Hot Blast Coal Co. v. Williax

10 Tenn. App. 226, 1929 Tenn. App. LEXIS 27
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJuly 27, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 10 Tenn. App. 226 (Hot Blast Coal Co. v. Williax) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hot Blast Coal Co. v. Williax, 10 Tenn. App. 226, 1929 Tenn. App. LEXIS 27 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

OWEN, J.

Hot Blast Coal Company, defendant below, has appealed from a judgment rendered against it in the circuit court of Knox county for $7500. The plaintiff was awarded $12,000 by the jury, upon motion for a new trial a remittitur of $4500 was ordered by Judge A. C. Grimm, the trial judge.

The defendant has appealed and assigned errors. The plaintiff excepted to the remittitur and has filed the record for error.

*228 TRe plaintiff, twenty-five years of age, in the Fall of 1927 was employed by Billiter & Oliver Brothers, a partnership engaged in paving a state highway in Anderson county and while so employed the plaintiff met with an accident resulting in the loss of his right leg just below the knee. The plaintiff alleged that his injuries were the result of the negligent acts of the servant and employee of the defendant.

The defendant filed a plea of not guilty.

There was a motion for a directed verdict at the conclusion of plaintiff’s proof and it was also renewed at the conclusion of all the evidence.

Defendant’s motion for a new trial being overruled it excepted, prayed and perfected an appeal and has assigned six errors.

The first error complains of the court in overruling the defendant’s motion made at the conclusion of plaintiff’s testimony.

The second error is, that the court erred in not granting a motion for a directed verdict at the conclusion of all the proof.

The third error is, that there is no evidence to sustain the verdict and judgment of the lower court.

The other three assignments are as follows:

IY. The court erred in instructing the jury as follows:

“If the defendant loaned the operator of the truck in question to said Billiter or Oliver or Billiter & Oliver Brothers for the time being, and resigned only partial control of said operator to said Billiter & Oliver or Billiter & Oliver Brothers during such period, then the operator of the truck in question continued to be the agent, servant, or employee of the defendant. ’ ’

Y. The court erred in refusing to instruct the jury as requested by the defendant at the conclusion of the trial, as follows:

“1st. — The law recognizes that a servant in the general service of one master may be transferred with his consent under contract or otherwise to the'service of another, so as to become for the time the latter’s servant with all the legal consequence of that relationship.
“To determine whether such servant in the general service of one has been transferred to the service of another, so as to become in performing such work the servant of such special master — and the general master would not be answerable in damages for injuries caused to persons or property by such servant.
“The fact that the general master pays the wages of such servant, and can alone discharge him is not the controlling factor in determining whose servant he was. To determine whether a servant is performing service for one master or *229 another — you must determine whose, for the time being, the servant of such other person was. You look to the particular matter in which he was employed, and determine whether he wa.s doing’ the work of the general master, or was he engaged in doing the work of another over whom the general master has no control. If he was performing a special service for another who with reference to the details of such work, such other person had full control, then such servant, became whose to the work being performed, a question which is usually, answered by ascertaining who was the power to control and direct the servant in the performance of his work.
. “2nd. — The fact that a general master details a mechanic to make any necessary repairs to the truck of such general master, or to in general look after and care for the trucks of such general master, would not, of itself, prevent such mechanic and the drivers of such trucks from being, at the same time, .the servants of another, if such other person had and exercised control over said mechanic and truck drivers with respect to the method and details of doing the work of such other person.”

VI. The court erred in refusing to grant defendant’s motion •for a new trial because the verdict was so excessive as to show passion, prejudice and caprice on the part of the jury.

The first assignment is overruled. The defendant did not elect to stand upon this motion and when it introduced proof, it waived its right to have the ease considered upon plaintiff’s proof alone. Therefore, this court upon appeal will look to all the evidence to see if there is any material evidence to sustain the verdict or any material evidence to be submitted to the jury. Tennessee Central I. C. Railroad Co. v. Zearing, 2 Tenn. App., 451; Coal Company v. Bennett, 8 Hig., 310; Smith v. Gerber, 150 Tenn., 255.

We will dispose of the second and third assignments together as they raise the same question.

At the time of the accident the defendant was struck by a truck owned by the defendant, which truck had been hired to Billiter & Oliver Brothers by the defendant,' and the question upon this appeal is whether the driver of the defendant’s truck at the time of the accident was the servant of the defendant or the servant of Billiter & Oliver Brothers.

Plaintiff’s duty was to operate a small roller in front of a concrete mixer. Billiter & Oliver Brothers employed numerous men and also numerous trucks for hauling rock, sand and cement. They hired from the defendant fourteen trucks, the defendant furnished the trucks and the driver for each truck and hauled cement, rock and gravel under the direction of the foreman of the road con *230 tractors. The road contractors paid the defendant by the load, the price varying according to the distance hauled. The defendant also sent from its place of business in Knoxville to Anderson County, a- mechanic by the name of Light, who repaired defendant s trucks and had supervision over the defendant’s drivers. This roller driven by. the plaintiff was called a packing roller, it had a blade on it and was used to proceed along the highway in front of the concrete mixer and pack down the road bed between the concrete forms preparatory to putting down the concrete. The space between the forms was about 18 feet. It took about 20 or 25 men to operate the concrete mixer. The mixer was stationed in the middle of the highway. At the time the plaintiff was injured he was standing by his roller on the right hand side of the road about 25 yards from the concrete mixer. There was about 10 feet between where the plaintiff and his roller were standing and thq edge of the highway. The trucks passed in and out and along this 10 feet of space, each truck bringing in a load of cement, sand and gravel. The plaintiff was pouring some water in the radiator of his roller at the time he was struck by defendant’s truck as the truck loaded approached the concrete mixer. When it got within 150 feet of the mixer it would turn around and back into the mixer.

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Bluebook (online)
10 Tenn. App. 226, 1929 Tenn. App. LEXIS 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hot-blast-coal-co-v-williax-tennctapp-1929.