Inland Steel Co. v. Smith

80 N.E. 538, 168 Ind. 245, 1907 Ind. LEXIS 112
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 15, 1907
DocketNo. 20,749
StatusPublished
Cited by54 cases

This text of 80 N.E. 538 (Inland Steel Co. v. Smith) 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
Inland Steel Co. v. Smith, 80 N.E. 538, 168 Ind. 245, 1907 Ind. LEXIS 112 (Ind. 1907).

Opinion

Monks, J.

This action was brought by appellee to recover damages for injuries received by him while in the service of appellant. The jury returned a general verdict in favor of appellee, and also answers to interrogatories submitted by the court. Appellant’s motion for a judgment in its favor on the answers to interrogatories notwithstanding the general verdict, and its motion for a new trial, were overruled and judgment rendered on the general verdict in favor of appellee.

[247]*247The errors assigned call in question the action of the court in overruling (1) the motion for judgment in favor of appellant on the answers to the interrogatories notwithstanding the general verdict; (2) the demurrer to the amended complaint; (3) the motion for a new trial.

Appellant insists that the answers of the jury to the interrogatories are inconsistent with the general verdict, because they show (1) that appellee was guilty of contributory negligence; (2) that appellant was not guilty of the negligence alleged in the complaint; (3) that no person in the employment of appellant saw appellee at the time of his injury, or knew of the danger which menaced him, and appellant cannot be held liable to appellee for the failure of appellant to warn appellee of the approach of the electric crane which injured him.

1. The party in whose favor a general verdict is returned is not required to sustain the same by the answers to the interrogatories. The general verdict sustains itself. In this case such verdict necessarily determined all material issues in favor of appellee, that his injury was caused by some one or all of the acts of negligence alleged in the complaint, and that appellee was not guilty of any negligence which contributed to his injury.

2. It is well settled that, unless the answers to the interrogatories are in irreconcilable conflict with the general verdict, the court did not err in overruling appellant’s motion for a judgment in its favor. It is not sufficient that said answers are merely inconsistent with the general verdict. The answers of the jury to interrogatories override the general verdict only when both cannot stand, the conflict being such, on the face of the record, as to be beyond the possibility of being removed by any evidence admissible under the issues in the cause. Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Lightheiser (1907), post, 438, and cases cited.

[248]*2483. In determining this question, we may look only to the complaint, answer, the general verdict, the interrogatories and the answers thereto. Consolidated Stone Co. v. Summit (1899), 152 Ind. 291, 300-302.

It appears from the record that appellee was in the service of appellant, and that while engaged in fastening a wooden cleat upon an upright iron or steel pillar, about eighteen feet above the floor, in the open hearth department of appellant’s steel plant, then in process of construction and equipment, he was injured by an electric crane in said open hearth department, the allegations concerning appellant’s negligence being as follows: “That while he was in said position, defendant negligently and carelessly, without warhing or notice of any kind to the plaintiff, ran said traveling crane noiselessly and quietly down, against and upon said plaintiff; that defendant negligently failed to equip said crane with a bell or other means for the purpose of warning persons that might be injured by it when said crane was put in motion; that said defendant negligently constructed said crane so that in passing said pillar on said horizontal beam it passed very close to it; that plaintiff did not know that said crane was being operated on said horizontal beam, and did not know of the danger of his position, nor did he know that said traveling crane would not clear said beam in such manner that his arm would not be caught by it, as hereinafter complained of; that at the time of the plaintiff’s injury and at the time of the running of said crane down upon him, the Indiana Bridge Company, by its officers, agents and employes, was engaged in placing certain large iron or steel plates in the floor of said building and riveting them to the beams thereof; that said work and employment made a great deal of noise and clatter, so that it was impossible for plaintiff to hear the slight noise made by the moving [249]*249of said, crane; that said crane was negligently and carelessly run against and upon the plaintiff by the defendant, and plaintiff’s left arm, between the elbow and the shoulder, was crushed; that said injury is permanent and will continue throughout the life of plaintiff, and is due wholly to said negligence.”

4. It is not. necessary to determine whether any of the answers of the jury to the interrogatories show that appellee was guilty of contributory negligence for the reason that if they do, they are inconsistent with other answers of the jury on that subject, and cannot control the general verdict because they destroy each other. Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Lightheiser, supra, and cases cited.

5. Appellant’s second insistence is based on the following interrogatories and the answers thereto:

“(94) Did the plaintiff’s injury result from the .negligence of any person in the employ of the defendant on June 12, 1902 ? A: Yes. (95) If you answer the foregoing interrogatory in the affirmative, please state the name of the employe, and what he was doing. A. McCullom, the superintendent of the electrical department of the Inland Steel Company. No evidence as to what he was doing. (96) If you answer the last preceding interrogatory but one in the affirmative, please state in what such negligence consisted. A. In not giving the needed instructions to the plaintiff. (91) Was the plaintiff’s injury directly due to the failure of any person to- give him notice of the approach of the crane at the time of his injury?
A. Yes. (98) If you answer the preceding interrogatory in the affirmative, please state who it was that failed to give such notice. A. McCullom. (99) If you answer the last preceding interrogatory but one in the affirmative, please state what warning or notice could have been given the plaintiff that was not given.
A. By placing a man to warn all of approaching ‘danger.”

[250]*250The jury by said answers do not find that the acts of omission mentioned in said answers were the only causes of appellee’s injury. We cannot indulge in presumptions and intendments in favor of said answers of the jury, even if by so doing they would show that the only acts of negligence of which appellant was guilty were those stated in said answers, because said answers cannot be aided by any presumption or intendment. The rule is that all reasonable presumptions and intendments will be indulged in favor of the general verdict, and none will be indulged in favor of the answers to the interrogatories. Consolidated Stone Co. v. Summit (1899), 152 Ind. 297, 301, and cases cited. For aught that appears in said answers, appellant may have been guilty of all the acts of negligence alleged in the complaint.

6.’ The theory of the complaint was that under the facts alleged therein it was the duty of appellant to warn appellee of the approach of the crane.

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Bluebook (online)
80 N.E. 538, 168 Ind. 245, 1907 Ind. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/inland-steel-co-v-smith-ind-1907.