Fisher v. Cleveland, C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co.

169 F. 956, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 5494
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Kentucky
DecidedApril 9, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 169 F. 956 (Fisher v. Cleveland, C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fisher v. Cleveland, C., C. & St. L. Ry. Co., 169 F. 956, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 5494 (circtdky 1909).

Opinion

COCHRAN, District Judge.

The corporation defendant since the filing of the transcript herein and overruling of the motion to remand has questioned this court’s jurisdiction of the cause on the ground that the state court from whence it was removed did not have jurisdiction thereof. Of course, if this is true, then this court does not have jurisdiction. Said defendant first raised the question by special demurrer, and then by plea in abatement. I have overruled both, holding that the state court had jurisdiction. After so holding, my attention has been called by the corporation defendant to the case of Byrne v. Kansas City, etc., R. Co., 61 Fed. 605, 9 C. C. A. 666, 24 L. R. A. 693, and in the course of my reading I have come across the case of Standard Oil Co. v. Anderson (decided by the Supreme Court of the United States February 1, 1909) 212 U. S. 215, 29 Sup. Ct. 252, 53 L. Ed.-. Both of these cases have a bearing on the question whether the defendant corporation passes into Kenton county, Ky., in the circuit court whereof this action was originally brought. On my motion a reargument has been had on the question of jurisdiction, and at my instance the affidavits of E. P. Goodwin and J. S. Sweeney setting forth in detail the nature of the direction and control exercised by the bridge company over the engines and crews of the corporation defendant passing over the bridge and tracks of said company under the contract between the two have been filed. And, in order to set forth fully my reasons for the conclusion which I have reached in regard to the matter, I have prepared this written opinion.

Section 73 of the Civil Code of Practice of Kentucky provides that an action against a common carrier for an injury to a person must be brought in the county in which the defendant or either of the several defendants resides, or in which the plaintiff is injured, or in which he resides, if he resides in a county into which the carrier passes. Neither of the defendants resided in Kenton county when the suit was brought, and the plaintiff was not injured therein. He resided, however, in that county, so that if at the time the corporation defendant passed thereinto the Kenton circuit court had jurisdiction of the action. It does not necessarily follow that, if it did not pass thereinto, that court did not have jurisdiction of the action. It appears from the plea in abatement that said defendant passes into Jefferson county, Ky., and hence does business in the state. This being so, some court in Kentucky has jurisdiction of the cause of action, and this notwithstanding the fact that no court in Kentucky comes within the terms of section 73 of the Code. The circuit court of Jefferson county does not come within that sec[958]*958tion; because, though said defendant passes into Jefferson county, plaintiff does not reside therein. This was so decided by the Kentucky Court of Appeals in the case of C. & O. Ry. Co. v. Cowherd, 96 Ky. 113, 27 S. W. 990, but the Kenton circuit court does not have jurisdiction of the cause under this view of the matter because said defendant had and has no agent in Kenton county upon whom process could or has been served. It was undertaken to be brought before that court by service of summons on said defendant’s superintendent and designated agent for service of process who resides and was served in Jefferson county. It follows, therefore, that the jurisdiction of the Kenton circuit court depends on the question whether the defendant corporation at the time the action was brought within the meaning of said Code provision passes into Kenton county. If it did not, that court did not have jurisdiction. If it did, it had jurisdiction.

Now, it is certain that said defendant did not pass into Kenton county prior to October 24, 1905, when the contract between it and the bridge company went into effect; for prior to that time said defendant did nothing that could possibly be construed as a passing into Kenton county. If it passed into Kenton county at the time the action was brought, it was by virtue of what it has done since then under said contract. Nor can it be said that it passed into Kenton county from the mere fact that its engines and crews have since then passed into Kenton county. In the case of Byrne v. Kansas City R. Co., supra, it was held that the railroad company was not liable to a person injured by its engine in charge of its engineer and fireman whilst on the track of the bridge company, because the same were there under a contract of renting to that company by the railroad company. The former was paying the latter for the use thereof $10 a day and its expenses in the operation thereof. The basis of the holding was that, though the engine and trainmen were the property and servants of the railroad company, they were not at the time of the injury doing the work of the railroad company, but that of the bridge company, and the question as to whose work they were doing was considered to be determined by the fact as to whose control and direction they were then under. Judge- Taft said:

“They were [referring to the trainmen] it is true general servants of the railway company, but at the time of the accident they were engaged in the work of the bridge company, were subject to the orders of the bridge company’s officer, and in what they did or failed to do were acting for the bridge company. The result is determined by the answer to the further question, whose work was the servant doing?.. And under whose control was he doing it?”

And in the case of Standard Oil Co. v. Anderson Mr. Justice Moody said:

“It sometimes .happens that one wishes a certain work to be done for his benefit, and neither has persons in his employ who can do it, nor is, willing to take such persons into his general service. He may then enter into an agreement with another. If that other furnishes him with persons to do the work, and places them under his exclusive control in the performance of it, those men become pro hac vice the servants of him to whom they are furnished. But, on the other hand, one may prefer- to enter into an agreement with another that that other for a consideration shall himself perform the work through servants of his own selection, retaining the direction and control of them for the period. In the first case, he to whom the workmen are furnish[959]*959ed is responsible for tlieir negligence in the conduct of the work, because the work is his work, and they are for the time his workmen. In the second case, he who agrees to furnish the completed work through servants over whom he retains control is responsible for their negligence in the conduct of it, because, though it is done for the ultimate benefit of the other, it is still in its doing his own work. To determine whether a given case falls within the one class or the other we must inquire whose is the work being performed—a question which is usually answered by ascertaining who has the power to control and direct the servants in the performance of their work. Here we must carefully distinguish between authoritative direction and control and mere suggestion as to detail or the necessary co-operation, where the work furnished is a part of a larger undertaking.”

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250 F. 83 (Eighth Circuit, 1918)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
169 F. 956, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 5494, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fisher-v-cleveland-c-c-st-l-ry-co-circtdky-1909.