Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Bossert

87 N.E. 158, 44 Ind. App. 245, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 161
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 18, 1909
DocketNo. 6,382
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 87 N.E. 158 (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Bossert) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Bossert, 87 N.E. 158, 44 Ind. App. 245, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 161 (Ind. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinion

Watson, C. J.

Action for damages by Abraham Bossert, administrator of the estate of Benjamin Schoonover, deceased, against the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company.

The verdict was for the plaintiff in the sum of $1,550, and judgment was rendered accordingly, from which defendant [247]*247appeals and assigns errors as follows: (1) In overruling appellant’s demurrer to the complaint; (2) in sustaining appellee’s demurrer to the second paragraph of appellant’s answer; (3) in overruling appellant’s motion for a new trial; (4) that the judgment is against the weight of the evidence.

The complaint is founded upon section one, subdivision two, of the employers’ liability act of 1893 (Acts 1893, p. 294, §8017 Burns 1908), which provides “that every railroad * * * shall be liable for damages for personal injury suffered by any employe while in its service, the employe so injured being in the exercise of due care and diligence, in the following cases: * * * Second. Where such injury resulted from the negligence of any person in the service of such corporation, to whose order or direction the injured employe at the time of the injury was bound to conform, and did conform.”

1. For a complaint to be good under subdivision two of §8017, supra, it must show that defendant is a railroad company (Fort Wayne Gas Co. v. Nieman [1904], 33 Ind. App. 178); that the injured employe was conforming to the order and direction of some person in the service of the railroad, whose order and direction he was bound to obey and did obey, and that while thus complying with such order or direction, himself without fault, he was injured by the negligence of the employe to whose order he was conforming (Indianapolis, etc., Transit Co. v. Foreman [1904], 162 Ind. 85, 102 Am. St. 185; Fort Wayne Gas Co. v. Nieman, supra); that the employe had no knowledge of the danger, for if so he is deemed to have assumed the risk as an incident of his employment (Louisville, etc., R. Co. v. Corps [1890], 124 Ind. 427, 428, 8 L. R. A. 636).

The doctrine of assumed risk is read into the statute before quoted, thus making that doctrine a part thereof. American Rolling Mill Co. v. Hullinger (1904), 161 Ind. 673; [248]*248Whitcomb v. Standard Oil Co. (1899), 153 Ind. 513. But it is otherwise, if the injury is due to the negligent nonobservance of a positive and fixed duty required by statute. Island Coal Co. v. Swaggerty (1903), 159 Ind. 664.

As said in the case of Monteith v. Kokomo, etc., Co. (1902), 159 Ind. 149, 151, 58 L. R. A. 944: “A distinction is to be noted between statutes such as the employers’ liability act (Acts 1893, p. 294, §§7083-7087 Burns 1901), which provide in general terms that the employer shall be liable for injuries to an employe, * * and statutes which require of the employer the performance of a specific duty. * * * Statutes of the former class do little more than declare the rule of the common law. Statutes of the latter class impose specific obligations. * * * A violation of the second is an unlawful act or omission, a plain breach of a particular duty owing to the servant, and generally constitutes negligence per se.”

2. Assumption of risk is negatived in a complaint by averments showing that plaintiff had no knowledge of the danger nor of facts and circumstances which, if he had known, would have apprised him of his peril. But the danger must not appear to have been open and obvious, else it will be presumed that the risk was assumed. The complaint need not, however, negative knowledge which the law imputes by reason of a person’s contracting for and engaging in a particular service. In this State, to allege' want of knowledge negatives also imputed knowledge. American Rolling Mill Co. v. Hullinger, supra; Pennsylvania Co. v. Witte (1896), 15 Ind. App. 583; Consolidated Stone Co. v. Summit (1899), 152 Ind. 297.

3. [249]*2494. [248]*248Assumption of risk is an element distinct from contributory negligence, and is not affected by §362 Burns 1908, Acts 1899, p. 58, providing that want of contributory negligence need not be alleged, but shall be a matter of defense. Cleveland, etc., R. Co. v. Scott (1902), 29 Ind. App. 519; Bowles v. Indiana R. Co. (1901), 27 Ind. App. [249]*249672, 87 Am. St. 279; Baltimore, etc., R. Co. v. Hnnsucker (1904), 33 Ind. App. 27; Indianapolis, etc., Transit Co. v. Foreman, supra. One is a matter of contract, the other of conduct. Wortman v. Minich (1901), 28 Ind. App. 31. Hence an allegation that plaintiff was injured “without any fault or negligence on his part” does not take the place of an averment showing that the risk was not knowingly assumed by plaintiff as an incident of the service. Indianapolis, etc., Transit Co. v. Foreman, supra. The complaint is clear in each of its essential requirements. Appellant’s demurrer to the complaint was, therefore, properly overruled.

5. Appellant contends that the court erred in sustaining a demurrer to the second paragraph of the answer, which averred that William Schoonover, the section foreman who gave the negligent order by reason of which decedent was killed, was the son of decedent, and, as such, is one of the exclusive class to whose benefit this action inures. It is contended that this paragraph of the answer is based on the maxim that no one shall reap a benefit from his own wrong. But this paragraph sought to estop Abraham Bossert, the administrator who brought this action for the benefit of Sara M. Schoonover, widow, and William Schoonover and Elizabeth J. Schoonover, children of decedent. Even though William Schoonover would be estopped from bringing this action were he the only beneficiary, certainly this administrator is not estopped when the action is for the benefit of others than William Schoonover, whose right of action has accrued. The court by the eleventh instruction told the jury that if it found for the plaintiff, and further found that said William Schoonover was such foreman and also the son of decedent, nothing should be allowed as damages for the benefit of William Schoonover, and that the net damages should thereby be reduced by an amount equal to his share therein. The court did not err in its [250]*250ruling on this demurrer, and we think the instruction sufficiently answers this contention.

2. 6. Appellant’s third ground for a new trial, viz., that the verdict is contrary to the law and the evidence, is all that we shall consider. Assumption of risk was sufficiently negatived in the complaint by allegations showing that plaintiff, in pursuance of the command of William Schoonover, proceeded to remove the hand-car from the track without knowledge of facts calculated to apprise him of the immediate danger in the undertaking.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
87 N.E. 158, 44 Ind. App. 245, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cleveland-cincinnati-chicago-st-louis-railway-co-v-bossert-indctapp-1909.