Wrecking Corporation of America

<p>Error to Kent; McDonald (John S.), J.</p> <p>Case by Mary A. Stapleton, administratrix of the estate of Thomas J. Stapleton, deceased, against the Furniture Exhibition Building Company for the negligent killing of plaintiff’s decedent. Judgment for plaintiff. Defendant brings error.</p> <p>Plaintiff brought this suit as administratrix of the estate of her deceased husband, Thomas. J. Stapleton, and recovered a verdict of $21,702.62 as damages. The defendant company was the lessee of the Furniture Exhibition Building in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where regular semi-annual furniture exhibitions were'shown. These exhibitions seem to have extended over a number of years, although each one lasted little more than one month, so that the building was practically idle during the remainder of the year. On July 8, 1916, one of these semi-annual displays was in progress and the plaintiff’s decedent, a furniture salesman, had gone to the sixth floor of the building on a matter of business. On the completion, of his errand, he stepped into the elevator to descend, to the main floor, when the cage dropped the full distance to the bottom of the shaft, instantly killing Mr. Stapleton and the operator, the only other occupant of the elevator.</p> <p>The investigation showed that the elevator, which, had been installed 17 or 18 years previous to this time, was a cage weighing about a ton and that it was hoisted in the shaft with a 30 H. P. motor which controlled the cables attached to its top. It was at this important point in the mechanism that the primary trouble occurred..- The object to which the cables were fastened was a large, wrought-iron bolt (known as a “draw-bolt” or “king-bolt”), about one inch in diameter. The portion of the bolt which was plainly in sight was U-shaped or clevis-shaped, and it was to the prongs of this clevis that the cables for hoisting the elevator and also the cables connected with the counterweight were attached. Immediately below the U o