St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co. v. Conly

255 S.W. 308, 160 Ark. 592, 1923 Ark. LEXIS 323
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 5, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 255 S.W. 308 (St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co. v. Conly) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co. v. Conly, 255 S.W. 308, 160 Ark. 592, 1923 Ark. LEXIS 323 (Ark. 1923).

Opinion

Wood, J.

This is an appeal by the appellant from a judgment against it in appellee’s favor-in the sum of $1,825. This is the second appeal in the case. St. L. S. F. Ry. Co. v. Conly, 154 Ark. 29.

Hal Conley was employed by one Arthur Anthony, himself an employee of the appellant. Anthony was employed by one Slagle, who was appellant’s station agent at Jonesboro. Anthony’s duty was to see that the freight was transferred from bad order oars to cars in which it could be transported in safety. Slagle told Anthony to employ the men who were to assist him in doing that work. Slagle fixed the price that Anthony was to pay the men. It was left with Anthony as to the number of men necessary. Anthony kept the time of the men on the books which he got from the office of the appellant. Slagle would give Anthony a check for the amount due the men and Anthony would pay them. It was Anthony’s duty to report to Slagle after each car was unloaded. The company furnished stakes, nails and wire, to wire the stakes together which were used to hold the lumber on the oars. When DeWitt Mitchell, the boss of the work before Anthony, left, Anthony became foreman. Slagle told Anthony “to take the book and go and take charge of it until Mitchell came back.” Mitchell never came back. When Slagle gave Anthony a check to pay the men, he cashed the check at the station, sometimes with the agent at the freight house. A check was never given him for any more than the amount necessary to pay for the labor of the men at forty cents an hour and forty-five cents an hour for his own labor. Anthony was not privileged to1 hire men for. any amount in excess of what Slagle said. Slagle never hired or discharged Anthony’s men, and if Anthony did not pay the men he would still owe them under his agreement with them. Anthony told appellee to drive out the stakes, and gave him an axe with which to drive them. He didn’t.go with appellee up there, because he had other business. He took it for granted that appellee knew how to drive out a stake. There was no skill about it. Such is the purport of the testimony of Anthony and Slagle.

The appellee testified that he was hurt on November 12, 1920. He lacked one month of being sixteen years old at the time he was hurt. He had been at work five days, and on the day he was hurt had worked about two and.a. half hours. Anthony put witness to work on the ear and told him to knock the stakes -out and get the ear ready to transfer to the next track. There were two tiers of timber with two stakes on either side of each tier, — cross pieces across the top of the stakes. Appel-lee knocked off the cross piece with an axe and knocked the stake out at the west end — -then started to knock the middle stake out; got it about half way up, and was standing about half way between the two «takes west of the middle stake. He took the axe, knocked on the bottom of the middle stake, looked up, saw the lumber commence to fall, turned his head and didn’t know anything until he was taken home. No one told appellee how to knock the stakes out of the car, and he didn’t know that if he knocked the end and middle stakes the lumber would fall. He didn’t know that if he knocked the middle stake out and then knocked the end stake that he would have escaped injury. On cross-examination he testified that he had never worked except at the handle factory and for the railroad. The stakes were in the car to hold the timber, and he knocked them out to unload it. The timbers were sawed and laid straight. If he had knocked the middle stake out first, the timber would have been supported by the two end stakes.

There was testimony in the record to the effect that the oar was loaded with heavy bridge timbers of some kind. There were two tiers of timber on each end of the car, each tier four or five feet high. One of the witnesses testified that the car was loaded in a way so that it was ‘£ ramshacldy, ’ ’ that is, it would shake and looked like it was about ready to fall off. One end of the timber that struck the appellee was on the ground and the other end on the car. . The middle stake had bent over as far as the other car to which the timber was to be transferred, far enough to let the timber down to the ground. There was testimony in the record tending to show that appellee was a large boy for his age. The testimony of the appellee was to the effect that he had gone to school np to the time he went to work at the handle factory, and his photographs, which were in evidence, showed him to he a boy of unusual size for his age.

1. The appellant contends that the court erred in refusing to grant its prayer for instruction directing the jury to return a verdict in its favor. Counsel for appellant argue that the undisputed evidence shows that the danger of unloading the car in the manner undertaken by the appellee was an obvious one which he knew and appreciated, or should have known and appreciated. They also argue that the appellee was guilty of contributory negligence which was the proximate cause of his injury, and that the undisputed proof showed that there was no negligence on the part of the appellant.

We cannot concur with learned counsel for appellant in these contentions. We are convinced that these were issues for the jury under the evidence. The court correctly submitted these issues in instructions given at the instance of both the appellant and the appellee. We do not set out and discuss these instructions in detail, because they correctly apply familiar rules and conform to the law applicable to such issues as it has been declared in numerous decisions of this court. A reiteration thereof could serve no useful purpose. See Davis v. Ry. Co., 53 Ark. 117; Emma Cotton Seed Co. v. Hale, 56 Ark. 216; Arkadelphia Lumber Co. v. Whitted, 81 Ark. 247; Arkansas Midland Ry. Co. v. Worden, 90 Ark. 406; St. Louis Stave Co. v. Sawyer, 90 Ark. 473.

2. Counsel for appellant also contend that, under all the evidence, the appellee was a servant of Anthony as an independent contractor, and that the jury should have been so instructed. They further contend that the court erred in refusing appellant’s prayers for instructions and in granting appellee’s prayers for instructions on' that issue. These assignments of error cannot be sustained. Under the evidence it was an issue for the jury as to whether Anthony was an. independent contractor, and whetlier the appellee was injured while in Ms employ as such. At the instance of the appellee the conrt instructed the jury, in effect, that, if Anthony was an independent contractor, and if appellee was in his employ at the time of the injury, and'not in the employ of the railroad company, their verdict should he for the appellant. The court defined an independent contractor as one who, exercising an independent employment, had contrasted to do a piece of work according to his own method and without 'being subject to the control of the employer except as to the result of his work; that he was one who contracted to perform work at his own risk and cost, the workmen being his servants and he being liable for their misconduct; that, if the employer had the right of control of one performing the work, then the workman is a servant or employee and not an independent contractor.

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Bluebook (online)
255 S.W. 308, 160 Ark. 592, 1923 Ark. LEXIS 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-louis-san-francisco-railway-co-v-conly-ark-1923.