Nichol v. Billot

On August 9,1971, during construction of additional sites at a Sandusky trailer park, plaintiffs decedent, a courageous, 70-year-old retiree, was crushed to death when the wall of a trench, in which he was attaching a sewer pipe to an existing septic tank, collapsed.

Plaintiff seeks damages for wrongful death from defendant, the excavator who dug the trench which was more than nine feet deep, on the theory that defendant was an independent contractor and that he negligently failed to slope and shore the walls of the trench as required under accepted safety standards. Plaintiffs decedent, who…