Hoffman v. Gamache

Defendants appeal from a judgment awarding plaintiff damages for personal injuries sustained when his hand became engaged in chopper blades in defendants’ hop-picking machine.

The machine in question is stationary and housed under a metal roof. It consists of various choppers, recleaners, and conveyor belts having an overall operating length of 175 feet, located on three separate floors. When hop vines are cut in the field they are laid on racks in trucks and hauled to the hop-picking machine, where the vines are lifted vertically off the trucks and hooked onto grasper bar's and carried…