Kimbro v. Holladay

154 So. 369, 1934 La. App. LEXIS 660
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 4, 1934
DocketNo. 4763.
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 154 So. 369 (Kimbro v. Holladay) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kimbro v. Holladay, 154 So. 369, 1934 La. App. LEXIS 660 (La. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

DREW, Judge.

This is a suit for damages by Ralph Kim-bro, wherein he seeks to recover for injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Pie made defendants Robert E. Holladay and his insurer, Employers’ Liability Assurance Corporation, Limited.

. Plaintiff alleged that on April 28, 1932, defendant Holladay was driving a Chevrolet automobile from Bastrop, La., to Oak Ridge, La., accompanied by petitioner and one W. . M. Wadsworth, and, as they reached .a point *370 near Oak Ridge, the car driven by Holladay attempted to pass to the right of a school bus traveling in the same direction, when the car and the school bus collided. Defendant’s car was overturned and plaintiff was injured. He alleged in his original petition that he was a guest in the Holladay car. In a supplemental petition, he alleged that Holladay was the local manager of the Louisiana Power & Light Company and, before starting to Oak Ridge on business for the company, requested plaintiff, an employee of said company, to accompany him. Plaintiff carried some tools with him to use in replacing any lights or doing any other work found to be necessary in the village of Oak Ridge, which was supplied with electricity by the said Louisiana Power & Light Company.

Defendants filed an exception of no cause of action, which was overruled, then answered, denying any negligence on the part of Holladay, and averred in the alternative that if any negligence was shown on the part of Holladay, said negligence was imputed to plaintiff who was engaged with Holladay in a joint enterprise or adventure at the time of the accident; and further averred in the alternative that, if defendant was negligent, plaintiff acquiesced therein and was guilty of contributory negligence in not protesting to the manner in which the automobile was being operated.

The lower court rendered judgment for plaintiff against the defendant Holladay in the sum of $500, and rejected plaintiff’s demands against the insurance company. Defendant Holladay has appealed. There was no appeal taken by plaintiff as to the insurance company. Plaintiff has answered the appeal praying that the award against Holla-day be increased to $3,500 and that the judgment in favor of the insurance company be amended so as to dismiss his suit against the insurance company as one of nonsuit.

We are of the opinion that the insurance company is not before us. There was no appeal taken by either the insurance company or the plaintiff from the judgment of the lower court rejecting plaintiff’s demands as against the insurance company. Holladay only appealed from the judgment rendered against him. The insurance company cannot be brought into this court by plaintiff answering the appeal of Holladay. Since no appeal was taken from the judgment in favor of the insurance company, it is not concerned with the appeal and would have no knowledge of the answer to the appeal, and to allow it to be brought into this court by such a method could easily deprive it of a right to be heard in this court through want of knowledge that it was before the court, which is apparently the case here, as no argument or brief has been had here from the insurance company.

The exception of no cause of action is based upon the claim that plaintiff’s injuries are covered by the Workmen’s Compensation Act (Act No. 20 of 1914 as amended) and that his remedies under that act are exclusive. That would be true if he were suing his employer. He is not suing his employer, but is suing the man who was driving the car at the time of the accident The man driving the car was the manager of plaintiff’s employer and they were both at the time on a mission of their employer, the plaintiff, by instruction of his superior officer.

Plaintiff was an ordinary laborer holding the position of lineman for the Louisiana Power & Light Company, subject to and under the superintendency of the manager of said company, the defendant herein. Defendant contends that, under these facts, defendant Holladay could not be classed as a “third person” under section 7 of Act No. 20 of 1914, as amended by Act No. 38 of 1918, and Act N'o. 247 of 1920, which provide that an employee may claim compensation under the act and still bring suit for tort against a “third person” causing the damage. We are of the opinion that Holladay is a “third person” within the intendment of the act. While it is true that plaintiff, an employee, cannot sue his employer in a tort action, there is no reason why he cannot sue another employee of his employer. The Compensation Law expressly excludes the employer from being sued in tort for the injuries an employee receives through the negligence of another employee. However, it places another burden on the employer by making it liable for compensation in ease of any accident arising out of and in the course of the employee’s employment. It does not specifically relieve a fellow employee of,his liability in tort and, under no circumstances, does it make a fellow employee liable for compensation. There is no contractual relation between the two employees and no reason, we can see, for exempting one employee from liability for his torts causing damage to another employee.

Article 2315 of the Revised Civil Code provides: “Every act whatever of man that causes damage to another, obliges him by whose fault it happened to repair it.”

*371 The liability of the tort-feasor is fixed by this law, and the fact that the party injured is an employee of the tort-feasor’s employer who is obliged to coinpensate him to the extent and manner prescribed by the compensation statute, and as agreed between the employer and employee, does not change the duties and obligations of the one committing the tort.' The contractual relationship existing between the employer and his employee, who is injured and damaged through the fault of a fellow employee, has nothing whatever to do with the injured employee’s right to recover from his fellow employee who committed the tort.

We have been cited to no decisions of this state on the question presented here, and have found none. However, we find the rule we have above adopted to he in line with the decisions of the following states: Missouri, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, California, and Pennsylvania. See Wallace v. Pac. Elec. Ry. Co., et al., 105 Cal. App. 664, 288 P. 834; Churchill v. Stephens, 91 N. J. Law, 195, 102 A. 657; Judson v. Fielding, 227 App. Div. 430, 237 N. Y. S. 348, 354; Zimmer v. Casey, 296 Pa. 529, 146 A. 130; McGonigle v. Gryphan et al., 201 Wis. 269, 229 N. W. 81; Sylcox v. New York Lead Co., 225 Mo. App. 543, 38 S.W.(2d) 497, 502.

We quote from Judson v. Fielding, above cited, and approve the reasoning therein: “The right of action to recover damages for injuries resulting in death is secured by the Constitution (article 1, § IS). The amendment providing that the Legislature might enact laws for compensation for injuries to employees or for their death resulting from injuries without regard to fault as a cause thereof (article 1, § 19), by its terms, permitted the Legislature to furnish a remedy through compensation exclusive of all other rights and remedies in such eases. It is ancient law that the servant is liable in damages for his own tortious acts, even though at the time he was engaged in the work of his employer. Murray v. Usher, 117 N. Y. 542, 547, 23 N. E. 564.

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Bluebook (online)
154 So. 369, 1934 La. App. LEXIS 660, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kimbro-v-holladay-lactapp-1934.