court in several recent cases. Den Braven v. Meyer Brothers, 1 N.J. 470 (1949); Hamrah v. Clements, 3 N.J. 285 (1949); Menth v. Breeze Corporation, Inc., 4 N.J. 428 (1950); Kramer v. R.M. Hollingshead Corp., 5 N.J. 386 (1950). In the present case there is no dispute that the plaintiff while working on the scaffold fell and sustained injuries when the scaffold gave way; there is no dispute that the scaffold was erected by this defendant, Busman and Rosen, Inc., nor is there any dispute that immediately after the accident a bracket used to support one end of the scaffold upon which the plaintiff had been working was found to be disengaged. If the plaintiff was using the scaffold as an invitee of this defendant, and we have decided that the status of the plaintiff was properly for the determination of the jury, this defendant was under a duty to exercise due care for the safety of the plaintiff if, at the time of the occurrence of the accident, this defendant had the management of the scaffold under its control. Assuming control of the scaffold by this defendant at the time of the injury, it is manifest that the disengaged bracket was a circumstance which required some explanation by this defendant as it indicated a want of due care in the erection or maintenance of the scaffold. Testimony was introduced by this defendant to the effect that the bracket was struck by planking which was being thrown from the roof by the roofers and that some of the planking being so cast from the roof had struck the scaffold. The jury could have determined that the bracket had become disengaged as a result of this latter activity. On the other hand it was within the province of the jury to conclude that the scaffold had been improperly erected or maintained by this defendant. The circumstances surrounding the fall and the disengaged bracket afforded evidence from which a permissive inference of negligence might be drawn; it was for the jury to consider such evidence as well as evidence presented by the defendant by way of explanation to determine whether the plaintiff carried the burden of proving that negligence on the part of the defendant was the proximate cause of his injury. Cleary v. Camden, 118 N.J.L. 215 ( Sup. Ct. 1937); affirmed, 119 N.J.L. 387 ( E. & A. 1938). It is urged by this defendant, however, that it did not have control of the scaffold at the time of the injury since the scaffold was then being used by the plaintiff and his co-workers, and was not being used by this defendant or his carpenters. But mere use of the scaffold by the plaintiff would not as a matter of law divest this defendant of its control of the scaffold. Ownership of the scaffold, erection of the scaffold, and the properly inferable invitation by this defendant to the plaintiff to use the scaffold created an inference from which the jury could justifiably determine that the scaffold was under the control of this defendant. The fact that the jury determined that both this defendant and the Carlson Company were in control of the scaffold creates no inconsistency. Control might have been in either or both of the defendants; in either case the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur was applicable. The word exclusive when used to define the nature of the control necessary to invoke the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur does not connote that such control must be several and the defendant singular and never plural. Schroeder v. City & County Savings Bank of Albany, et al., 293 N.Y. 370, 57 N.E. 2d 57 ( N.Y. Ct. of App. 1944); rehearing denied, 293 N.Y. 764, 57 N.E. 2d 842. See also 65 C.J.S., Negligence, § 220 (8) bb, p. 1018. This philosophy was followed in Biondini v. Amship Corporation, 185 P. 2d 94 ( Dist. Ct. of App. Cal. 1947). In that case, in which the situation was very similar to that of the case sub judice, the court decided that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur applied to a factual situation involving injury resulting from the collapse of a scaffold. In referring to the application of the doctrine, the court said, at page 104: Harbor Ship argues that the doctrine is not applicable to it because the scaffold was not within its `exclusive' management and control. The law does not prohibit the application of the doctrine against two or more defendants where there is joint control. Price v. McDonald, 7 Cal. App. 2d 77, 45 P. 2d 425; Ybarra v. Spangard, 25 Cal. 2d 486, 154 P. 2d 687, 162 A.L.R. 1258. It was for the jury to say whether either or both of these defendants had `control' of the scaffold, and if it should find that either or both had such control it should be instructed that the doctrine under discussion is applicable to that defendant or defendants. Indeed, the courts of this State have decided that an instrumentality causing injury may be in joint control of two defendants in which event the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur will apply against both of said defendants. Smith v. Claude Neon Lights, Inc., 110 N.J.L. 326, 331 ( E. & A. 1932). This principle appears to have been recognized in an opinion by Chief Justice Beasley in Van Winkle v. American Steam Boiler Co., 52 N.J.L. 240, 246 ( Sup. Ct. 1890). We conclude that in the instant case the question of whether the scaffold was under the control and management of either or both of the defendants at the time of the plaintiff's injury was factual and was properly submitted to the jury. The next contention of Busman and Rosen, Inc., is that the trial court erred in refusing to charge the jury that there was no evidence of willful or wanton injury established in the present case. We see no merit to this point. The trial court, having charged the jury with respect to the duty to exercise reasonable care for the safety of an invitee, charged the jury as follows: If, on the other hand, you find that the plaintiff is a licensee, then the legal duty would be a different one; for it is the contention of the defendant Busman and Rosen, Inc., that the defendant was not under any duty to provide a reasonably safe place for the plaintiff, and that is upon the theory that the plaintiff was not an invitee, but was a licensee. And under the law of this State, a person who is a licensee can only recover damages for personal injuries sustained through wanton or willful injury on the part of the defendant. And, of course, that relationship is entirely different from the relationship which I have characterized as that of an invitee. The charge adequately stated the law with respect to the limitation of the right of recovery of a licensee. Since, as stated in this defendant's brief, There was no claim in this case that there was any willful or wanton injury, nor was there any evidence of such injury, and since the court had previously stated on at least three occasions in its charge that the complaint was based on negligence, we fail to see how this defendant was harmed by the court's refusal to charge as requested. It is next contended that the following part of the court's charge constituted harmful error:    And the definition of negligence as I have defined it would be that it is the neglect to perform or the improper or insufficient performance of a legal duty, and the legal duty in that particular case, if he was an invitee, was to use reasonable care in his conduct in furnishing premises and in furnishing the scaffold for the installation of the work of the roofer in this particular case. It is urged that the effect of the foregoing was to instruct the jury that Busman and Rosen, Inc., was under a duty to use reasonable care in furnishing the premises as well as in furnishing the scaffold for the work of the roofers. This argument is ineffective. The injury was sustained by a fall from a scaffold attached to a building which formed a unit of the scope of the work of the general contractor on which Busman and Rosen, Inc., were engaged in performing carpenter work and the plaintiff was engaged in performing roofing work. The jury could not have been misled because the gravamen of the complaint, alleging a violation of duty, related specifically and not otherwise to the scaffold on the building, and the court's charge clearly stated that This case involves the use of a scaffold. The last point urged by Busman and Rosen, Inc., is that there was no evidence presented of any negligence on the part of this defendant. Our previous discussion of the evidence and our decision that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is applicable to the case disposes of the point unfavorably to this defendant. It follows that the judgment against the defendant, Busman and Rosen, Inc., is affirmed.