Bosworth v. Rogers

82 F. 975, 27 C.C.A. 385, 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 2016
Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit·Decided November 16, 1897·No. No. 429·Published

Opinion

JENKINS, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts, delivered the opinion of the court). The test of fellow service is a common master and a common service. These must concur. There must be unity of service and control. This principle underlies every ruling upon the subject from the time of Priestley v. Fowler, 3 Mees. & W. 1, and Murray v. Railroad Co., 1 McMull. 384, the pioneer cases upon the subject, and Farwell v. Railroad Corp., 4 Metc. (Mass.) 49 (in which Chief Justice Shaw delivered his masterly exposition of the doctrine of master and servant), down to the latest recorded decision. The exemption of liability on the part of the master for injury occurring to one servant by the negligence of another servant in a common service is only permitted when the master has discharged Ms obligations to his servant, among which, notably, are: (1) To nse reasonable care to furnish a reasonably safe place to work in, having regard to the character of the employment; (2) to use reasonable care to provide safe tools and appliances for the doing of the work; (3) to use proper diligence in the hiring of reasonably safe and competent men to perforin their respective duties; (4) in the case of railway employment, to adopt and promulgate proper rules for the conduct of the business. Railroad Co. v. Peterson, 162 U. S. 346-353, 16 Sup. Ct. 843. The servant relying upon the discharge of these duties bv the master assumes the risks incident to his service and those arising from the default of a fellow servant in the common service. He has a right to rely upon the discharge by the master of his duty with respect to the employment of competent co-servants, and assumes only the risks of injury arising from the default of a co-servant upon the assumption that the do -y of the master has been performed. If that has not been done, and tin: servant is injured by reason thereof, he may recover of the master for the injury. This is because the master’ has ihe control, and is bound to exercise proper diligence to employ only competent and to [977] discharge an incompetent servant. This duty to the servant continues through the entire service, and furnishes a shield and protection to Mm, subject to which is his assumption of risk.

In the case in hand there was no common master. The in testa te of the defendant in error was in the service of the St. Louis Company. The servants through whose fault the jury found the collision to have occurred were in the service of the plaintiff in error, the receiver of the Chicago Company. The deceased was engaged in the operation of one of the trains of the former company. They who were neglectful and whose neglect caused the death were engaged in the operation of the trains of the receiver of the Chicago Company. There was no common master. The receiver was not bound in duty to Kogers by any obligations of a master, because Sogers was not in Ms service. It is not correct to say that because the trains of both companies, by agreement between them, were operated over a joint track, under and according to rules and regulations from time to time established by the Chicago Company, therefore the servants of the St. Louis Company in the operation of its trains over the joint track were in the service of the Chicago Company. They were neither operating the trains of the latter company, nor, in any just sense, engaged in its service. It or its receiver had no control over them. It is true the trains were to be operated in accordance with the rules and regulations established by the Chicago Company. That was indispensable to the operation of a joint track; but, in so operating the trains, the servants of the one company did not become the servants of the other company; the trains of the one company did not become the trains of the other company; the servants of the one company did not,, for the time being, transfer their allegiance to the other company. They were bound, it is true, to operate the trains according to certain rules and regulations to which their master had agreed; but, in so doing, they discharged their duty to their own master, and not a duty owing by them to the other company. Neither company had control over the servants of the other company. Neither could discharge the servants of the other, and‘the right of discharge is a sure test of control. It is true that the companies had agreed that, for just cause, either party, upon demand of the other, would discharge any of its servants employed in reference to the joint use of the track; but each for itself had to determine the cause, and whether it would comply with the demand. The stipulation gave no right to one company to discharge the servant of the oilier, and gave no control whatever over him. He owed service to his own master, and to no other, and could not be controlled or discharged by any other. Nor were these men engaged in a common service. The one set was operating the train of one company; the other set, the train of another company. The service was distinct; none the less so because the two trains, at the 1 one of the injury, were upon the same track. They were engaged in the like sendee, but not in the same service. They were not working to a common end. They were serving separate masters, and in distinct employments. These views, as we think, are abundantly sanctioned by authority. Warburton v. Railway Co., L. R. 2 Exch. 30; Railroad Co. [978] v. Stoermer, 1 U. S. App. 276, 2 C. C. A. 360, and 51 Fed. 518; Railroad Co. v. Craft’s Adm’x, 29 U. S. App. 687, 16 C. C. A. 175, and 69 Fed. 124; Sawyer v. Railroad Co., 27 Vt. 370; Robertson v. Railroad Co., 160 Mass. 191, 35 N. E. 775; Zeigler v. Railroad Co., 52 Conn. 543; Smith v. Railroad Co., 19 N. Y. 127; Svenson v. Steamship Co., 57 N. Y. 108; Railroad Co. v. Hardy, 57 N. J. Law, 505, 31 Atl. 281, affirmed in court of errors, 58 N. J. Law, 205, 35 Atl. 1130; Railroad Co. v. Armstrong, 49 Pa. St. 186; Philadelphia, W. & B. R. Co. v. State, 58 Md. 372; Railroad Co. v. O’Connor, 119 Ill. 586, 9 N. E. 203; Phillips v. Railway Co., 64 Wis. 475, 25 N. W. 544.

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Bosworth v. Rogers, 82 F. 975, 27 C.C.A. 385, 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 2016 (7th Cir. 1897).

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