Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railway Co. v. Snyder

39 N.E. 912, 140 Ind. 647, 1895 Ind. LEXIS 69
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 1, 1895
DocketNo. 15,453
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 39 N.E. 912 (Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railway Co. v. Snyder) 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
Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railway Co. v. Snyder, 39 N.E. 912, 140 Ind. 647, 1895 Ind. LEXIS 69 (Ind. 1895).

Opinion

Jordan, J.

— This was an action by the appellee, as the administrator of James Pickner, deceased, against appellant to recover damages on account of a personal injury, which resulted in the death of decedent. The [648]*648complaint, omitting the formal parts, sufficiently alleges, among other things, that the deceased, while in the employ of appellant as a section hand, in the proper discharge of his duties as such servant, in operating a hand car upon appellant’s road, was injured and thereby killed by reason of the negligence of appellant in failing to furnish him safe machinery and appliances with which to do his work and discharge his duties as such employe. That while engaged in propelling said hand car the handle thereof broke, by reason of the fact that it was defective, unsafe and dangerous, which rendered it unsafe for use, all of which at the time of the accident and long prior thereto was known to appellant and wholly unknown to decedent; that appellant negligently and carelessly furnished the same for the use of the deceased as such servant; that the injury and death alleged occurred without the fault or negligence of the employe.

A trial resulted in the jury returning a general verdict in favor of appellee, together with numerous answers to interrogatories. Over motion for judgment on answers to the interrogatories and for a new trial, the court rendered judgment on the verdict from which this appeal is prosecuted.

The errors assigned in this court are:

1st. The court erred in overruling the demurrer to the complaint.

2d. The court erred in sustaining the demurrer to the first paragraph of the answer.

3d. The court erred in overruling appellant’s motion for judgment on the answer of the jury to the special interrogatories, notwithstanding the general verdict.

4th. The court erred in overruling the motion for a new trial.

The first and second alleged errors are not argued by [649]*649counsel for appellant, and therefore are waived and will not be considered by this court.

. The action of the court below in giving and refusing instructions, is complained of and criticised by the learned counsel for appellant. In the motion for a new trial, the error of the trial court in giving and refusing instructions was assigned as follows:

“7. The court erred .in giving instructions asked by plaintiff, to-wit: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8%, 9, 10 and 11, which instructions were each and every one excepted to, as appears by endorsement and bill of exceptions No. 2, duly filed.”

”8. The court erred in refusing instructions Nos. 4, 10, 11, 12, 16, 19, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 36, 37 ■and 38 tendered by defendant, as appears by bill of exceptions No. 1.”

These assignments are both joint, and the instructions .given are called in question as an entirety, as are likewise those refused. It is well settled by the decisions of this court, that assignments in gross, like the above, can only be maintained, and be available to the party complaining, upon his showing that all of the instructions .given are erroneous, and all refused are correct. Ohio, etc., R. W. Co. v. McCartney, 121 Ind. 385; Wallace v. Exchange Bank, etc., 126 Ind. 265.

It is evident that, at least, some of the instructions given were proper, and that some refused were not correct, and hence, under the rule stated, the contention of appellant must fail, and this court must decline to consider the points attempted to be raised upon the instruction given or refused by the trial court.

From the evidence in the record, and the answers of the jury to the interrogatories, the following material facts substantially appear to have been established upon •.the trial of this cause: That James Pickner, the de[650]*650ceased, on February 22, 1889, and prior thereto, was in the employ of the appellant, and a servant thereof in the capacity of a section hand. On that day, he, with three other section men, in the employ of appellant, boarded a hand car, for the purpose of returning from their labor. This car had been furnished by appellant to the deceased and the other section hands, to be used by them in the discharge of their duties, and in going to and returning from their work. On the day in question, the weather was intensely cold, and a strong wind was blowing from the direction-that these men were propelling the hand car. Each turned his back from the wind as a protection from the intense cold. The deceased was riding upon the front end of the car, and while assisting in propelling it, the handle of the car, upon an upward stroke, suddenly broke, and thereby he was thrown upon the railroad track, and sustained injuries from the effects of which he died, leaving surviving him a wife and one minor child. The appellant maintained and operated machine shops for the purpose, in the main, of repairing its machinery and appliances — including its hand cars — used by it in the operation of its road, and the business in which it was engaged. The car in question, some six or eight weeks prior to the time of the accident, had been sent, by appellant, to these shops for repairs — including a new handle.- The handle in controversy was manufactured and placed in the car by one Savaie who was a mechanic — being a carpenter of thirty years ’ experience — -in the employ of appellant at said shops, engaged in the work of repairing the company’s hand cars. The handle which broke was constructed by Savaie out of ash lumber which was brash or brittle, defective and unsound, and as some of the witnesses stated, rotten or decayed.

A condition which Savaie, in the construction of the [651]*651handle, could and did discover, and of which he thereby had notice, that the external or surface appearance of the handle, when constructed and placed in the car, was such that its defective condition could not be discovered by inspection of its surface, or by those who used it; that the car had been returned from said shop, where it had been repaired, and had been in use thereafter about six weeks, during which time the deceased had used it in and about his work as a section hand.

The appellant had ordered clear white ash lumber, free from knots, for the construction of its car handles, and when delivered, it had been inspected in bulk, and no defects in the timber had been discovered; that white ash timber is the kind generally used for such handles; that the deceased had no notice or knowledge of the defective condition of the handle; that the handle broke on account of the brittle, brash and unsound timber from which the same was made;" that the decedent was free from contributory negligence.

The point involved, and the one upon which the decision of the case at bar must turn, is: Was Savaie, the carpenter in the employ of appellant at its shops, to whom the business of making and placing the handle in question in the hand car had been entrusted, the vice-principal or representative in this matter of appellant, so that knowledge to him could be imputed to appellant, and whose failure to exercise due care in discharge of the duty delegated to him, would render appellant liable, or was he but a fellow-servant with the deceased in relation to the construction of the car handle?

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Bluebook (online)
39 N.E. 912, 140 Ind. 647, 1895 Ind. LEXIS 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indiana-illinois-iowa-railway-co-v-snyder-ind-1895.