Court Opinion

ID: 6697632
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-20 21:58:15.655374+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:01:18.089000
License: Public Domain

CONNOR, J.
The evidence offered by the plaintiff at the trial of this action shows that when the plaintiff left the spinning frames in the defendant’s cotton mill, where she had been at work, and went out of the mill, and sat down in the window to rest, on the outside of the mill, the transom in said window, which had been raised, and which later fell and struck her on the head, was in such position as that it would not ordinarily fall. The bottom of the transom had been pushed outward and upward; the top, inward and downward. It had been left in this position by the employee of defendant who had raised it for purposes of ventilation. When left in this position, it was not necessary to fasten the transom with the chain, which was attached to its top. All the evi*555dence shows that when left in this position, there was no probability that the transom would fall. When the plaintiff sat down in the window, on the outside of the mill, the bottom of the transom was over her head, and the top was down on the inside of the mill. The transom did not fall until after the plaintiff had sat in the window for some time engaged in conversation with a companion.
While the plaintiff and her companion were sitting in the window, Herman Bush, an employee of the defendant, and a fellow-servant of the plaintiff, left his work in the mill, and went to the window in which the plaintiff was sitting. He talked to the plaintiff and her companion, through the window, for about five minutes. He was on the inside, and the plaintiff and her companion on the outside of the mill. The transom was between them. Immediately after Herman Bush left the window and returned to his work in the mill, the transom fell and struck the plaintiff on the head. The plaintiff testified that she did not see Herman Bush while he was talking to her and her companion, through the window, but that he had been talking to them just before the transom fell. She did not know what caused the transom to fall.
The evidence offered by the defendant shows that when Herman Bush left his work in the mill and went to the window in which the plaintiff and her companion were sitting, he found that the position in which the transom had been left interfered with his conversation with them, and that for that reason he moved the transom, and that his act in moving the transom from the position in which it had been left by defendant’s employee, who had raised it for purposes of ventilation, was the cause of plaintiff’s injuries. Yiola Duncan who was sitting in the window with the plaintiff, at the time she was injured, testified that Herman Bush took hold of the transom, and moved it, so that he could talk through the window to her and the plaintiff, and that the transom fell when he left the window to return to his work. Herman Bush testified that when he walked to the window, he found that he could not talk to the plaintiff and her companion, because of the position of the transom, and that for this reason he moved the transom so that it was level, instead of slanting. When he turned the transom loose, it dropped and hit the plaintiff on the head.
At the close of all the evidence, the defendant renewed its motion for judgment as of nonsuit, first made at the close of the plaintiff’s evidence. This motion was denied, and defendant excepted. The assignment of error based on this exception must be sustained. There was no evidence tending to show that the plaintiff was injured by the negligence of the defendant as alleged in the complaint. The principle of res ipsa loquitur is not applicable in this case, and does not aid the plaintiff, whose evi*556dence was not sufficient to establish facts from which inferences could be drawn by the jury in support of the allegations of the complaint. All the evidence shows that the plaintiff ivas injured by the act of a fellow-servant, and not by the negligence of the defendant. For this reason, the action should be dismissed. See Springs v. Doll, 197 N. C., 240, 148 S. E., 251; Saunders v. R. R., 185 N. C., 289, 117 S. E., 4. The judgment must be
Reversed.