McDonald v. Lovell
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort by a woman employed in a candy factory against her employer to recover for injuries caused by the fall of a ladder upon which she was standing, alleged to have been caused by defective construction of the ladder and the floor upon which it stood.
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Tort by a woman employed in a candy factory against her employer to recover for injuries caused by the fall of a ladder upon which she was standing, alleged to have been caused by defective construction of the ladder and the floor upon which it stood. Writ in the Superior Court for the county of Suffolk dated October 5, 1905. There was a trial before Sherman, J. It appeared that the plaintiff had been employed by the defendant two or three weeks when she was injured and that, in the course of her employment, it was necessary from time to time for her to use a ladder to get candy boxes from…
1Per curiam
The plaintiff was of full age and not lacking in intelligence. The ladder, though rough and homely, was sound, exactly what it appeared to be, and suitable for the purpose for which it Was used. The floor was an ordinary wooden floor. If the foot of the ladder was placed too far from the wall it would slip and the plaintiff knew it.
The ladder was there in use when the plaintiff entered the defendant’s service. That an employer owes the employee no duty to change such an appliance, and that the employee on entering the service impliedly agrees to assume such risk as there is in the use of it,…
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