Alabama G. S. R. R. v. Flinn

74 So. 246, 199 Ala. 177, 1917 Ala. LEXIS 162
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedFebruary 15, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 74 So. 246 (Alabama G. S. R. R. v. Flinn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alabama G. S. R. R. v. Flinn, 74 So. 246, 199 Ala. 177, 1917 Ala. LEXIS 162 (Ala. 1917).

Opinion

MAYFIELD, J.

—(1) Appellee, a mechanic employed by appellant in its machine shops, sues appellant to recover damages for personal injuries, the loss of an eye, and other damages. The trial was had on two counts, one drawn under the second subdivision, and the other under the third subdivision, of the Employers’ Liability Act (Code 1907, § 3910). The two allegations of negligence are, respectively, as follows: “Cliff Adams, who on behalf of defendant had superintendence intrusted to him by defendant, negligently whilst in the exercise of such superintendence negligently caused or allowed said object to be thrown or propelled upon or against plaintiff on the occasion aforesaid, and as a proximate consequence of said negligence plaintiff suffered said injuries and damage.”

“Cliff Adams, who was in the service or employment of defendant and to whose orders or directions plaintiff was bound to conform, negligently ordered or directed plaintiff to plane or cut metal, to-wit, said truck bolster on or by means of said planer, and plaintiff did conform to said order and direction of said Adams, and as a proximate consequence of so conforming to said negligent order plaintiff suffered said injuries and damage.”

[180]*180The sufficiency of the last count was challenged by demurrer, but the count was held sufficient, and that ruling is here insisted upon as error to reverse. In the opinion of the writer this count is wholly insufficient; but the later rulings of this court have established a rule as to sufficiency of counts like the one in question, which authorizes the ruling of the trial court. The views, of the writer on this subject were set out at some length in the case of Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. v. Barganier, 168 Ala. 567, 53 South. 138. In that case the whole and sole allegation as to negligence on the part of the servant giving the order was that one Kirby, who gave the order, “negligently” ordered plaintiff to come where he, the said Kirby, was upon an engine. The majority held the allegation sufficient as to negligence. In the case of Republic Iron & Steel Co. v. Williams, 168 Ala. 617, 53 South. 76, the allegation as to negligence in the giving of the order was: “Negligently ordered or directed plaintiff to go into said furnace without properly and sufficiently warning or informing plaintiff as to said gas or liquid.”

The majority of the court held the allegation sufficient to show negligence in the giving of the order. The majority held the allegation sufficient, without the averment of failure to warn of the existence of the dangerous gas or liquid in the furnace; that is, that the allegation that the superior servant ordered the interior “to go into a furnace” was sufficient to charge actionable negligence against the master. The majority had, before those two cases, held, and have since held, similar allegations sufficient. While the writer is yet of the opinion that these rulings are wrong, and that they destroy all the efficacy of pleadings in such cases, yet it is a matter or question of practice, and no good can come of the writers’ further dissenting, and hence he yields to the inevitable.

(2) Plea 8 was interposed as a defense to each count, and a demurrer thereto was sustained, and of this ruling the defendant next complains. The plea was as follows:

“That plaintiff was guilty of negligence which proximately contributed to his own injury in this: That he knew, or in the exercise of due care ought to have known, that it was dangerous to do the kind of work in which he was engaged when injured on the planer, and that the same was a danger obvious to him, yet nevertheless plaintiff did said work on said planer, and in consequence thereof was injured.”

[181]*181(3) This plea will be seen to contain alternative averments. It must therefore be tested by its weakest averment, viz., that plaintiff “ought to have known that it was dangerous” to do the work ordered to be done by him, and that he ought to have known it was an obvious danger.

(4) It may be true that the plea is susceptible of the construction that the phrase, “ought to have known,” refers only to the dangerous character of the work ordered to be done, and not to the allegation that it was obviously dangerous to do the work ordered to be done; but it is also susceptible of the construction that the quoted phrase applies to both, and it must be construed against the pleader. So construing it, the plea was bad, and subject to the demurrer.

(5-7) The law as to the question sought to be raised by the plea, in the different phases in which it is usually presented, was well stated in the case of Woodward Iron Co. v. Wade, 192 Ala. 651, 68 South. 1008. It is there said:

“It must have been reasonably apparent to the master, or his vice principal who gave the order, under the conditions as he knew or ought to have known them, that the servant’s execution of his command would expose the servant to some peril, beyond the ordinary risks of his service, and against which ordinary and reasonable care on his part would probably not suffice to protect him. — See 1 Labatt on M. & S., § 347.
“(2) If this peril was obvious to the servant, and might readily be avoided by him while fully discharging his duty of service in conformity with the order given him, the master had the right to assume that the servant would both observe the peril and avoid it; and the order was not negligently given.— Davis v. Western Ry. of Ala., 107 Ala. 626, 633, 18 South. 173.
“ (3) If, on the other hand, the peril was not obvious, but was inherent in the conditions necessarily surrounding the servant while executing the master’s order (conditions which the master could and should have known, and of which, if not remedied, the servant could expect the master to seasonably inform him), the master’s order, without such warning, was negligent and actipnable. — 1 Labatt on M. & S. 437.”

(8-10) Here it was not clearly and certainly alleged by the plea that the peril or danger involved in obeying the order was obvious to the plaintiff; it was only alleged (construing the plea against the defendant), that the plaintiff, by the exercise of rea[182]*182sonable care, ought to have known that the danger or peril of so obeying the order was obvious. Moreover, the danger or peril, if any existed, which made it actionable negligence to give the order in this case as alleged, and to which allegation the plea was intended to be an answer, must have been “inherent in the conditions' necessarily surrounding the servant while executing the master’s order.” The mere fact that a servant knows, much less that he ought to know, that the work he is doing or is ordered to do is dangerous, or is attended with danger, standing alone, does not make the servant guilty of contributory negligence such as to bar his recovery on account of actionable negligence of the master or of one of his servants, even in giving the order to do the particular work. The danger and peril of doing the work or thing must be obvious, and one which an ordinarily prudent servant would not undertake to risk, even if ordered so to do by the master or by a servant for whose orders the statute makes the master liable. Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
74 So. 246, 199 Ala. 177, 1917 Ala. LEXIS 162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alabama-g-s-r-r-v-flinn-ala-1917.