Glass v. Davison

161 So. 2d 811, 276 Ala. 328, 1964 Ala. LEXIS 335
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMarch 12, 1964
Docket6 Div. 987, 987-A
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 161 So. 2d 811 (Glass v. Davison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Glass v. Davison, 161 So. 2d 811, 276 Ala. 328, 1964 Ala. LEXIS 335 (Ala. 1964).

Opinion

MERRILL, Justice.

Plaintiff Claudia Davison, a minor suing pro ami for personal injuries arising from an automobile collision, recovered a judgment against defendant Glass in the amount of $2,000. Her father’s suit for loss of services and medical expenses of his daughter resulted in a judgment for $4,000. The two suits were consolidated for the purpose of trial and separate verdicts were rendered.

The cases were submitted to the jury on two similar counts, 1A charging negligent operation of an automobile, and 3A charging *330 that Glass had bought for or furnished to the twenty year old driver of the automobile, Floyd Kendrick, a quantity of alcoholic beverages which caused him to become intoxicated and, as a proximate result of his intoxication, he negligently drove an automobile into the motor vehicle in which Claudia Davison was riding and injured her.

On this appeal, appellant Glass limits his argument to his contentions that the court erred in refusing to give the general affirmative charge for the defendant as to the negligence count, 1A. Appellant contends that there was no evidence that the driver Kendrick was a servant, agent or employee of Glass acting within the scope of his employment at the time the accident occurred.

We state the tendencies of the evidence most favorable to plaintiffs although there was decided conflict in the testimony adduced.

Floyd Kendrick was employed by Glass to help make and hang aluminum screens. He lived in the residence of Glass and part of his wages was the furnishing of his room and board by Glass. On the day of the accident, Kendrick had borrowed his brother’s automobile for use in calling on a young lady that night.

Glass and Kendrick quit work about 4:30 P.M., cleaned up, drank some beer, and since Mrs. Glass was not at home, they decided to go to the Golden Rule Barbecue and they were accompanied by Glass’ son and the son’s wife. They all rode in the automobile Kendrick had borrowed from his brother. Kendrick had two beers and a sandwich at the Golden Rule Barbecue which Glass paid for. They left and arrived back at the Glass home about 8:00 P.M. and let Glass, his son and daughter-in-law out of the car. After talking a few minutes with his passengers, he left for his date.

The Glass home in Irondale faces Montevallo Road, which runs east and west and dead ends into 16th Street, which runs north and south. The Glass home is about 135 feet west of the intersection of Montevallo Road and 16th Street. The most direct route for Kendrick to have taken from the Golden Rule Barbecue to the home of his date would have been to continue north on 16th Street, but as he had Glass and the son and daughter-in-law in the car, he turned left on Montevallo Road and took them to the Glass residence. After he let them out, he came back east on Montevallo Road, stopped at the 16th Street stop sign, and then started turning left into 16th Street to go north toward the home of his date. As he neared the east curb on 16th Street, his tire blew out, he lost control of the car, it hit the curb and then veered to the left and crashed into the front of the Davison car, which was headed south on 16th Street. Kendrick’s head went through the windshield. He was taken to a hospital and his bill was paid by appellant.

The question presented is whether the relationship of master and servant existed between Glass and Kendrick when the accident happened. Appellant insists that as a matter of law it did not. Appellees contend that it was a question for the jury and if the jury so found the doctrine of respondeat superior applies.

There is no room for the application of the administrative presumption because the automobile was owned by Kendrick’s brother.

Negligence is sometimes imputed to the master when the person charged is (1) an occupant of the car; or (2) is the owner or bailee of the car; or (3) has the right to control its operation by the driver; or (4) the car must at the time be operated for his benefit or the mutual benefit of them both. The right to control the operation of the car by the one sought to be charged is essential. Downes v. Norrell, 261 Ala. 430, 74 So.2d 593; Woodson v. Hare, 244 Ala. 301, 13 So.2d 172.

*331 Here, the car was being used for the benefit of both the master and the servant in securing the evening meal.

It makes no difference upon the question of the employer’s ultimate liability that the vehicle may belong to the servant, provided only that the servant was driving it at the time with actual or implied consent of his employer and in the discharge of the duties owed by the servant to him. 5 Blashfield, Cyclopedia of Automobile Law, Sec. 3078, p. 438; Smith v. Brown-Service Ins. Co., 250 Ala. 613, 35 So.2d 490; Luquire Ins. Co. v. McCalla, 244 Ala. 479, 13 So.2d 865.

It is conceded that appellant might have been liable had the accident happened between the time the car left the Glass home for the Golden Rule Barbecue and returned, because that trip was made in the furtherance of the master’s duty to furnish the night meal to his employee. This rule is recognized in Hill v. Decatur Ice & Coal Co., 219 Ala. 380, 122 So. 338. But appellant insists that the master’s business was completed when they returned to his home, and that Kendrick was on a strictly personal mission to pick up his date when the accident occurred.

We have not been cited to any case with a similar factual situation. We .could agree with appellant if Kendrick had properly reached the east lane of traffic going north on 16th Street and resumed his journey on that street to his date’s home. If he had not had Glass and his family with him, there would have been no necessity to turn left off 16th Street and go to the Glass home. But to complete the trip for Glass, it was necessary to deposit the three passengers at the master’s home.

We do not think that it can be said, as a matter of law, that the master’s liability ended when Glass and his family alighted from the car. The master was responsible for the deviation of the servant from his personal mission, and we think it was a jury question as to whether the servant was still acting within the scope of his employment until he was once again normally in the lane of traffic which he had left to deliver the master and his guests to the master’s house.

We reach this conclusion by using as analogy the settled law of this state applicable to deviations by a servant from his master’s business. We have said that where the servant abandons his master’s business for personal reasons, the employment is suspended, and the master is not liable for the negligence of the servant during the suspended employment and during the time of the servant’s departure from the master’s business. Each case must be governed by its own peculiar facts. Bell v. Martin, 241 Ala. 182, 1 So.2d 906; Engel v. Davis, 256 Ala. 661, 57 So.2d 76.

The following statement has been quoted, approved and followed in our cases:

“In cases where the deviation is slight and not unusual, the court may, and often will, as matter of law, determine that the servant was still executing his master’s business. So, too, where the deviation is very marked and unusual, the court in like manner may determine that the servant was not on the master’s business at all, but on his own.

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Bluebook (online)
161 So. 2d 811, 276 Ala. 328, 1964 Ala. LEXIS 335, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glass-v-davison-ala-1964.