Sayxe v. Allemand

Plaintiff sued his employer to recover damages of some $70,000 for personal injuries allegedly sustained, while he was in the course of his employment, due to his employer's negligence. At the conclusion of plaintiff's case, the trial court granted the defendant-employer's motion for directed verdict, and this appeal was taken from the judgment entered thereon. On March 17, 1964, shearing operations had been in progress at defendant's ranch for several days. A tractor-loader, purchased by defendant in November 1963 in a used condition, was being operated by another employee to load sacks of wool on a truck. Plaintiff would roll the wool on the loader's bucket and at times would climb up the side of the truck and straighten the sacks. Immediately prior to the accident, both plaintiff and defendant were on the truck. Plaintiff had started to climb down but at defendant's suggestion climbed into the bucket with him to ride down. The bucket tripped and both men were dropped approximately nine to twelve feet to the frozen ground. X rays later disclosed that plaintiff had compression fractures of two vertebrae and that he suffered from osteoporosis which made his injuries more severe.