Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad v. Parker

132 N.E. 372, 191 Ind. 686, 19 A.L.R. 751, 1921 Ind. LEXIS 69
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 11, 1921
DocketNo. 23,528
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 132 N.E. 372 (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad v. Parker) 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
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad v. Parker, 132 N.E. 372, 191 Ind. 686, 19 A.L.R. 751, 1921 Ind. LEXIS 69 (Ind. 1921).

Opinions

Ewbank, J.

—The appellee was employed by the Dunn-McCarthy Company as a carpenter, building [688]*688forms for concrete bridges that were being constructed for the appellant railroad company in the new yards it was building in the eastern part of Indianapolis.

The complaint was filed June 12, 1917. Each paragraph alleged and there was evidence tending to prove that said Dunn-McCarthy Company had a contract with the appellant by which it undertook to do certain construction work on appellant’s premises, and that it sent appellee and other workmen on said premises to do that work under some kind of supervision by inspectors in the employ of appellant. While he was so engaged, appellee was struck and injured on November 17, 1916, by an iron pipe that fell from a trestle, as a locomotive engine belonging to appellant, operated by one of appellant’s engineers, was being run across the trestle. Appellee sued appellant and the Dunn-McCarthy Company and recovered a verdict of $20,000 damages against the appellant, on which judgment was rendered.

The errors assigned are overruling appellant’s several demurrers to each paragraph of the complaint for the alleged reasons that neither stated facts sufficient, and that the court was without jurisdiction, and overruling its motion for a new trial, to each of which rulings appellant reserved an exception.

1. Each paragraph of the complaint alleged, in substance, that appellant was employed at the time of his injury by the Dunn-McCarthy Company, and that said company was operating under the “Compensation Law” of Indiana, and that an award of 55 per cent, of appellee’s wages for 200 weeks, as against the said employer, was made by-the Industrial Board of the State of Indiana, and that said employer paid the award td the appellee, as the payments became due, up to the time this action was commenced. But the first paragraph alleged that appellant was operat[689]*689ing an interstate railroad, and was repairing and rebuilding part of such railroad, and that the Dunn-McCarthy Company employed appellee to work thereon, and that he was “an employe at work upon the bridges and tracks of” appellant, and that both he and the appellant were engaged in interstate commerce at the time of the injury, and that appellant had rejected the compensation law of Indiana. And the appellee in asking instructions and the trial court in giving them construed this to mean that appellee was in the employ of appellant, and as such employe was engaged in interstate commerce. The language of the pleading is ambiguous, but there was no motion to make it more specific. Understood as alleging that appellee was in the employ of appellant, and that both appellee and appellant were engaged in interstate commerce at the time of the injury, the first paragraph of the complaint stated a cause of action for injuries inflicted by a railroad on one of its employes when both it and the employe were engaged in interstate commerce.

We cannot say that it will not bear that interpretation, and therefore no error was committed in overruling the demurrer to said first paragraph.

Accepting compensation from the Dunn-McCarthy Company is not shown by the allegations of this paragraph to have misled or affected the appellant in such a way as to create an estoppel in its favor that could release it from paying damages under the federal Employers’ Liability Act, 35 Stat. at L. 65, §8657 et seq. U. S. Comp. Stat. 1916, if otherwise liable. Each of the second, third and fourth paragraphs of the complaint, in addition to the facts above recited as being contained in all the paragraphs, charged that appellee was employed by the Dunn-McCarthy Company, which had a contract with appellant to do certain work on ap[690]*690pellant’s- premises, and that while he was engaged in such work thereon appellant negligently injured him.

The fourth paragraph also alleged that by reason of the contract relations between appellant and the Dunn-McCarthy Company appellee was in the employ of-appellant, and that appellant had refused “to take under such compensation act” of Indiana, but said nothing about being engaged in interstate commerce.

The second paragraph of the complaint also alleged that the Dunn-McCarthy Company voluntarily had paidappellee (plaintiff) $8.28 per week since his injury, and voluntarily had submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the Industrial Board, and voluntarily had permitted-an order of said board to be made that payments at that rate should continue 200 weeks. The third paragraph alleged that since the accident 'the said company “over the protest of (appellee) has been and is now compensating” -him “in the sum of $8.28 per week, being 55 per cent, of the wages earned by him before his injury, and such compensation is to continue for 200 weeks;” and the fourth paragraph alleged that appellant' “tendered and paid to this plaintiff (appellee) the sum of $8.28 per week, as being' 55 per cent, of his wages, and voluntarily went' before said Industrial Board * * * and submitted to an- order to pay plaintiff $8.28 per week for 200 weeks. The said plaintiff at all times refusing to accept said sum in release of his claim against said railroad company, and protesting such payment for such purpose. That said defendant railroad company * * * was at no time a party to any order made by the Industrial Board.” Each paragraph alleged that the Dunn-McCarthy Company was claiming an interest in appellee’s right of action by reason of the facts stated.

The appellee testified that something more than three weeks after he was injured he called upon a representative of the Dunn-McCarthy Company to see about the [691]*69155 per cent, of his wages, and a month later went to the Industrial Board, and afterward went back to attend a hearing before the board, when he signed an application for compensation, stating that his average earnings had been $18 per week, and demanding $9.90 per week; that he afterward signed a petition asking the Industrial Board to determine whether he could receive the $8.28 per week for 200 weeks and at the same time prosecute an action against the railroad company; and that the Dunn-McCarthy Company paid to him and he received from it $8.28 per week up to the time of the trial, in March, 1918, and intended to do so for the remainder of 200 weeks.

The record of proceedings before the Industrial Board, read in evidence, recited an agreement, signed by appellee and by the Dunn-McCarthy Company, that appellee should receive compensation at the rate of $8.28 per week, not exceeding 500 weeks, and the approval of such agreement by the Industrial Board, and a hearing on appellee’s application three months later, and an award of $8.28 per week for 200 weeks. There was no evidence disputing that the amended award was made upon a hearing petitioned for by appellee, and that appellee had received $8.28 per week from December 1, 1916, up to the date of the trial, March 21, 1918.

The court gave a number of instructions, and refused to give others, properly requested, the exceptions to which present for decision the same question of law that is presented by the exceptions to the ruling on the demurrers to each of the second, third, and fourth paragraphs of complaint, towit: Under §13 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act (Acts 1915 p. 392, §80201 et seq. Burns’ Supp.

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Bluebook (online)
132 N.E. 372, 191 Ind. 686, 19 A.L.R. 751, 1921 Ind. LEXIS 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pittsburgh-cincinnati-chicago-st-louis-railroad-v-parker-ind-1921.