Stearns & Culver Lumber Co. v. Fowler

58 Fla. 362
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJune 15, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 58 Fla. 362 (Stearns & Culver Lumber Co. v. Fowler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stearns & Culver Lumber Co. v. Fowler, 58 Fla. 362 (Fla. 1909).

Opinion

Whitfield, C. J.

The defendant in error recovered a judgment against the Stearns & Culver Lumber Company for personal injuries received by the plaintiff below in the moving of a loading machine on a log train as a result of the negligence of the “foreman or boss who was the agent and employee of the defendant,” who is alleged to [366]*366have “carelessly, negligently and wrongfully caused said loading machine to be put in motion by then and there having it moved forward” on the track upon the log car on which was the plaintiff, an employee, thereby causing the injury. The declaration alleges and there is evidence that the plaintiff was “under the supervision and control of the said foreman or boss who was the agent and employee of the defendant.”

On writ of error the defendant below contends that no recovery should be had because the alleged negligence appears to have been that of a fellow servant and not of the employer defendant.

One who employs others is liable in damages for injuries to employees caused by the negligence of the employer or of those who sustain to such employees the relation of employer by discharging duties properly belonging only to the employer, where the party injured has uot contributed to the injury complained of. Risks resulting from the masters negligence are not assumed by the servant. 1 Labatt on Master & Servant, § 2, et seq. A master is not bound to indemnify one servant for injuries caused by the negligence of another servant in the same common employment as himself unless the negligent servant was the master’s representative. 2 Labatt on Master & Servant, § 470.

An employer, who exercises proper care in selecting employees and in providing for employees reasonably safe places in which to work and suitable implements to work with and performs other duties due from the employer to the employee is in general not liable for injuries to an employee caused by the negligence of fellow servants engaged in the same service where the employer does not contribute to the injuries. This rule was established by the courts, based largely upon public policy for the mutual protection of servants and upon the theory that [367]*367by implication of law an employee assumes the risk of injury resulting from the negligence of fellow servants with whom the employee may or may not engage to work at his own volition. Though the rule when applicable has the force of law, it furnishes no property right or vested interest to any one, and there is no special constitutional provision in this State relating to it. Like all rules relating to rights and remedies it may in whole or in part be regulated, changed or modified by a duly enacted statute when constitutional guarantees are not violated. The legislature may exercise a wide law-making discretion as to regulating employments and the liabilities and remedies incident thereto, where the classifications adopted for legislative regulation or change are not purely arbitrary and are made with reference to real and practical differences in employments, and not merely to different employers. See Florida East Coast Ry. v. Lassiter, 58 Fla. 234, 50 South. Rep. 428; Kiley v. Chicago M. & St. P. Ry. Co., 138 Wis. 215, 119 N. W. Rep. 309; Minnesota Iron Co. v. Kline, 199 U. S. 593, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 159; Cooper v. Shannon, 36 Colo. 98, 85 Pac. Rep. 175; Vindicator Consolidated Gold Mining Co. v. Firstbrook, 36 Colo. 498, 86 Pac. Rep. 313, S. C. 10 Am. & Eng. Anno. Cas. 1108 and notes; Farwell v. Boston & Worcester Rail Road Corporation, 4 Met. (Mass.) 49, S. C. 38 Am. Dec. 339; Murray v. S. C. R. Co., 1 McMullan’s L. 385, S. C. 36 Am. Dec. 268; 2 Labatt on Master & Servant, § 472 et seq.; Buswell on Personal Injuries (2nd ed.) § 213, et seq. It is not contended that the statute of this State modifying the rule as to employer’s liability in certain employments in the operation of railroads is applicable to the facts of this case. See Bradford Const. Co. v. Heflin, 88 Miss. 314, 42 South. Rep. 174, S. C. 12 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1040, 8 Am. & Eng. Anno. Cas. 1077 and notes.

To render an employer liable to those in his employ for [368]*368injuries caused by the negligence of a fellow servant, it is not necessary .that the servant who causes and the one who suffers the injury should be at the time of the injury engaged together in the same particular work, it is sufficient if they are in the employment of the same master, engaged in the same common enterprise, and both are employed to perform duties tending to accomplish the same general purpose, where such duties are not peculiar to the matter as such. See South Florida R. Co. v. Weese, 32 Fla. 212, 13 South. Rep. 436; South Florida R. Co. v. Price, 32 Fla. 46, 13 South Rep. 638; Parrish v. Pensacola & Atlantic R. Co., 28 Fla. 251, 9 South. Rep. 696; Camp v. Hall, 39 Fla. 535, 22 South. Rep. 792.

No questions of inexperience or directions to incur extra hazards or lack of warning as to risks and dangers are presented in this case. See German-American Lumber Co. v. Brock, 55 Fla. 577, 46 South. Rep. 740; Camp v. Hall, 39 Fla. 535, 22 South. Rep. 792.

Where the duty negligently performed does not appear as a matter of law to be a duty devolving upon the master, or the conceded facts relating thereto are not such that an inference of law may be drawn therefrom by the court, the question whether the duty negligently performed did devolve upon the master in the particular case is for the jury to determine from all the facts and circumstances of the employment in evidence under proper instructions from the court. 2 Labatt on Master and Servant, § 564a; Donelly v. Booth Brothers & Hurricane Isle Granite Co., 90 Me. 110, 37 Atl. Rep. 874; Wilson v. Charleston and Savannah Ry., 51 S. C. 79, 28 S. E. Rep. 91. The burden is upon the plaintiff to show that the negligence causing the injury was in performing a duty cast upon the defendant master.

A master assumes the duty toward his servant of exercising reasonable care and diligence to provide the servant [369]*369with, a reasonably safe place at which to work, with reasonably safe machinery, tools and implements to work with, with reasonably safe materials to work upon, and with suitable and competent fellow servants to work with him; and when the máster has properly discharged these duties then, at common láw, the servant assumes all the risks and hazards incident to or attendant upon the exercise of the particular employment or the performance of the particular work, including those risks and hazards resulting from the possible negligence and carelessness of his fellow-servants and co-employees. And at common law, whenever the master delegates to any officer, servant, agent, or employee, high or low, the performance of any of the duties above mentioned, which really devolve upon the master himself, then such officer, servant, agent, or employee stands in the place of the master, as to such delegated duties,, and becomes a substitute for the master, a vice-principal, and the master is liable for his acts or his negligence to the same extent as though the master himself had performed the acts or was guilty of the negligence. But at common law, where the master himself has performed his duty, the master is not liable to any one of his servants for the acts or negligence of any mere fellow-servant or co-employee “of such servant, where the fellow-servant or co-employee does not sustain this representative relation to the master. Atchison, Topeka &c. Railroad v.

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Bluebook (online)
58 Fla. 362, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stearns-culver-lumber-co-v-fowler-fla-1909.