Paxton v. McCartney, Rec.

6 N.E.2d 719, 103 Ind. App. 697, 1937 Ind. App. LEXIS 194
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 1, 1937
DocketNo. 14,763.
StatusPublished

This text of 6 N.E.2d 719 (Paxton v. McCartney, Rec.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paxton v. McCartney, Rec., 6 N.E.2d 719, 103 Ind. App. 697, 1937 Ind. App. LEXIS 194 (Ind. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

Dudine, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of appellees, defendants below, in an action instituted by appellant for damages for personal injuries.

The complaint alleged that appellant was employed by appellee The Polk Sanitary Milk Company in the summer of 1925 to work on its dairy farm. On August 20, 1925, while he was engaged in tramping ensilage in a silo, a shovel came through with the ensilage and fell on appellant’s hand thus causing the injury.

The complaint alleged further that appellee Harry McCartney, as Receiver of Sears and Nichols Canning Company, was operating a canning factory in which he was canning corn at the time of said injury. As a part of said canning process the corn was shucked in a shed and the shucks and offal were thrown or shoved into a *699 trench and on an endless belt conveyor, running through the trench, and carried by the conveyor to an elevator which lifted it into the silo. The complaint further alleged that proper guards were not maintained along said trench, to prevent butcher knives, shovels and other tools used at that place, in said canning process from falling into said trench and on said conveyor; that the shovel which fell upon appellant’s hand was shoved onto said conveyor along with corn shocks and other refuse matter in said canning process and carried into the silo with the ensilage.

Appellees each filed an answer of general denial, and appellee receiver filed a separate paragraph of answer setting up the fact that he was appointed receiver of Sears and Nichols Canning Company on or about April 4, 1923, by the Johnson Circuit Court at Franklin, Indiana; that he qualified as such receiver and took charge of the property of said company, including said canning factory, and administered all the affairs of said trust until June 1, 1929, when he filed his report in final settlement of said trust in the Johnson Circuit Court, and that said court on the 23rd day of September, 1929, approved said report and discharged the receiver.

On change of venue the cause was submitted to a jury in the Shelby Circuit Court for trial. At the close of all the evidence, on motion of appellee receiver, the court instructed the jury to return a verdict for appellee receiver. The jury returned a verdict in favor of both appellees and the court rendered judgment in accordance with the verdict.

Appellant duly filed separate motions for new trial against each of the appellees, which motions were overruled. On appeal the errors relied upon for reversal are error in overruling each of said motions for new trial.

The causes for new trial set forth in said motion as to appellee Polk Sanitary Milk Company, which are dis *700 cussed in appellant’s brief, may be summarized as follows : 1. The verdict is not sustained by sufficient evidence. 2. The verdict is contrary to law. 3. Error in giving or in refusing to give each of certain instructions to the jury.

In support of his contentions that the verdict as to Polk Sanitary Milk is not sustained by sufficient evidence and is contrary to law, appellant says as follows:

“The uncontradicted evidence shows that the appellee Milk Company had in its employ at the time of the injury more than five men, that by an arrangement between it and the Canning Company the latter delivered the husks into the silo direct from the husking shed; that the Milk Company knew how the canning plant was constructed and operated and how the husks were handled; that it knew that foreign matter in addition to the husks was carried into the silo from time to time; that the dropping of any foreign matter was likely to strike any person working in the silo; that notwithstanding which it ordered and directed appellant to enter the silo and to distribute and tramp the silage as it came from the Canning Company, which order appellant was bound to and did obey; that the silo was not lighted and no means were placed on the head of the conveyor to control or keep any foreign matter from striking a workman in the silo. This undisputed evidence proves the negligence charged in the complaint and that plaintiff’s injuries resulted ‘in whole or in part’ from this negligence, and therefore established liability under the statute, and the verdict contrary to this evidence can not be upheld.”

We deem it unnecessary to review all the evidence. It is sufficient to note that the evidence shows that the husking process, apparatus, silo and all the employees engaged in the canning process were under the control of appellee receiver; that appellee milk company had no control whatsoever over them.

Appellant contends that the Employers’ Liability Act *701 (Acts 1911 p. 145, §40-1101 Burns 1933, §10100-1 Baldwin’s 1934, is applicable here as against appellee milk company. With reference to such contention, it should be noted that appellant’s injury was not caused by the negligence of a “fellow employee” because appellant was the only employee of appellee milk company engagd in the work; there were no “fellow employees” within the meaning of said Act. It should be further noted that appellee milk company can not be held liable on account of any defect or mismanagement of the equipment used, because the equipment was not under the control of appellee milk company.

It was not shown by uncontradicted evidence, as appellant asserts, that appellee milk company “knew that foreign matter, in addition to the husks, was carried into the silo from time to time,” or “that dropping of any foreign matter was likely to strike any person working in the silo,” or “that the silo was not lighted.” The evidence as to those facts was conflicting.

Although we were not required to do so, we searched the record for evidence of negligence of appellee milk company which either “in whole or in part” caused appellant’s alleged injury, and we have found none. In that view of the evidence, the appellee milk company is not liable under the Employers’ Liability Act. The verdict of the jury in favor of appellee milk company is sustained by sufficient evidence and is not contrary to law.

The cause for new trial, which is most strenuously argued in appellant’s brief, as against appellee receiver is that the court erred in giving to the jury the peremptory instruction in favor of said appellee.

Appellant presents the question whether the discharge of the receiver by the Johnson Circuit Court was a bar, which prevented the Shelby Circuit Court *702 from rendering a valid judgment against said receiver, said receivership having been an “ancillary receivership” to a federal court receivership, which was in fieri at the time of the judgment.

We deem it expedient to consider at this point the relationship between primary receivers and ancillary receivers. In Shinney v. North American (1899), 97 Fed. 9, the U. S. Circuit Court (Dist. of Utah) in discussing the relationship between a primary receivership in the U. S. Circuit Court (Dist. of Utah) and an ancillary receivership in a state court of another state said (p. 11) :

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Bluebook (online)
6 N.E.2d 719, 103 Ind. App. 697, 1937 Ind. App. LEXIS 194, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paxton-v-mccartney-rec-indctapp-1937.