Chesapeake Beach Railway Co. v. Hupp Automatic Mail Exchange Co.

48 App. D.C. 123, 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 2362
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedMay 27, 1918
DocketNos. 3139 and 3140
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 48 App. D.C. 123 (Chesapeake Beach Railway Co. v. Hupp Automatic Mail Exchange Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chesapeake Beach Railway Co. v. Hupp Automatic Mail Exchange Co., 48 App. D.C. 123, 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 2362 (D.C. Cir. 1918).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Smyth

delivered the opinion of the Court:

The provisions of the contract with respect to the responsibility of the ITupp company and its surety to the Chesapeake company for loss arising out of the operations of the ITupp company are quite sweeping in what they comprehend. They mean, as we understand them, that the Hupp and Casualty companies were to indemnify the Chesapeake company for any loss which it should sustain by reason of being compelled to respond in damages for injuries to third parties arising either directly or indirectly out of the operations of the Hupp company, or which should in any wise grow out of those operations. Gilmore’s presence on the track was due to them. He was there by invitation of the Hupp company to remove blocks which were placed upon the track in the course of its work. His injury befell him while he was performing a service for the ITupp' company, and it arose at least indirectly out of the operations of that company; therefore it produced one of the losses contemplated by the contract.

If we admit that an indemnitor is not liable for the negligence of the indemnitee except where it is expressly provided that it should be, that would not aid the position of the Hupp company and its surety, because as we construe the contract before us it in effect expressly provides for injuries flowing from negligence. Loss might come to the Chesapeake company through its own negligence, as well as otherwise. The presence [129]*129031 or near the track of the IIupp company’s employees, and of others, such as Gilmore, brought there by its invitation, necessarily increased the chances of accident for which the Chesapeake company might be responsible. It was natural that the latter should desire to protect itself, against loss on this account, even where it was caused by the negligence of its own employees. If, as contended, it was the intention of the parties to the contract that it should be limited to “liability for accidents for which the Hupp company’s operations were responsible,” it would have been easy to have said so instead of using the all-embracing language which we have been considering.

In Woodbury v. Post, 158 Mass. 140, 144, 33 N. E. 86, cited by appellees, the plaintiffs sued upon a contract of indemnity which provided that the indemnitors should be liable for any injury “'occasioned to any person or property” although it should result from the negligence of certain described employees of the indemnitees. The plaintiffs, indemnitees, alleged that the injury for which they were compelled to respond in damages was the result of negligence on their part, but, the allegations disclosed, of a different character from that mentioned in the contract. The indemnitors, defendants, contended that they were not liable for any act of negligence except the negligence of the employees specifically mentioned. The court refused to take this view, saying that as it construed the contract they were liable for “any damage or expense resulting to them [the indemnitees] by reason of any injury to person or property,” and hence for the acts of negligence set out in the plaintiff’s petition. The decision was put upon the ground that, since the defendants agreed to be liable for damage resulting from any Í3ijury, they were liable for one arising out of negligence as well as from any other cause. The other cases brought to our attention, like the Massachusetts decision, turn upon the construction of the particular language of the contract in each case. In none have we found anything in conflict with the conclusion we have reached.

There is rro merit in the suggestion, presented but not argued, that if the contract is construed so as to cover acts of negligence by the Chesapeake coinpanv, then it is against public policy [130]*130and ultra vires of the Hupp company. With respect to the first, the negligence involved does not relate to the 'Chesapeake company’s duty as a common carrier; and concerning the second, there is nothing in the record upon which to predicate it. The presumption is, nothing appearing to the contrary, that the company in making the contract acted within its power. Ohio & M. R. Co. v. McCarthy, 96 U. S. 258, 267, 24 L. ed. 693, 695; Gist v. Drakely, 2 Gill. 330, 359, 41 Am. Dec. 426.

For the purpose of proving the liability of the Chesapeake company for the injury sustained by Gilmore, that company introduced in evidence the pleadings and judgment in the Gilmore Case, and then tendered the testimony given by Gilmore in that case. The latter was refused. We think it should have been accepted because it was material for the purpose of showing what the judgment comprehended and what was concluded by it. “The elementary rule is,” says the Supreme Court of the United States, “that for the purpose of ascertaining the subject-matter of a controversy, and fixing" the scope of the thing adjudged, the entire record, including the testimony offered in the suit, may be examined.” Washington Gaslight Co. v. District of Columbia, 161 U. S. 329, 40 L. ed. 719, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 564, and eases there cited. But the Chesapeake company was permitted to call Gilmore and have him state what he had testified to in the former case, thus supplying in another way, but not the better one, what it had attempted to prove by the record.

.. This testimony, taken in connection with the pleadings, disclosed, without contradiction, what the judgment rested on and hence what was finally resolved by it, namely, that Gil-more came upon the track at the invitation of the Hupp company to remove blocks, and while there was injured through the negligence of the Chesapeake company. For a loss happening-under those circumstances, as we have seen, the Hupp company and its surety are liable to the Chesapeake company on their contract. If they had been parties to the suit, they would not of course be permitted to question the judgment or any of the things determined by it. But they were not parties; yet may' they not be bound by it ?

[131]*131In the pleas of the IIupp company it is admitted that the Chesapeake company duly notified the former of the institution of the Gilmore suit, and called upon it to defend or settle the same; and that it failed to do either. The record further shows that the pleas of the Casualty company were substantially the same as those of the Hupp company. Consequently both companies admit due notice to appear in the Gilmore suit and defend or settle. It is the law that where one person who has a right to recover over “is sued, the judgment rendered against him is conclusive upon the person liable over, provided notice be given to the latter, and full opportunity be afforded him to defend the action.” Washington Gaslight Co. v. District of Columbia, supra. All these conditions were complied with in the Gilmore Case, and hence the Hupp company and its surety are bound by the judgment just as much as if they were parties thereto. It was conceded on the record, at least there was no contradiction of it, that the Chesapeake company was compelled to pay on account of the Gilmore Case $686.64. For this sum, with interest at 6 per cent from April 5, 1915, the date of the payment, the court should have instructed a verdict in favor of the Chesapeake company against the Hupp and Casualty companies.

We now come to consider the cross appeal. It arises out of the same contract.

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48 App. D.C. 123, 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 2362, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chesapeake-beach-railway-co-v-hupp-automatic-mail-exchange-co-cadc-1918.