Lessard v. Northern Pacific Railroad
This text of 51 N.W. 321 (Lessard v. Northern Pacific Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
Opinion
The demurrer was properly overruled. The complaint charges that the defendant itself caused and per[191]*191mitted the freight car to be upon the main track. Of course, this negligence must have been the act of some agent of the company. The general and familiar rule is that it is sufficient, in pleading an act performed by means of an agent, to plead it as the act of the principal. Is this rule changed by the fact that in this case there is a class of agents, i. e., co-employees, for whose acts of negligence the principalis not liable? We think not. The fair import of the' complaint is that the act charged was the act of an agent whose negligence is the negligence of his principal; in other words, a vice-principal. We certainly shall not assume that the negligent act complained of was the act of one whose negligence is not imputable in this action to the principal, when the complaint directly charges the negligence to be that of the principal.
By the Gourt.— Order affirmed.
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack
51 N.W. 321, 81 Wis. 189, 1892 Wisc. LEXIS 28, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lessard-v-northern-pacific-railroad-wis-1892.