Cloonan v. Arthur McMullen Co.
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
Appeal by the plaintiff, Mary Cloonan, as administratrix, from a judgment of the Supreme Court in favor of the defendant, entered in the office of the clerk of the county of Kings on the 24th day of December, 1914, upon a dismissal of the complaint by direction of the court at the close of plaintiff’s case.
1Opinion of the Court
Stapleton, J.:
The defendant corporation was constructing an abutment for a bridge, planned to cross the Harlem river. It was sinking a cylindrical tube in the earth. The plaintiff’s intestate was one of a gang of four men who were excavating in a work chamber sixty feet below the ground. O’Malley was the foreman, intrusted with authority to direct, control or command the other employees. They were working in compressed air. O’Malley gave the signal to lower an iron bucket through the caisson or shaft to the place where the gang were working. At that moment the shoring gave way and started to…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Heffron v. Lackawanna Steel Co.Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1907
- Welch v. . Waterbury Co.New York Court of Appeals · 1912