Johnson v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad

394 S.W.2d 110, 1965 Ky. LEXIS 173
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedMay 21, 1965
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 394 S.W.2d 110 (Johnson v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad, 394 S.W.2d 110, 1965 Ky. LEXIS 173 (Ky. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

CLAY, Commissioner.

This suit was brought by plaintiff appellant against defendant appellee railroad under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (45 U.S.C.A. § 51 et seq.) and/or KRS 277.310. A verdict was directed for defendant on the ground that plaintiff was not an “employee”.

Whether the federal or state statute applies is unimportant because they are substantially the same with respect to the basis of liability. In substance they provide that a railroad common carrier shall be liable [111]*111in damages for negligence to any person suffering injury “while he is employed by such carrier”.

The accident occurred during an unloading operation of one of defendant’s freight cars on a siding or team track (referred to as “the Mill Track” ). It was used for the delivery of freight to the Haeberlin Supply Company (hereafter referred to as “Haeberlin” ), and others. Haeberlin had entered into a license agreement with defendant which gave the former a preferred but not exclusive use of a SO foot section of this siding, under which Haeberlin maintained a concrete pit for the unloading of sand and gravel.

Plaintiff was an employee of Haeberlin. He, with two other Haeberlin employees, had unloaded a car over the pit. It was necessary to move it to make room for another car to be unloaded. While engaged in a routine method of spotting the car, plaintiff was injured.

It is undisputed that plaintiff was regularly employed by Haeberlin, was performing the unloading work for it, and was exclusively under its supervision and control. Plaintiff contends, however, that the movement of the freight car constituted a railroad operation of defendant, that in such operation plaintiff was a “loaned servant” of the defendant, and therefore was the latter’s employee. It is suggested that, in the light of many court decisions which have considered related problems, we can evolve some legal theory which would identify plaintiff as an “employee” of the defendant under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act.

We encounter no difficulty with the “loaned servant” doctrine. An employee of one person can become the servant of another, alternately or simultaneously, or wholly or partially. See Restatement, Agency 2d, section 227 (page 500); 35 Am.Jur., Master and Servant, section 18 (page 455); Ambrosius Industries v. Adams, Ky., 293 S.W.2d 230.

One of the earlier cases invoking the doctrine under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act was Linstead v. Chesapeake & O. Ry. Co., 276 U.S. 28, 48 S.Ct. 241, 72 L.Ed. 453. The injured person, a conductor, was an employee of the Big Four Railway Company. By a reciprocal ariangement, Big Four and the C & O alternated the furnishing of train crews for the interchange of traffic on a 12 mile section of track owned by the C & O. On the day of the accident the Big Four employee was part of the train crew moving a C & O train of cars on this section of track. The Supreme Court held the employee had been loaned to the C & O by the Big Four, that the work being done was the work of the C & O, and that the train crew was under the supervision and control of the C & O. Obviously under these circumstances, at the time of the accident the Big Four employee was acting as the servant of the C & O. In resolving the basic question, the opinion stated (page 34, 48 S.Ct. page 243) that the inquiry must be: “whose is the work being performed, a question which is usually answered by ascertaining who has the power to control and direct the servants in the performance of their work.” (Our emphasis)

From this innocuous beginning, the “loaned servant” doctrine under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act has grown into such a giant octopus of intermingled legal theories as to lead some federal courts to the brink of despair.

Some of the problems which developed are exhibited in the leading case of Cimorelli v. New York Central R. Co., 6 Cir., 148 F.2d 575. Here the railroad company had contracted with the United States government to maintain in its yards a temporary storage place for war material in transit, which included unloading and reloading cars. The railroad company was to be paid extra for its services. It then contracted with the Duffy Company to unload and reload the cars. An employee of Duffy was injured. It was held that because the railroad company had general control of the [112]*112operation, Duffy was not an independent contractor and therefore the injured party was an employee of the railroad. (The reasoning in this opinion is in some respects difficult to follow.) Similar cases are Pennsylvania Railroad Company v. Roth, 6 Cir., 163 F.2d 161, certiorari denied, 332 U.S. 830, 68 S.Ct. 208, 92 L.Ed. 404, and Pennsylvania Railroad Company v. Barlion, 6 Cir., 172 F.2d 710.

There are many more “independent contractor” and other cases which exhibit an amazing lack of consistency. The concepts of “general control” of a particular operation, specific control of “the details of the work being performed”, and the “right to control” are so intermixed and differently emphasized that the law on the subject as it relates to the Federal Employers’ Liability Act is well nigh incomprehensible. See Hull v. Philadelphia & Reading Ry. Co., 252 U.S. 475, 40 S.Ct. 358, 64 L.Ed. 670; Baker v. Texas & P. Ry. Co., 359 U.S. 227, 79 S.Ct. 664, 3 L.Ed.2d 756; Ward v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 362 U.S. 396, 80 S.Ct. 789, 4 L.Ed.2d 820; Shenker v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 374 U.S. 1, 83 S.Ct. 1667, 10 L.Ed.2d 709; Drago v. Central R. Co., 93 N.J.L. 176, 106 A. 803, certiorari denied, 251 U.S. 553, 40 S.Ct. 118, 64 L.Ed. 411; Docheney v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company, 3 Cir., 60 F.2d 808, certiorari denied, 287 U.S. 665, 53 S.Ct. 222, 77 L.Ed. 573; Latsko v. National Carloading Corporation, 6 Cir., 192 F.2d 905; Dougall v. Spokane, P. & S. Ry. Co., 9 Cir., 207 F.2d 843, certiorari denied, 347 U.S. 904, 74 S.Ct. 429, 98 L.Ed. 1063; Byrne v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 3 Cir., 262 F.2d 906, certiorari denied, 359 U.S. 960, 79 S.Ct. 798, 3 L.Ed.2d 766; Mazzucola v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company, 3 Cir., 281 F.2d 267, 91 A.L.R.2d 518.

There is one comforting and consistent fact which appears in the foregoing cases.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Kentucky Uninsured Employers' Fund v. Hoskins
449 S.W.3d 753 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2014)
Carnes v. Department of Economic Security
435 S.W.2d 758 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1968)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
394 S.W.2d 110, 1965 Ky. LEXIS 173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-louisville-nashville-railroad-kyctapp-1965.