Ostertag V. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp‪.‬

Respondent, as plaintiff, recovered a judgment, on the verdict of a jury, of $10,000 for personal injuries. On August 20, 1941, respondent, while working with his back toward an electric crane operated by appellant's employee, was crushed between the crane and an upright steel beam in the plate shop of appellant. Respondent was an apprentice electrician employed by Buzzell Electrical Works and working with, and under the immediate direction of, one Schnipper, a journeyman electrician. Buzzell Electrical Works had a contract with appellant to make all the electrical installations in the plate shop. About seventeen or eighteen employees of Buzzell Electrical  Works had been working in the plate shop for approximately two months before the accident. The plate shop was a fairly large building, about 240 by 40 feet in size. Running the length of this building were two rails or tracks about 30 feet above the floor, the respective rails being close to the north and south walls of the building. Upon these tracks ran an electrically driven crane which was used for lifting and carrying the heavy steel plates that were marked in the plate shop. This crane consisted of a steel beam on wheels, extending from rail to rail, with a driver's cab slung under the beam.