In any action brought against any employer under or by virtue of this chapter to recover damages for injuries or the death of any of his, its, or their employees, such employee shall not be held to have assumed the risks of the employment in any case where the violation of such employer or his, its, or their agents or employees of any ordinance or statute enacted, or of any rule, direction, or regulation made by any public officer or commission, contributed to the injury or death of such employee; nor shall such injured employee be held to have assumed the risk of the employment where the injury complained of resulted from his obedience to any order or direction of the employer or of any employee to whose orders or directions he was under obligations to conform or obey although such order or direction was a deviation from other orders or directions or rules previously made by such employer. In any action brought against any employer under the provisions of this chapter to recover damages for injury to or the death of any of his, its, or their employees, such employee shall not be held to have assumed the risk of any defect in the place of work furnished to such employee, or in the tool, implement, or appliance furnished him by such employer, where such defect was, prior to such injury, known to such employer, or by the exercise of ordinary care might have been known to him in time to have repaired the same or to have discontinued the use of such defective working place, tool, implement, or appliance. The burden of proving that such employer did not know of such defect or that he was not chargeable with knowledge thereof in time to have repaired the same or to have discontinued the use of such working place, tool, implement, or appliance shall be on the defendant, but the same may be proved under the general denial.
IC 22-3-9-3