Haskell & Barker Car Co. v. Trzop

128 N.E. 401, 190 Ind. 35, 1920 Ind. LEXIS 86
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 8, 1920
DocketNo. 23,804
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 128 N.E. 401 (Haskell & Barker Car Co. v. Trzop) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haskell & Barker Car Co. v. Trzop, 128 N.E. 401, 190 Ind. 35, 1920 Ind. LEXIS 86 (Ind. 1920).

Opinion

Myers, C. J.

— Appellee brought this action against appellant to recqver damages for personal injuries sustained while in the latter’s employment. The complaint was in two paragraphs. The first paragraph was grounded on the Employers’ Liability Act approved March 2, 1911, Acts 1911 p. 145, §8020a et seq. Burns 1914, and the second was drawn upon the theory of an action at common law. Appellant’s motion to make each paragraph of the complaint more specific, as well as its demurrer for want of facts addressed to each paragraph of the complaint, was overruled, whereupon it answered by a general denial. The issues thus formed were submitted to a jury, resulting in a verdict and judgment in favor of appellee. Appellant’s motion for a new trial was overruled and this ruling, as well as the aforementioned rulings, are each here assigned as error.

Briefly stated, the complaint in this case shows that at the time appellee was injured he was in the employ of appellant as a laborer and then at work in the shops of appellant then used by it in the construction and manufacture of steel cars; that immediately prior to the injuries of which appellee complains appellant directed appellee to do certain work on a certain car which [39]*39was standing on a certain track in its shop. As the work of constructing cars progressed, the cars were moved along tracks to new positions. Appellee was inexperienced in this work and uninstructed as to the dangers to be encountered by him in such employment, all of which, by the exercise of reasonable care, appellant well knew. The work assigned appellee required that he go under the car, and while there it is claimed that appellant carelessly and negligently, and without warning to appellee, caused the car to move, run upon and against him, whereby he was injured.

Our attention' is first directed to the motion to make more specific which as applied to the various allegations of each paragraph of the complaint respecting appellee’s injuries, the rulings of the trial court are not questioned on appeal, but as to that part of the motion addressed to the allegation “without reasonable or sufficient notice or warning to the plaintiff,” found in the first paragraph, the contention is that this allegation implies that some notice was given, and, if so, the facts should be stated so that the court may determine whether or not such notice was reasonable.

In the second paragraph the allegation that “the defendant then and there carelessly and negligently failed to furnish plaintiff a safe place to work and keep the same safe, and use reasonable care to have and keep said car stationary and at rest while plaintiff was so at work under same,” is said to be insufficient because it fails to state “wherein this defendant was careless and negligent in failing to furnish the plaintiff a safe place to work”; also that the motion should have been sustained to the following allegation: “But, on the contrary, carelessly and negligently suffered, permitted and caused the said car to be suddenly moved by means of a certain electric machine and cable, and by order of defendant, through defendant’s certain agents then in [40]*40charge of defendant’s said track and cars, and machine for moving cars who were not fellow servants of the plaintiff, whose names are to the plaintiff unknown, without any reasonable or sufficient warning or notice to the plaintiff, while the plaintiff was, as aforesaid, under the said car at work in the course of his employment, with all due care and diligence on. his part and in ignorance of the said risk of injury,” because it fails to identify the “certain agents” of the defendant in charge of the track, cars and machine, and “the respective positions of each in the service of defendant and their relation to it and to plaintiff occupied by them,” in order that the court may determine whether or not such agents were fellow servants of appellee. The conclusion that they “were not fellow servants of' the plaintiff” will not take the place of the facts thus required.

We cannot say that the complaint was carefully prepared, or that any good purpose will be subserved by an extended statement of the various allegations of either paragraph. Appellant was entitled to have “a statement of the facts constituting the ' cause of action, in plain and concise language, without repetition, and in such manner as to enable a person of common understanding to know what is intended.” §343 Burns 1914, §338 R. S. 1881; Watson, Revision Works’ Practice §§824, 825. But this rule does not require more than is reasonably necessary to fully and distinctly inform the defendant of what he is called upon to meet. Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Simons (1907), 168 Ind. 333, 79 N. E. 911.

In view of our present rule as to the value of pleaded conclusions, more attention should be given such motions by trial courts than formerly, but still the question of granting or refusing such motions is largely within the discretion of nisi prius [41]*41courts, and their action on appeal will be upheld unless it appears that the complaining party has suffered from such ruling. Phoenix Ins. Co. v. Rowe (1889), 117 Ind. 202, 20 N. E. 122; Cincinnati, etc., R. V. Miller (1905), 36 Ind. App. 26, 72 N. E. 827, 73 N. E. 1001; Fletcher Bros. Co. v. Hyde (1905), 36 Ind. App. 96, 75 N. E. 9.

In this connection it may be said that in cases where the facts to be alleged are peculiarly within the knowledge of or presumed to be known to the opposite party, sound reason does not require that certainty and particularity usually necessary in ordinary cases. Cheney v. Chicago, etc., R. Co. (1889), 75 Wis. 223, 43 N. W. 1152; Goshen, etc., Turnpike Co. v. Sears (1828), 7 Conn. 86; Louisville, etc., R. Co. v. Jones (1888), 83 Ala. 376, 3 South. 902.

As to the particular allegation in the first paragraph, it must be admitted that the pleader is somewhat indefinite in his statement. However, after a careful consideration of all the allegations of this paragraph, we are convinced that, from the pleaded facts on the question of notice or warning, appellant was not embarrassed in the preparation of its defense by reason of appellee’s failure to allege additional facts. The notice or warning had reference to the moving of the car, which was charged to have been negligently moved by appellant, its agents, servants and officers. It may be fairly inferred from the facts that the warning given, if any, was not such as gave appellee an opportunity to escape the danger from the moving car. If any notice or warning was actually given, appellant was in as good, if not in a better, position to know the extent or character of the notice or warning than was appellee. Its position for obtaining evidence on that subject was at least the equal of, if not supe[42]*42rior to, that of appellee. No harm resulted to appellant from this ruling.

Reversible error did not result from the overruling of the motion to make more specific directed to the second paragraph. It is true the statement “who were not fellow servants of the plaintiff” was a conclusion to which the motion should have been sustained. Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Adams (1886), 105 Ind. 151, 5 N. E. 187. But what was the effect of overruling it? The clause to which it was addressed might have been eliminated entirely without doing violence to the pleading. In this particular the trial court is not shown to have abused its discretion.

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Bluebook (online)
128 N.E. 401, 190 Ind. 35, 1920 Ind. LEXIS 86, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haskell-barker-car-co-v-trzop-ind-1920.