{
  "id": 5822292,
  "name": "Guy C. Arnell, Plaintiff in Error, v. Superior Mirror Company, Defendant in Error",
  "name_abbreviation": "Arnell v. Superior Mirror Co.",
  "decision_date": "1918-04-09",
  "docket_number": "Gen. No. 6,486",
  "first_page": "486",
  "last_page": "493",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "210 Ill. App. 486"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.",
    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
  "analysis": {
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T16:15:15.348169+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "Guy C. Arnell, Plaintiff in Error, v. Superior Mirror Company, Defendant in Error."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. Justice Dibell\ndelivered the opinion of the court. .\nThe Superior Mirror Company, defendant in error herein, hereinafter called the defendant, operated a small factory at Bockford, in which it manufactured mirror plates. Certain solutions were made and mixed and applied to glass. Silver nitrate was used in this mixture. Cuy C. Arnell, plaintiff in error, hereinafter called the plaintiff, was in the employ of the defendant in that factory and in charge of the silvering and polishing rooms and compounded the mixture used in the process. He became ill and left the employment of defendant, and after a long illness went to work elsewhere in another business. He claims that his illness resulted from silver nitrate poisoning, with which he claims he became infected while in the employ of defendant and because of its violation of certain statutes. He brought this action to recover damages therefor. He filed a declaration containing six counts. He dismissed the last three counts at the close of all the evidence, and they are not in this record. The first count charged a violation of sections 1 and 2 of the Occupational Diseases Act (J. & A. 5433, 5434). The second count charged a violation of section 11 of the Health and Safety Act (J. & A. j[ 5396). The third count charged a violation of section 12 of the last-named act (J. & A. 5397). Defendant pleaded not guilty. Upon a trial the court instructed the jury to find the defendant not guilty under the second count, and the first and third counts were submitted \u00a3o the jury and it returned a verdict of not guilty. Plaintiff made a motion for a new trial, which was denied, defendant had judgment in bar, and plaintiff prosecutes this writ of error.\nThe first part of section 2 of the Occupational Diseases Act (J. & A. ft 5434) is as follows:\n\u201cEvery employer in this State engaged in the carrying on of any process of manufacture or labor in which sugar of lead, white lead, lead, chromate, litharge, red lead, arsenate of lead, or par\u00eds green are employed, used or handled, or the manufacture of brass or the smelting of lead or zinc, which processes and employments are hereby declared to be especially dangerous to the health of the employees engaged in any process of manufacture or labor in which poisonous chemicals, minerals or other substances are used or handled by the employees therein in harmful quantities or under harmful conditions, shall provide for,\u201d etc.\nThe words following contain the requirements which it is alleged defendant did not fulfil. It will be observed that silver nitrate is not one of the substances against which the first part of this section is directed. It is not named in that part of the section not above quoted. Plaintiff claims that the proper construction of this section required the court to place, after the words \u201cthe health of the employees\u201d and before the following words, \u201cengaged in any process of manufacture,\u201d a comma, where none appears in the statute, and follow that comma by these words, \u201cand every employer of labor,\u201d and thus make this section include not only the specific poisons named in the first part of the section, but any and every other poisonous substance used by employers of labor. By the statute it is the employees who \u2018 \u2018 are engaged. \u2019 \u2019 By the proposed insertion it is the employer of labor who is \u2018 \u2018 engaged. \u2019 \u2019 It is a general rule of construction of statutes that the intent of the legislature is to be ascertained from the words it employs, and the courts cannot arbitrarily introduce other words. True, it is the intent of the lawmaker which is the law, but that intent is to be gathered from the words used, the evil to be remedied, and the object to be attained. Sometimes additional words may be implied under the principle, \u201c ejusdem generis,\u201d but that principle is not applicable here. If the legislature had intended to include all poisonous substances it would have used some such general language. The fact that the language used was almost entirely confined to lead poisoning and that no general terms were employed convinces us that silver nitrate poisoning was not intended to be included. There is a slight ambiguity in the part of the section above quoted, which will in our opinion be much more simply removed by inserting before the words, \u201cpoisonous chemicals,\u201d the words \u201csuch\u201d or \u201csaid.\u201d It follows that the trial court, correctly held that this case did not come within said section 2.\nSection 1 of said Act (J. & A. 5433), concerning occupational diseases covers any work or process \u201cwhich may produce any illness or disease peculiar to the work or process carried on, or which subjects the employees to the danger of illness or disease incident to such work or process, to which employees are not ordinarily exposed in other lines of employment,\u201d and requires such employers to do certain things to prevent industrial or occupational diseases. There was much evidence on the question whether nitrate of silver poisoning is an occupational disease and whether it can be acquired from the use of silver nitrate in the solutions and mixtures employed by defendant in the process of making mirror glass. To fully describe those processes in language that would be understood by the ordinary reader would require much space and we think it unnecessary. It would also greatly extend this opinion to set out the testimony of each witness on that subject. We think it sufficient to say, that to put it mildly there appears to be a clear preponderance of the evidence that silver nitrate poisoning is not an occupational disease and is not incident to the making of mirror glass and cannot be obtained by conducting the processes and making the mixtures in the work plaintiff did for defendant. It follows that the jury were warranted in finding defendant not guilty under the first count.\nSection 11 of the Health and Safety Act (J. & A. 5396), has no application where the room in a factory where an employee works has 2,000 cubic feet of air space for each person employed in such room. The evidence plainly shows that there was much more than that air space in the room in which plaintiff did this work for defendant. Plaintiff introduced no evidence tending to make a case under that section, and the \u2022court properly directed a verdict for defendant as do that count.\nThe third count was under section 12 of the Health and S\u00e1fety Act (J. & A. ]] 5397). The first sentence of that section refers to gas from sewers and the like. There was no proof of that kind in this case. The second sentence is as follows:\n\u201cAll poisonous or noxious fumes or gases arising from any process, and all dust of a character injurious to the health of the persons employed, which is created in the course of a manufacturing process, within such factory, mill or workshop, shall be removed, as far. as practicable, by either ventilating or exhaust devices.\u201d\nThe count related to poisonous gases and dust resulting in the disease of silver nitrate poisoning of plaintiff. There were gases created in the processes carried on by plaintiff in defendant\u2019s factory from the use of ammonia and from bringing the mixture to a very high degree of heat. But there was a very clear preponderance of evidence that the nitrate of silver did not and could not come into the air from the steam or from the ammonia or from any dust in the room, and the verdict of the jury on that count was therefore justified by the evidence. Certainly, we cannot say that the jury should have found the other way under this count. The court did not err in refusing to grant a new trial.\nComplaint is made that the court restricted the examination of Freeman, a witness for plaintiff. He was called in rebuttal to show that he formerly worked for another company engaged in the manufacture of mirrors and that he was suffering from silver nitrate poisoning when he quit that employment, and that he had discussed that subject with Nelson, a witness who had been examined for defendant. The ruling of the court was proper. As evidence to impeach Nelson, it was incompetent because Nelson\u2019s attention was not drawn to any conversation with Freeman. If it was intended to establish the case of plaintiff, it should have been introduced in chief and not by way of rebuttal. If Freeman had testified that the processes employed by this other company had produced silver nitrate poisoning in him, defendant must necessarily have been permitted to prove what those processes were which such other company employed, and whether the infection was silver nitrate poisoning or something else, and thus an immaterial issue would have been tried. We are of opinion that the contention of plaintiff that silver nitrate poisoning is incident to the manufacture of mirrors by the processes employed by defendant could only be proved by general evidence on that subject and not by specific examples supposed to have occurred in other factories. We approve the other rulings upon evidence of which complaint is made.\nObjection is made to some instructions because they required the fumes and gases to be injurious to the health of plaintiff and others. Plaintiff contends that if he was so affected, he could recover, even if no one else had ever suffered from silver nitrate poisoning. The statute which we have called the Occupational Diseases Act contains the words \u201coccupational diseases\u201d in the title, and also in section 1, and it is evident that that term as used in that statute is defined in section 1 thereof as \u201cany illness or disease peculiar to the work or process carried on, or which subjects the employees to the danger of illness or disease incident to such work or process, to which employees are not ordinarily exposed in other lines of employment.\u201d In order for silver nitrate poisoning to he peculiar to the work or process carried on by defendant or for that disease to be incident to that work or process, it must have happened before and must be such a disease as those familiar with the process would realize was liable to occur. Therefore the instructions in question were properly modified. Moreover, plaintiff used the same expression in the plural in some of his instructions. The word \u201cand\u201d was used in an instruction for defendant where \u201cor\u201d should have been used. We do not think it could have misled the jury. But plaintiff asked and obtained an instruction containing the same mistake on the same subject, and therefore cannot complain.\nWe find no reversible error in the record. The judgment is therefore affirmed.\nAffirmed.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. Justice Dibell"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Charles C. Spencer, Philip H. Treacy, J. E. G-oembel and Boy F. Hall, for plaintiff in error.",
      "B. K. Welsh, for defendant in error."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "Guy C. Arnell, Plaintiff in Error, v. Superior Mirror Company, Defendant in Error.\nGen. No. 6,486.\n1. Statutes, \u00a7 196 \u2014how intent of legislature in enacting is ascertained. It is a general rule o\u00ed construction of statutes that the intent of the legislature is to be ascertained from the words it employs and the courts cannot arbitrarily substitute other words.\n2. Statutes, \u00a7 196*\u2014what considered in determination of intent of legislature in enacting. The intent of the legislature in enacting a statute is to be gathered from the words used, the evil to be remedied and the object to he attained.\n3. Master and servant\u2014what poisons master not required to guard against by providing suitable working clothing for employee. The legislature, in enacting section 2 of the Occupational Diseases Act (J. & A. ji 5434), providing that every employer in this State engaged in the carrying on of any process of manufacture or labor in which \u201csugar of lead, white lead, lead chromate, litharge, red lead, arsenate of lead, or paris green are employed, used or handled, or the manufacture of brass or the smelting of lead or zinc, which processes and employments are hereby declared to be especially dangerous to the health of the employees engaged in any process of manufacture or labor in which poisonous chemicals, minerals or other substances are used or handled by the employees therein in harmful quantities or under harmful conditions,\u201d shall provide proper working clothing, etc., did not intend to include all poisonous substances, and consequently did not intend to cover the use of silver nitrate.\n4. Master and servant\u2014what is not an occupational disease. Evidence held sufficient to show that silver nitrate poisoning is not an occupational disease and is not incident to the making of mirror glass.\n5. Master and servant\u2014when artificial ventilation of factory not required. Section 11 of the Health and Safety Act (J. & A. IT 5396), relating to artificial ventilation of factories and workshops, has no application where the room in a factory where an employee works has 2,000 cubic feet of air space for each person employed in such room.\n6. Master and servant\u2014when shown that statute relating to removal by ventilating or exhaust devices of poisonous gases and dust in factory not applicable. Evidence held sufficient to show that nitrate of silver did not and could not come into the air from the steam or from the. ammonia or from any dust in a room in defendant\u2019s mirror-plate factory, and hence section 12 of the Health and Safety Act (J. & A. If 5337), relating to the removal by either ventilating or exhaust devices of all poisonous or noxious fumes or gases arising from any process, and all dust of a character injurious to the health of the persons employed, which is created in the course of a manufacturing process within a factory, mill or workshop, was inapplicable.\n7. Witnesses, \u00a7 279*\u2014when evidence on rebuttal inadmissible to impeach witness. Evidence in rebuttal that an employee working for another mirror-plate factory was suffering from silver nitrate poisoning when he quit that employment and that he had discussed the subject with a witness for defendant is inadmissible, in an action by an employee under the Occupational Diseases Act, secs. 1, 2 (J. & A. 1HI 5433, 5434) to recover damages for silver nitrate poisoning received in a mirror-plate factory, and is inadmissible to impeach the witness for defendant where the attention of the. latter was not drawn to any conversation with plaintiff\u2019s witness.\n8. Evidence, \u00a7 87*\u2014how foot that silver nitrate poisoning is incident to manufacture of mirrors may be proved. The fact that silver nitrate poisoning is incident to the manufacture of mirrors by certain processes can only be proved by general evidence on the subject and not by specific examples supposed to have occurred in other factories.\n9. Master and servant\u2014when poisoning shown to be occupational disease. In order for silver nitrate poisoning to be peculiar to the -work or process carried on in the manufacture of mirrors in a factory, or for that disease to be incident to the work or process, so as to constitute the disease an occupational disease within section 1 of the Occupational Diseases Act (J. & A. If 5433), it must have happened1 before and must be such a disease as those familiar with the process would realize was liable to occur.\n10. Appeal and error, \u00a7 1241 \u2014when party cannot complain of error in instruction. A party cannot complain of an instruction given for the adverse party containing an improperly substituted word where he asks for and obtains an instruction on the same subject containing the same mistake.\nError to the Circuit Court of Winnebago county; the Hon. James S. Baume, Judge, presiding,\nHeard in this court at the October term, 1917.\nAffirmed.\nOpinion filed April 9, 1918.\nCharles C. Spencer, Philip H. Treacy, J. E. G-oembel and Boy F. Hall, for plaintiff in error.\nB. K. Welsh, for defendant in error.\nSee Illinois Notes Digest, Voto. XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, same topic and section number,\nSee Illinois Notes Digest, Vola. XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, same topic and section number."
  },
  "file_name": "0486-01",
  "first_page_order": 512,
  "last_page_order": 519
}