Price v. Lee Lumber Co., 125 La. 888

Summary

The Louisiana Supreme Court considered whether a logging-company employee injured by a falling log could recover damages from his employer. The court held that the employee, who had substantial logging experience and understood the risks of the work, assumed the risk of the accident, and it found no negligence by the employer or fellow employees; the judgment rejecting the claim was affirmed.

Holdings

1. An able-bodied worker nearly twenty years old with substantial logging experience who requested assignment to loading-crew work and could appreciate the danger of logs rolling from a logging car assumed the risk of the accident and could not recover for the resulting injuries.
2. The evidence did not establish negligence by the defendant, the top loader, or the steam-loader operator.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the injured logging worker assumed the risk of being struck by a log that accidentally rolled from a logging car.
2. Whether the defendant was negligent in failing to provide adequate chocks or stakes, in loading logs of unequal lengths, or through the conduct of its loading-crew employees.
3. Whether the worker's alleged inexperience or lack of warning prevented application of assumption of risk.

Disposition

affirmed