Fedden v. Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal

204 A.D. 741, 199 N.Y.S. 9, 1923 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 9560
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided March 16, 1923·Published·Cited by 29 cases

Opinions

Kapper, J.:

The plaintiff, who was not an employee of the defendant, sues for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant’s employee in failing and omitting to securely hook a bale of hay which was being lowered from a hay-shed to a truck driven by plaintiff, by reason of which the hooks ' intended to hold said bale of hay became unfastened causing the bale to fall, strike and injure plaintiff. The answer is a general denial. The defendant has moved to make its employee, one Frank Horne, whose negligent act it claims caused plaintiff’s injury, a party defendant and to have him brought in as such codefendant by order. In its affidavit in support of the application defendant says that said Frank Horne “ will be wholly liable for the claim made against the defendant in the action now pending and if any recovery is had against the defendant in this action the defendant will be entitled to recover said amount from said Frank Horne.” The Special Term denied the motion.

By chapter 624 of the Laws of 1922 there was added to section 193 of the Civil Practice Act the following clause: "And where one of the parties to an action claims that a person not a party thereto is or will be liable wholly or in part, for the claim made against him in the action, the court on application of such party must direct such person to be brought in and direct the service upon such person of the pleading, alleging the claim against him.” A like provision has not heretofore been contained in any statute in this State, nor is its source to be found either in the English or the New Jersey Practice Act from which many of the new provisions of the Civil Practice Act are derived. It has long been the established rule that in an action to recover a money judgment only, a defendant could not move to bring in a third party as a codefendant. (Brooklyn Cooperage Co. v. Sherman Lumber Co., 220 N. Y. 642; Bauer v. Dewey, 166 id. 402; Chapman v. Forbes, 123 id. 632, 540; Dickinson v. Tysen, 125 App. Div. 735, 738.) A person bringing a legal action " cannot be compelled ” to sue any oqe “ except such as he may elect to sue.” (Chapman v. Forbes, supra, 540.) Joint tort feasors can always be sued in the first instance and if the plaintiff pendente lite wishes to add a joint tort feasor as a party defendant, the settled practice is to permit it. (Gittleman v. [743] Feltman, 191 N. Y. 205; Horan v. Bruning, 116 App. Div. 482; Schun v. Brooklyn Heights R. R. Co., 82 id. 560.) But a master and his servant are not joint tort feasors where the master’s liability is dependent solely upon the doctrine of respondeat superior. (Frascone v. Louderback, 153 App. Div. 199, 203.) Or, as was said in Pangburn v. Buick Motor Co. (211 N. Y. 228, 234): The two defendants [employer and employee] did not stand on the same plane of liability as might sometimes happen where an action had been brought against two alleged tort feasors and where a verdict might with entire propriety be rendered relieving either one and holding the other.”

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Fedden v. Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, 204 A.D. 741, 199 N.Y.S. 9, 1923 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 9560 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1923).

204 A.D. 741 (Fedden v. Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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