Vanderlippe v. Midwest Studios, Inc.

289 N.W. 341, 137 Neb. 289, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 213
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1939
DocketNo. 30681
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 289 N.W. 341 (Vanderlippe v. Midwest Studios, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vanderlippe v. Midwest Studios, Inc., 289 N.W. 341, 137 Neb. 289, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 213 (Neb. 1939).

Opinion

Ellis, District Judge.

In this case the appellee, who was plaintiff in the court below, as the personal representative of the deceased, Benjamin R. Vanderlippe, sued on two counts to recover damages for alleged wrongful death. The first count was for damages recoverable under the statute for the benefit of the widow and next of kin, and the second count was for [291]*291damages for pain and suffering sustained by the deceased from the time of the injury until his death and for medical and. burial expenses.

Upon trial the jury found against both defendants and fixed the amount of plaintiff’s recovery on her first cause of action at the sum of $5,000 and on her second cause of action at the sum of $3>500. The defendants filed separate motions for new trial. Upon consideration thereof the trial court entered a conditional order overruling the motions, the condition being that plaintiff file a remittitur for $1,000 from the verdict and judgment. The plaintiff complied with the conditions and motions for new trial were overruled. The remittitur has been treated by the parties as applying to the recovery on the second cause of action. In her remittitur the plaintiff expressly reserved her rights under section 20-1929, Comp. St. 1929.

Both defendants have appealed and have filed separate briefs herein. The defendant Midwest Studios, Incorporated, a corporation, will hereinafter be referred to as “Midwest” and the defendant Fred Brinch as “Brinch.”

The action arises out of an automobile collision which occurred in Boone county, Nebraska, on July 6, 1937, as a result of which plaintiff’s deceased sustained injuries from which it is admitted he died on July 8, 1937.

In her petition plaintiff alleged that defendant Brinch was an agent and employee of defendant Midwest; that Midwest was the owner of the car being driven by Brinch at the time of the accident, and that it was then being used in the course of his employment; that the proximate cause of the accident and resulting injuries was the negligence of Brinch in operating said car, and specified as negligence (1) unlawful and negligent speed; (2) omission to sound horn; (3) failure to keep proper lookout and to have car under proper control; and (4) speed greater than proper and reasonable under the conditions. ,

By separate answer Midwest admitted Brinch was its employee, but denied that he was acting within the scope of his employment, and alleged that he was on a mission of [292]*292his own. It further denied negligence on its part and alleged that the proximate cause of the accident, resulting injuries and death was the negligence of plaintiff’s deceased. The answer of Brinch, was in effect the same as that of Midwest.

At the close of all the evidence Midwest moved for a directed verdict on the grounds (1) that, the evidence affirmatively established that Brinch was not at the time and place of the accident engaged in the service or furtherance of the business of Midwest, but was on a mission entirely his own; and (2) that deceased was guilty of more than slight negligence. At the same time Brinch also moved for a directed verdict on the second ground assigned in Midwest’s motion and for the further reason that plaintiff had failed to establish any act of negligence on his part.

Midwest assigns three errors in this court — the overruling of its motion on the ground first stated above; the overruling of its motion on second ground as stated above; and the overruling of the motion for new trial.

Brinch likewise assigns three errors in this court— separately assigning the overruling of his motion on two grounds stated therein and the overruling of his motion for new trial.

It thus appears that the defendants rely on substantially the same errors, except the assignment by Midwest that Brinch was not at the time acting within the scope of his employment, and we will discuss that assignment first.

Midwest is a corporation engaged in the portrait business. The business wras obtained through salespeople or canvassers who obtained orders for portraits and frames and sent them in to the company where the work was done. At the head of the sales organization in the field there were division managers. Next under the division managers and subject to their directions came district managers and Brinch was one of these. Each district manager had under him several crews. A crew consisted of a varying number of people and was in general charge of a crew foreman. The foreman and crew members made the actual solicita[293]*293tions of customers, although Brinch spent part of his time in the direct solicitation of customers and taking of orders. His time appears to have been divided between direct solicitation of orders and the supervision and stimulation of production of business by crews under.him. He received a commission on the orders which he obtained as a result of his own solicitation and an “overwrite” or commission on all orders obtained by the individual members of the crews under him. As indicated above, both defendants admit by way of answer that Brinch was an employee of Midwest.

On July 6, 1937, Brinch was staying at a hotel in Central City. In the morning of that day he left Central City to go to Madison, and it was while on this journey that the accident occurred. He testified that he had a portfolio with some samples and business papers in it, but that he did not take it with him on that morning. There is no testimony however that he had any need for the portfolio or its contents when not actually soliciting orders himself and when engaged in the other part of his work consisting of supervision and stimulation of the work of his crews. Brinch gave as his reason for making the trip to Madison, “I was going to join Bob Burke.” Burke was a crew foreman under Brinch. Brinch had no appointment with Burke and his going was just his own idea. Brinch stated that the word “join” had no particular meaning. Burke was going to send his wife home and wanted to talk to Brinch about it. Brinch was going to discuss that with Burke that day. Burke’s crew consisted of Burke, his wife and one man and they had been working in Madison for a week or two. After testifying as above, Brinch later in his examination denied that Burke’s wife was a member of his crew. Burke wanted to send his wife home and wanted to borrow the needed money from Brinch. Brinch later on personally made the loan and Burke repaid it to him. Brinch admitted that as district manager he was interested in seeing that Burke kept at work and that Burke’s wife was not much assistance to him in his work. “Q. And you thought that Burke would do better work if he did not have his wife around, [294]*294did you? * * * A. Well, I imagine so. She did need a vacation; traveling on the road does get on a lady’s nerves. Q. And you thought that the quality of Burke’s work could be improved if his wife could be sent away for a while, did you? * * * A. It might help. * * * Q. Whenever you saw a crew foreman, such as Bob Burke, you, of course, discussed business with him, didn’t you? * * * A. Yes — -well, every time we got together we discussed something about business, certainly.” On the morning in question the crew which was with Brinch in Central City all went out to work before he left, and while Brinch took no orders that morning, he said he would have if some one had come up and given him one.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
289 N.W. 341, 137 Neb. 289, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 213, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vanderlippe-v-midwest-studios-inc-neb-1939.