Collings-Taylor Co. v. American Fidelity Co.

96 Ohio St. (N.S.) 123
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedApril 3, 1917
DocketNo. 15206
StatusPublished

This text of 96 Ohio St. (N.S.) 123 (Collings-Taylor Co. v. American Fidelity Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Collings-Taylor Co. v. American Fidelity Co., 96 Ohio St. (N.S.) 123 (Ohio 1917).

Opinion

Donahue, J.

Upon the trial of this case in the common pleas court the plaintiff introduced in evidence the policy of insurance, and testimony in reference to the date of the adjournment of the school term, tending to prove that the public schools of Cleveland were not in session at the time plaintiff [130]*130employed Steve Korens, nor at the time of the' accident, nor at any other time during his employment.

It was admitted that the several items of the account contained in the amendment to the petition are correct.

The defendant offered in evidence a transcript of the docket and journal entries in the action in which Korens recovered judgment against The Collings-Taylor Company, the reply of Steve Korens in that action to the answer to the second amended petition, and the bill of exceptions taken in the trial of that cause, which bill contains a transcript of all the evidence, the exhibits, and the charge of the court. To the introduction of this evidence the plaintiff objected, which objections were sustained by the court. No further evidence was offered by the defendant.

It is apparent that the question of the weight of the evidence could not have been before the court' of appeals. Therefore, that court erred in reversing the judgment of the common pleas court “because it is contrary to the weight of the evidence.”

It appears from the entry of judgment in the court of appeals that that court found “no other error appearing in the record.” Nevertheless, it is the duty of this court to consider the questions presented by the record, and to determine whether the judgment of the court of appeals is right for any reason.

This involves a consideration of the ruling of the trial court in rejecting the evidence offered by the defendant and a further consideration of the [131]*131question whether the judgment of that court is contrary to law.

It appears from the transcript of the docket and journal entries, and the bill of exceptions, in the case of Steve Korens, a Minor, by John Korens, his Next Friend, v. The Collings-Taylor Company, offered in evidence by the defendant, that the trial court in that cause took from the jury all grounds of negligence pleaded in the petition, except the fourth, fifth and seventh, which read as follows:

“4th. Defendant was reckless and negligent in failing to instruct this plaintiff adequately and fully respecting the operation of said carding machine, and was further reckless and negligent in failing to warn and apprise him of all the dangers thereof.
“5th. Defendant was reckless and negligent in ordering and directing and permitting the removal of non-wool rags or extraneous material from said machine with a broom while said carding machine was in motion or operation.
“7th. Defendant was reckless and negligent in failing to adopt, promulgate and enforce a reasonably safe rule and method for the operation of said machine and the removal of extraneous or non-wool rags therefrom.”

Neither of these three grounds of negligence submitted to the jury by the court, and upon one or all of which the jury’s verdict must have been predicated, involved the question of the employment of Steve Korens by the insured contrary to law.

Therefore, the facts pleaded in the defendant’s second amended answer in this case were not [132]*132“found and declared by said jury in rendering said verdict, and by said court in overruling said judgment,” as averred in that answer.

While the trial court in that cause may have charged erroneously touching the question of the assumption of risk, yet it could not in that manner import into that- case an issue not presented by the pleadings to the prejudice of this plaintiff in this case. The court in that case, however, did specifically charge the jury that before it could return a verdict for the plaintiff, he must establish by the preponderance of the evidence, “that the defendant was guilty of negligence in some one or more of the particulars as charged in the fourth, fifth or seventh grounds of negligence in the petition, and that such negligence was the proximate cause of the injury to the plaintiff.”-

This charge fairly submitted to the jury, the real issues involved in that action. If the charge in relation to the assumption of risk was erroneous it was not prejudicial.

The trial court in the case at bar properly excluded the record of the Korens case offered in evidence by the defendant.

It is averred in the second amended answer that the employment of Steve Koyens was in violation of condition two of the policy of insurance, which recites that “said policy does not cover loss or expense for injuries or death caused to or by any child under fourteen years of age.”

This answer admits that Steve Korens was between 14 and 16 years of age. No evidence was offered to the contrary. The burden of proof [133]*133was upon the defendant to establish the truth of this averment by a preponderance of the evidence. It offered no evidence directed to that issue, but on the contrary admitted that Steve Korens was over 14 years of age. There was therefore nothing to submit to the jury touching this averment as to the violation of condition two of the policy of insurance.

It is contended on the part of the defendant that the plaintiff violated the third condition of the policy of insurance, which reads as follows:

“Third. Caused to or by any person employed by the insured contrary to law.”

This is denied by the plaintiff. No evidence was admitted on the part of the defendant in support of this averment. This of course ends the inquiry so far as the pleadings present an issue of fact touching the employment of Steve Korens by plaintiff contrary to law.

The reply of the plaintiff, however, avers that Steve Korens was employed June 6, 1911, was injured on the 11th day of the same month, and that the public schools of Cleveland were not in session, having closed for the current school year May 23, 1911. This seems to be established by the stipulation, with reference to the testimony of Sarah E. Hyre, and there appears to be no controversy touching any of these averments.

The question is therefore fairly presented by this record whether it is contrary to law to employ during the summer school vacation, a minor between 14 and 16 years of age, without first procuring an age and schooling certificate as a con[134]*134dition precedent to such employment. Section 12994, General Code, imposes a penalty upon a person employing a minor between 14 and 16 years of age in a factory, workshop, business office, telephone or telegraph office, restaurant, bakery, hotel, apartment house, mercantile or other establishment, or in the distribution or transmission of merchandise or messages, without first procuring from the proper authority “the age and schooling certificate provided by law.” This section, as it now reads, is general in its terms, and makes no exception whatever with reference to vacation of the public schools; but before this section can be properly construed it is necessary to inquire as to the age and schooling certificate provided by law.

Sections 7765 and 7766, General Code, provide for an age and schooling certificate, authorizing the employment of a child-under.sixteen and over fourteen years of age

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Bluebook (online)
96 Ohio St. (N.S.) 123, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/collings-taylor-co-v-american-fidelity-co-ohio-1917.