Court Opinion

ID: 9570900
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:27:25.596747+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:21:06.239107
License: Public Domain

Knutson, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent. A power saw is a necessary piece of equipment in a lumber*78yard. The dangers of such a piece of equipment are open and apparent to anyone. I cannot see that defendants were guilty of any act of negligence in maintaining and using such a saw, and certainly, if they were, plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence in not avoiding the dangers apparent to any adult of ordinary intelligence. The case is governed by Erickson v. Quarstad, 270 Minn. 42, 132 N. W. (2d) 814. If an invitee in a blacksmith’s shop sticks his hand into a forge, he ought to know he is going to be burned; and similarly, if an invitee in a lumberyard puts his hand in a moving buzz saw, he ought to know he is going to be cut.
I am not persuaded that the noise of the jointer was a distracting circumstance. A jointer makes noise only while lumber is being run over it, and the whirr of a buzz saw is a constant noise furnishing its own warning of danger.