Travellers' Ins. Co. v. Inman

138 So. 339, 167 Miss. 288, 1931 Miss. LEXIS 320
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 30, 1931
DocketNo. 29630.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 138 So. 339 (Travellers' Ins. Co. v. Inman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Travellers' Ins. Co. v. Inman, 138 So. 339, 167 Miss. 288, 1931 Miss. LEXIS 320 (Mich. 1931).

Opinion

*292 Cook, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellee, Bennie Inman, filed this suit by way of an attachment in chancery against ins emploj'ers, Tibbetts & Tibbetts, nonresidents of this state, and Ben Morris, his fellow servant, for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained a.s a proximate result of the joint negligence of said defendants, and joined as a defendant the appellant, insurance company, averring that it was indebted to- the said nonresident-employers. The appellant answered the bill of complaint denying any indebtedness to the principal defendants, and introduced into the record an insurance policy whereby it undertook to insure the principal defendants against any loss or damage actually sustained by the said insured by reason of injuiy to an employee, claiming that thereunder its liability was only that of indemnity to the insured, and that in no event was there any actual enforceable liability against it until there had been a definitely ascertained and legally fixed liability against the employers, evidenced by a legal judgment against them in favor of the employee. Upon the final hearing of the cause upon the issues then presented by the pleadings, there was a decree against the said insurance company for four thousand dollars as damages sustained by the complainant, Inman, as- a result of his injuries, and from that decree the insurance company appealed to this court.

In the opinion of the court rendered on that appeal it was held that, in an attachment in chanceryj the alleged indebtedness of a party defendant to a nonresident principal defendant, which is made the basis of jurisdiction in the chancery court, must be an indebtedness owing in praesenti to the nonresident principal defendant, and must be of such nature that at the time suit is filed the principal defendant can enforce the debt against the debtor in a court of competent jurisdiction without regard to, and independent of, the- complainant’s suit or cause of *293 action against the principal defendant, and that a person “cannot be made a party as debtor to- a principal defendant when the fact vel non of his indebtedness is dependent on whether the principal defendant shall be adjudged to be indebted to complainant, which adjudication necessarily must come after tiling of the suit,” and the decree- of the court below was reversed and the bill dismissed as to- the insurance company, and the principal defendant. On suggestion of error the court recognized that, under the decisions of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, construing section 23 of the Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Law (Act No. 85 of 1926), “there is a direct obligation from the insurance company insuring employers . . . under said act,” and that “the insurance company, in such case, may be sued directly by the employee,” and sustained the suggestion of error to the original opinion in so far as it ordered the final dismissal of the suit, and ordered that “on a remand of the cause to the court below, the proceedings may be amended as the parties may be advised is necessary, the cause tried and a personal judgment rendered, if proper, against the Travellers ’ Insurance Company. ’ ’ The opinions rendered on the former appeal, both on the merits and on the suggestion of error, are reported in 157 Miss. 810 to 822, 126 So. 399, 128 So. 877, and reference is here made to- these opinions for a further and full statement of the pleadings and issues involved and decided on that appeal.

Throughout the former trial on the merits in the court below and upon appeal here, the appellee asserted no direct or primary liability against the appellant, but proceeded on the theory that it was indebted to the principal defendant, and this will appear fro-m the brief of counsel for the appellee, wherein it is stated that “the appellant was named defendant under the statutes in such oases for the purpo-ses of binding in its hands any indebtedness it might owe to- the non-resident defendants, Tibbetts & Tibbetts,” and that, “as we conceive the case, both here and in the lower court, there is one *294 question only to be resolved, Was and is the appellant indebted to the nonresident defendant? But upon remand of the cause the appellee filed an amended bill of complaint ag-ainst the appellant herein, to which his employers, Tibbetts & Tibbetts, were not parties defendant, asserting a direct liability of the appellant to him under the Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Act, and basing his right of recovery solely upon that act. To this amended bill the appellant filed an answer setting up numerous defenses, and including therein a general demurrer and numerous special demurrers, alleging as the grounds thereof, among others, that the appellee was not entitled to recover against it under the Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Act, because the amended bill sets up a new and different cause of action against it from that originally brought, and that it was then barred by the one-year statute of limitations provided in said Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Act. There were also, included, in the answer numerous special pleas in bar of the action, among others, being one setting up that the cause of action alleged in the amended bill of complaint, if any existed, accrued to. the complainant more than one year before the filing of the amended bill, and was therefore barred by the one-year statute of limitations provided in the Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Act, and that under said act the complainant was then barred from having or maintaining the action sought to be enforced. Upon the hearing of the cause the court entered a decree, in accordance with the provisions of the Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Act, against the defendant insurance company, for the maximum amount allowable under said act to the date of the decree, and provided for further payments to be made under the provisions of said act for the full number of weeks allowable thereunder. From that decree the defendant insurance, company prosecuted this appeal.

In support of the- decree of the court below, the appellee seized upon the intimation in the opinion rendered on the former appeal in disposing of the suggestion of error filed therein that there was liability for the injury to *295 the complainant against the defendant insurance company under the Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Act, as the law of the case, and controlling* upon all issues presented by this appeal. The rule of “the law of the case” can have no application to the issues presented by this appeal. This rule is limited to those questions, which were presented to the court on the first appeal, and is applicable on a second appeal only when the questions are again presented upon the same pleading's and facts; and, where there are material changes in the pleadings and facts, the principles of law announced on the first, appeal are not applicable. Johnson v. Success Brick Machinery Co., 104 Miss. 217-220, 61 So. 178, 62 So. 4; Bates v. Strickland et al., 139 Miss. 636, 103 So. 432; Haines v. Haines et al., 98 Miss. 830, 54 So. 433; McRae v. Hooker, 138 Miss. 439, 103 So. 197.

The question of whether or not the defendant insurance company was liable to the appellee under or by virtue of the Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Act was in no wise involved in the record before this court on the former appeal.

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Bluebook (online)
138 So. 339, 167 Miss. 288, 1931 Miss. LEXIS 320, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/travellers-ins-co-v-inman-miss-1931.