Waldo v. Galveston H. & S. A. Ry. Co.

50 S.W.2d 274, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 1674
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedJune 1, 1932
DocketNo. 1352-5908
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 50 S.W.2d 274 (Waldo v. Galveston H. & S. A. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Waldo v. Galveston H. & S. A. Ry. Co., 50 S.W.2d 274, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 1674 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1932).

Opinion

LEDDY, J.

Plaintiff in error was employed by the defendant in error in a clerical position. His [275]*275work was performed in a room where a number of other employees were engaged in the discharge of their respective duties. While so engaged, one of his coemployees shot with a rubber band a wire clip, which struck the plaintiff in error in the eye, so seriously injuring it as to necessitate the removal of the eyeball.

In this suit against the railway company to recover damages for the injury thus sus- p tained, he alleged two grounds as a basis for recovery:

First, that said company failed to provide him a reasonably safe place in which to perform his duties, in that it negligently permitted other employees to engage in the dangerous practice of shooting wire paper clips.

Second, that prior to his injury certain employees, working in the same department and on the same floor with him, engaged in the custom and practice of shooting these clips over the room in which other employees were working; that they were shot with such force as to be dangerous to the employees working in such department. It was averred that plaintiff in error informed defendant in error’s chief clerk, in charge of and supervising the employees in said department, who had power to employ and discharge them, of the conduct of these employees in shooting such clips and of the danger to which it subjected other employees and was told by said chief clerk that he would put a stop to such practice by issuing positive instructions against the same, but that he negligently failed to take any steps whatever to stop such practice. That, within a few days after he had so notified said chief clerk, one of the employees working near plaintiff in error was hit in the nose with a wire clip’ shot by some other employee with such force as to penetrate his nose and cause it to bleed profusely; that immediately after such happening plaintiff in error again informed defendant in error’s said chief clerk of the injury received by this employee as a result of the continuance of the dangerous practice of shooting these clips, and stated to him that, if immediate steps were not taken to put a stop to such practice, some other employees were liable to be severely injured, and that he would no longer work under such conditions unless said chief clerk, or some one else in authority, would take immediate action to stop such practice. Again the chief clerk promised that immediate action would be taken by him to stop such practice, and' plaintiff in error continued in his work, relying upon such promise upon the part of said chief clerk to stop such dangerous custom and practice. It was then averred that, on the day following this conversation with the chief clerk, while plaintiff in error was engaged in the performance of his work as an employee of defendant in error, he was hit in the right eye with a wire paper clip shot by one of the employees of defendant in error, which clip was propelled with such force as to penetrate the ball of his right eye, inflicting the injury complained of.

It was further alleged that the railway company was guilty of negligence in failing and refusing to issue instructions to the em•ployees with whom plaintiff in error was working, warning them of the danger of shooting such clips, and instructing them to cease doing so, and that especially did this duty devolve upon defendant in error’s representative, after he had been notified of such dangerous practice and requested to take action to prevent a continuance of same.

The issue of liability of defendant in error was submitted to the jury upon the following questions:

“Special Issue No. 1. At the time and on the occasion in question, were the premises in which plaintiff was working a reasonably safe place in which to work? Answer ‘it was’ or ‘it was not’ as you find the facts to be.
“Special Issue No. 2. If you have answered Special Issue No. 1, ‘it was not,’ then answer: Was the failure of the defendant to furnish plaintiff a reasonably safe place in which to work negligence? Answer ‘it was? or ‘it was not’ as you find the facts to be.
“Special Issue No. 3. If you have answered Special Issue No. 2, ‘it was,’ then answer the following: Was such negligence a proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries? Answer ‘it was’ or ‘it was not’ as you find the facts to be.”

Upon favorable answers to these issues, judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff in error for the amount found by the jury as damages sustained by him by reason of his injuries.

Defendant in error duly perfected its appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals. Upon the case reaching that court, it certified for the determination of the Supreme Court the following questions:

“(1) Did the inquiries submitted by the Court embody such an issue of fact arising out of the pleadings and evidence as could, upon affirmative answers, properly constitute a predicate for liability?
“(2) Were the questions asked the jury a sufficient submission of the issue of negligence presented by the pleadings and evidence?”

In an opinion rendered by Section A of the Commission of Appeals, negative answers were given to both of these questions. 119 Tex. 377, 29 S.W.(2d) 323. It was there decided that the duty devolving upon the master to furnish his servant a reasonably safe place to work had no application to the facts of this case, as such rule has reference only to defects in the premises where the servant performs his duties, and in the tools, equip-[276]*276fiient, and appliances used by him in the necessary dischárge of his duties.

Upon return of these answers to the certified questions, the Court of Civil Appeals delivered an opinion reversing the judgment of the trial court and rendering judgment in favor of defendant in error. 35 S.W.(2d) 447. A writ of error has been granted by the Supreme Court to determine the correctness of that action.

The honorable Court of Civil Appeals conceived that it was proper to render judgment in favor of defendant in error, because plaintiff in error, under the doctrine announced in Ormsby v. Ratcliffe, 117 Tex. 242, 1 S.W.(2d) 1084, had waived the rignt to recover on account of the negligence of defendant in error in failing to stop the practice of clip shooting by not requesting the submission of such issue to the jury.

Defendant in error seeks to sustain the action of the Court of Civil Appeals in rendering judgment in its favor upon the reason assigned by that court, and asserts that such judgment was a proper one, for the further reason that the allegations of plaintiff in error’s petition as to the duty devolving upon defendant in error to exercise diligence in stopping the practice of clip shooting, and the evidence adduced in support thereof, was insufficient to present an issue of liability on the part of defendant in error for plaintiff in error’s injury. In other words, it is asserted that no duty devolved upon defendant in error to regulate the personal conduct of its servants in and about their place of work, because it appears they were engaged in a practice not within the scope of the duties of their employment.

All of the authorities agree that, when a servant turns aside from the prosecution of the master’s work to engage in an affair of his own, he ceases for the time to act for the master, and becomes liable for his act in pursuing his own business or pleasure. Galveston, H. & S. A. Railway Co. v.

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Bluebook (online)
50 S.W.2d 274, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 1674, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waldo-v-galveston-h-s-a-ry-co-texcommnapp-1932.