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Pertinent Legal Findings 



EMPLOYER S DUTY TO WORKMEN 



Altliough a lumber company is not an insurer of the safety of its 

 ■employes while at work, it is bounj to use a reasonable degree of 

 <;are to avoid permitting dangerous conditions to exist. The duty to 

 safeguard machinery in a particular instance depends upon the ques- 

 tion whether a safety appliance is practicable and in general use in 

 similar establishments. An employer is also bound to warn a work- 

 man against all natural dangers of his work which the latter does 

 not know or would not discover fer himself in the exercise of ordi- 

 nary care for his ovm safety. (North Carolina Supreme Court, 

 St^eley vs. Dare Lumber Company, 80 Southeastern Reporter 963. 



DAMAGES RECOVERABLE FOR BREACH OF CONTRACT 



One who establishes breach of a contract is entitled to recover nom- 

 inal damages, although he fails to prove any actual damage. (Texas 

 Court of Civil Appeals, Caswell vs. J. S. McCall & Son, 163 South- 

 western Reporter 1001.) 



ORAL LICENSE TO USE LAND REVOCABLE 



A landowner who has orally agreed to permit another to haul 

 lumber across his land is entitled to revoke the permission at will, 

 •especially w^here no consideration has been received by hi m for the 

 right. This is so even if the result is that the other party is thus 

 prevented from getting his timber to market and complying with a 

 <;ontract of sale made with a third person. (Kentucky Court of Ap- 

 peals, Elswick vs. Eamly, 163 Southwestern Reporter 751.) Note. — 

 This decision suggests the importance to one who desires to obtain 

 the right of hauling logs or lumber across the lands of another or 

 having the contract reduced to writing and supported by some sub- 

 stantial consideration, so as to prevent revocation of the privilege 

 before expiration of the contract period. 



PERSONAL LIABILITY OF SAWMILL SUPERINTENDENT 



The superintendent of a sawmill is not liable to damages for injury 

 to a customer while on the premises, caused by negligence of em- 

 ployes, unless the superintendent 's negligence directly contributed to 

 the injury. (Tennessee Supreme Court, Brown & Sons' Lumber Com- 

 pany vs. Sessler, 163 Southwestern Reporter 812.) 



REFUSAL TO RECEIVE PROPERTY BOUGHT 



When one who has contracted to buy property assigns specific rea- 

 sons for refusing to receive the same when delivery is tendered by 

 the seller, he will not afterwards be permitted to assign other reasons. 

 (West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, Linger vs. Wilson, 80 

 Southeastern Reporter, llOS.) 



EFFECT OF SAWMILL CONTRACT 



A cooperage company which contracted with a sawmill operator 

 •whereby he agreed to operate sawmiU machinery furnished by the 

 company, which undertook to take the product of the mill at speci- 

 fied prices and to advance money to meet his payroll to an amo^t 

 not exceeding seventy-five per cent of the value of lumber on hand, 

 <lid not become liable for the cost of lumber purchased by him, he 

 not being an agent of the company in such capacity as to bind it for 

 such purchases. (Arkansas Supreme Court, Gulf Cooperage Company 

 TS. Poindexter, 163 Southwestern Reporter 114.'5.) 



AUTHORITY OF INSURANCE AGENTS 

 An agent authorized by a fire insurance company to issue and 

 Tenew policies has implied power to bind the company by an oral 

 agreement to renew policies about to expire. (Kentucky Court of 

 Appeals, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company vs. Searcy, 163 South- 

 western Reporter 1103.) 



CONTRACT FOR BELT LINE CONNECTION 

 In a suit by a liardwood lumber comjiany against a land company 

 to recover damages for breach of a contract to provide belt line con- 

 nections for the lumber company's sawmill plant, a judgment for 

 $17,500 was not excessive where it appeared that for eight years the 

 ■capacity of the plant was reduced from 20,000,000 feet annually to 

 9,000,000 feet on account of inability to procure the connection. 

 <United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit; South Mem- 



phis Land Company vs. McLean Hardwood Lumber Company, 210 

 Federal Reporter 257.) 



INJURY SUSTAINED IN UNLOADING LOGS 



An inexperienced boy, seventeen years old, engaged in assisting in 

 unloading logs from a flat car in the night-time, did not assume the 

 risk of being struck by a log which swung around, if there was not 

 enough light to enable him to see how the logs lay. (United States 

 Circuit Court of Appeals, Potlatch Lumber Company vs. O'Connell, 

 210 Federal Reporter 434.) 



TIME FOR REMOVAL OF TIMBER 



When a contract for the sale of standing timber requires removal 

 within a certain number of years, but contains a clause to the eflPect 

 that the purchaser shall have "further time" on payment of taxes 

 covering the land, payment of taxes does not give him an indefinite 

 extension of time, and removal of the timber must be completed within 

 a reasonable time. (Louisiana Supreme Court, Savage vs. Wyatt 

 Lumber Company, 04 Southern Reporter 401.) 



AMOUNT RECOVERABLE FOR PERSONAL INJURY 



Seventeen thousand five hundred dollars is not excessive recovery 

 for personal injury to a lumber company's employe, including loss of 

 a leg, where it appears that he was only twenty-nine years old and 

 had previously been able to earn $75 monthly. (Mississippi Supreme 

 Court, Easterling Lumber Company vs. Pieice, 64 Southern Reporter 

 461.) 



NOTE AS PAYMENT OF ACCOUNT 



When lumber is bought for, and is charged to, a married woman, 

 the mere fact that the dealer subsequently takes the husband's note 

 for the amount does not -constitute such payment of the original 

 account as discharges the wife's liability, unless it is expressly under- 

 stood that the note should be received in full payment. (Nebraska 

 Supreme Court, Edwards & Bradford Lumber Company vs. Lamb, 

 145 Northwestern Reporter 703.) 



DAMAGES RECOVERABLE FOR BREACH OF CONTRACT 



Damages recoverable tor breach of contract to furnish sufiicient 

 logs to cut a specified quantity of lumber at a specified price are meas- 

 urable by the excess above the amount of profits actually received 

 under the contract of the profits which would have been derived from 

 a performance of the contract in full. (St. Louis Court of Appeals, 

 Terry vs. Hogan, 163 Southwestern Reporter 873.) 



A Forgotten Timber Trade 



Digging among the mounds of ruined cities in the Euphrates val- 

 ley, the excavators uncover logs of wood which formed beams and 

 columns in palaces and warehouses. None of these ruins are less 

 than 1,000 years old and some are much older. Some date back 

 to the time of the Mohammedan conquest of Persia, and others long 

 before. Particularly rich finds of that sort have come to light at 

 Bagdad, Ctesiphon and Samaria. It recently occurred to investigators 

 to examine those old beams somewhat carefully. It had been taken 

 for granted that the wood had grown somewhere in the highlands 

 north of the ruined cities and had been rafted down the Euphrates 

 or the Tigris river. It has turned out quite different from that. 

 The wood has jiroved to be teak, of species which grow in Burma and 

 the Andaman islands, 5,000 or 6,000 miles distant from the place 

 where it was used. Long voyages were necessary to bring it. The 

 ships engaged in the trade sailed 300 miles or more down the 

 Euphrates river from Bagdad, thence nearly 1,000 miles through the 

 Persian Gulf, 500 miles through another gulf to the open sea, thence 

 3,000 miles across the Indian ocean, rounding the southern point of 

 Hindustan, and thus reaching the Andaman islands, the nearest 

 place where that species of teak grows. There is no known record 

 of that old timber trade, but it unquestionably took place, and it is 

 known to liave continued during hundreds of years. Probably two 

 or three years were consumed in a single voyage from the Euphrates 

 to the teak forests and return. 



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