February 10, 1917 



Pertinent Legal Findings 



Queries on queslions arising on any points involving the law as it is applied to lumbering and allied industries tmll ie given proper expert 

 attention througfi this department if submitted to Hardwood Record. There uiU be no eharge Jor such service, but Hardwood Record 

 •■eservcs the right to publish questions and answers without designating names or location of inquiries unless speciftcallii requested not to do so. 



Diameter of Trees Sold 



Under a eoutract for sale of standing trees measuring twelve inches 

 in diameter or more, the agreement not specifying the height for 

 taking the diameter, the measurement should be made at the cus- 

 tomary height, which is found in this case to be twelve inches from 

 the ground. (North Carolina supreme court, Bradshaw vs. Hilton 

 Lumber Company, 90 Southeastern Reporter, 146.) 



Damages for Breach of Logging Contract 



A lumber company which engaged a man to cut, saw and place on 

 skids logs by a specified date is not entitled to recover an item of 

 damages claimed because of a delay in completing performance of 

 the contract and based on injury to logs through exposure to the 

 weather, the damage being referable to the company's acquiescence 

 in the delay and inaction in failing to exercise the right reserved in 

 the agreement to complete the work itself. The company will not 

 be permitted to recover the amount of damage which it could have 

 avoided itself. (Kentucky court of appeals, Ford Lumber & Manu- 

 facturing Company, 188 Southwestern Reporter, 466.) 



Conflicting Claims to Debtor's Lumber 



Where an owner of 282,000 feet of lumber gave a bill of sale to 

 a creditor as security for a debt, and consented to the creditor taking 

 possession, and the latter 's representative checked up the lumber and 

 engaged a man to haid it as soon as the roads should become passable, 

 there was a valid transfer of possession and title, as against other 

 creditors claiming under a subsequent assignment made by the debtor 

 of his property for their benefit. (Washington supreme court. Has- 

 kins vs. Fidelity National Bank, 159 Pacific Reporter, 1198.) 



Negligence Presumed From Occurrence of Accident 

 That a hammer dog on a saw carriage fell from the position, 

 where it was designed to be held by its own weight, immediately in 

 front of the revolving saw, which was thereby burst, resulting in injury 

 to plaintiff who was employed in the sawmill as a dogger, is suf- 

 ficient to charge the employer with liability for the accident, in the 

 absence of proof that the accident occurred despite his exercise of 

 reasonable care to discover any defect in the condition of the appli- 

 ances. (North Carolina supreme court, Dunn vs. John L. Roper 

 Lumber Co., 90 Southeastern Reporter, 18.) 



Employer's Duty to Workers 



In affirming judgment in favor of an employe who was injured 

 while feeding a molding planer, the Louisiana supreme court applies 

 the principle that an employer is bound to furnish his workers 

 with safe appliances with which to do their work, and to give them 

 such warning of dangers as the circumstances of the particular 

 case fairly require. In this case it appears that a spring designed 

 to hold strips against the guide of the machine had become loose, 

 by reason of which the injured man was obliged to hold the strips 

 in position by pushing. While doing this, one of the strips broke, 

 causing him to fall upon rapidly moving belting negligently en- 

 closed, with the result that before he could be released he was 

 burned by friction. (Botts vs. Arkansas Mill Company, 72 South- 

 ern Reporter, 717.) 



Liability for Demurrage Charges 



A shipper ordered cars for shipment of tanbark at a time when 

 there was a railway embargo against pulp wood at the intended 

 destination, and loaded the cars with pulp wood. The railway com- 

 pany refused to move the shipments and notified the shipper to 

 unload, which he refused to do. Later on the embargo was raised 

 and the cars went forward. Held, that the shipper was not liable 

 as for demurrage charges, since the cars were not used in trans- 

 portation until accepted by the carrier, and since the carrier might 

 have secured release of the cars by unloading them on the shipper's 

 refusal to unload. (Wisconsin supreme court, Chicago & North- 



western Railway Company vs. Pulp Wood Company, 159 Northwest- 

 ern Reporter, 734.) 



Rights and Liabilities Under Timber Deeds 



When a conveyance of standing timber is shown by other facts 

 and circumstances to have been intended as an absolute sale of 

 such trees of minimum diameter as should be cut within a certain 

 time, that character of the transaction will not be avoided by the 

 fact that it may have been agreed that payment should be made 

 at a price per 1,000 feet when cut. Where a purchaser of stand- 

 ing timber of minimum diameter assigns his interests to a third 

 person, he is not liable for the act of the third person in cutting 

 trees belonging to the landowner because smaller than the size 

 fixed by the conveyance, unless he participated in the wrongful 

 cutting; no liability arises from the fact that he may have received 

 payment for trees not covered by the deeds, in the absence of a 

 showing that he knew the particular source of such proceeds. 

 (North Carolina supreme court, Williams vs. Cape Fear Lumber 

 Company, 90 Southeastern Reporter, 254.) 



Injury to Employe at Machinery 



Tlie operator of a woodworking establishment is not liable for 

 injur}' to an employe caused by a co-employe negligently starting 

 machinery while the injured person was cleaning parts of it, unless 

 it appears that the emplo^-er was negligent in retaining such co- 

 employe in the work, by reason of previous knowledge of his hab- 

 itual carelessness or incompetency. (Maine supreme judicial court, 

 Cote vs. Jay Manufacturing Company, 98 Atlantic Reporter, 817.) 



Contributory Negligence of Employe 

 Where a brakemau on a railroad used only to haul logs from the 

 woods to a mill was killed by being crushed between logs loaded 

 on two cars which he was coupling, there being evidence that it 

 was not unusual to load logs in such manner that the ends would 

 project over the coupling, and that the danger could be avoided by 

 stooping under the ends to make the coupling, the cause of the 

 death was negligence of the brakeman, not of the employer, and 

 there can be no recovery. (Louisiana supreme court, Henley vs. 

 Louisiana Hardwood Lumber Company, 72 Southern Reporter, 696.) 



An Old Finish for Maple Furniture 



Nearly a century ago an article appeared in the American Journal 

 of Science, by John Hale, describing a finish for furniture which 

 seems to have been coming into use at that time, and which he 

 praised highly. The chief part of the process consisted of a stain 

 which he spoke of as follows: 



This stain consists of a decoction ot walnut or hickory bark. It Is 

 adapted to furniture commonly made of maple, called curly. But to that 

 kind of maple commonly called blrdseye, it gives the finest appearance 

 of all. 



This species of wood Is prepared by cabinet makers by scorching Its 

 surface over a quick fire, which does not, at the same time, smoke. The 

 wood, after being scorched, is made smooth In the usual way, and 

 varnished. 



The scorching produces a great variety of dark shades and specks on 

 the surface. These have generally been considered to possess considera- 

 ble beauty, and the wood so prepared has come into pretty extensive use 

 in making particular sorts of cabinet furniture. 



When birdseye maple is thus prepared, except the varnishing, It It Is 

 then stained with the walnut dye, it receives much additional beauty. The 

 application of the walnut dye gives a luster even to the darkest shades, 

 whOe to the paler and fainter ones it gives, in addition to this, a some- 

 what greenish hue, and to the white parts a tint of yellow. The whole 

 together has a very pleasing effect on the eye and is very ornamental 

 when used with taste and Judgment, In particular parts of some kinds of 

 furniture. 



If ambition were not so closely linked with greed we could get 

 along with it better. 



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