Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City Railroad v. Mylott

33 N.E. 135, 6 Ind. App. 438, 1893 Ind. App. LEXIS 165
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 19, 1893
DocketNo. 591
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 33 N.E. 135 (Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City Railroad v. Mylott) 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
Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City Railroad v. Mylott, 33 N.E. 135, 6 Ind. App. 438, 1893 Ind. App. LEXIS 165 (Ind. Ct. App. 1893).

Opinions

Gavin, J.

Appellee’s complaint was in two paragraphs. The first paragraph, as amended, omitting some formal allegations, set forth substantially, that appellant was a railroad corporation, operating a railroad through the city of Decatur, Indiana; that appellee was a boarding-house keeper at that place; that on November 22d, 1887, one William Hoflecker, a brakeman on said appellant’s road, while working on his train at Decatur, met with an accident whereby his skull was crushed; that he was removed to appellee’s house for care and attention; that the conductor of said train, James Waldron, then and there, requested the appellee to board and care for the injured man in every way necessary, stating that the appellant would pay for the same; that said conductor was the highest officer of Said company then present; that there was a pressing emergency requiring that the injured man should have care and attention at once; that Hoflecker was wholly unconscious, had no relatives or friends present to care for him, and no money or means with which to pay for the care he needed; that, thereupon, appellee furnished him board and room and care, and boarded his attendants until he was able to be removed, which was worth five dollars per day.

The second paragraph was similar, except the allegations as to want of friends and money are omitted, but it is alleged that the superintendent of the road was immediately notified of the arrangement, and failed to disaffirm it.

The general denial, on behalf of appellant, formed the issues tried, which resulted in a verdict for appellee, with ten special interrogatories answered.

The only questions argued by appellants arise upon the motion for a new trial.

There is but little dispute as to the facts in the case, except as to whether or not the contract was really made by the conductor, who squarely denies making it, while Mylott and his wife both affirm that it was made.

[440]*440The evidence fairly tends to show, that Decatur was the end of a division on appellant’s road, from which a morning passenger train started; that Hofleeker was a brakeman employed on this train,'and while engaged in making up his train, met with an accident whereby his skull was crushed, and he was rendered unconscious, which facts are expressly admitted by appellant’s counsel in their brief; that he was immediately removed by some of his fellow workmen to the residence and boarding house of the appellee in Decatur, where he had been boarding for a week, and from which he had come just a few minutes before the accident; that his injuries required the removal of several pieces of the skull, and he remained, unconscious for four days, and was not able to be removed to his permanent home in the State of Ohio, for about • twenty-five days; that he had no relatives in said city of Decatur, and no money or means to pay for necessary attention; that in addition to the services of physicians, he required immediate, constant, and continuous care, day and night, for several days, and almost continuously up to the time of his removal; that the conductor in charge oí the train, James Waldron, was not present when the accident happened, and did not direct the removal to appellee’s house, but having learned of the accident, went, within twenty or thirty minutes, to appellee’s house, where Hofleeker lay unconscious, dismissed one of the two physicians who had been summoned, and sent for the company’s regular physician, who took charge of the case, and it being then about time for 1ns train to leave Decatur, Waldron told appellee to take good care of the man and see that he was all right, and the company would be responsible for the expenses; that after directing a fireman and engineer to stay with the injured man, which they did, the conductor left and did not return that day; that, in pursuance of this arrangement, appellee boarded these men and the wounded man, and also cared for the wounded man by waiting upon him [441]*441and nursing him night and day, for a portion of the time, this service being necessary; that Hoflecker remained at appellee’s house about twenty-five days, being removed to his permanent home in Ohio as soon as he was able to be moved; that Waldron was the highest officer of the company at Decatur, the general offices being at Toledo, about one hundred miles distant; that he had no special authority to make the contract with appellee, nor did he ever notify any of his superior officers that he had made it.

The only errors discussed by appellant’s counsel come under two heads of the motion for a new trial, want of evidence and errors of law occurring on the trial.

One position assumed by counsel is that the verdict can not be sustained, because of a want of notification by the conductor to his superior officer, as alleged in the second paragraph of the complaint.

This argument is faulty in that it ignores entirely the existence of the first paragraph of the complaint as amended, which contained no such allegations and the sufficiency of which is unchallenged. It is not necessary that appellee’s evidence should sustain both paragraphs of his complaint, but if one is successfully maintained, this will uphold the verdict.

The principal and most important point urged by appellant is that the conductor, not being specially authorized, had no power to bind the company for board, care, and nursing of the injured brakeman.

While they concede that in certain cases of emergency the conductor may, without special authority, bind the company for medical attendance, they insist that there the power ends, and that it can be extended no further than mere medical attendance; they also urge that under the facts of this case no emergency existed, or if it did exist, that the emergency wTas passed at the time of making the contract alleged.

[442]*442These are the only propositions which we are called upon to take up on this branch of the case.

The power of the general officers of a railroad company to employ medical attendance for workmen injured in the performance of duty, has been fully considered and affirmed by our Supreme Court in the casés of Terre Haute, etc., R. R. Co. v. McMurray, 98 Ind. 358; and Louisville, etc., R. W. Co. v. McVay, 98 Ind. 391.

These cases have been followed and approved in Terre Haute, etc., R. R. Co.v. Brown, 107 Ind. 336; Louisville, etc., R. W. Co. v. Smith, 121 Ind. 353; Cincinnati, etc., R. W. Co. v. Davis, 126 Ind. 99; Evansville & Richmond R. R. Co. v. Freeland, 4 Ind. App. 207, 30 N. E. Rep. 803; St. Louis, etc., R. W. Co. v. Hoover, 53 Ark. 377; Sevier v. Birmingham, etc., R. Co. (Ala.), 48 Am. and Eng. R. R. Cas. 503.

In the notes upon the Cincinnati, etc., R. W. Co. v. Davis, 44 Am. and Eng. R. R. Cas. 459, is quite an exhaustive collection of the authorities, and while there is some variety of opinion, the weight of authority decidedly favors the doctrine of the Indiana cases upon this proposition.

This authority of the general officers is not limited to procuring medical attendance alone. In the case cited above, Louisville, etc., R. W. Co. v. McVay, supra, the recovery was for the services of an attendant employed as a nurse.

In Indianapolis, etc., R. R. Co. v. Morris, 67 Ill.

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Bluebook (online)
33 N.E. 135, 6 Ind. App. 438, 1893 Ind. App. LEXIS 165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/toledo-st-louis-kansas-city-railroad-v-mylott-indctapp-1893.