Wallace v. Thompson

97 N.E. 26, 49 Ind. App. 211, 1912 Ind. App. LEXIS 168
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 12, 1912
DocketNo. 7,380
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 97 N.E. 26 (Wallace v. Thompson) 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
Wallace v. Thompson, 97 N.E. 26, 49 Ind. App. 211, 1912 Ind. App. LEXIS 168 (Ind. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinion

Lairy, J.

Appellee brought this action in the Porter Superior Court against appellant and the Grand Trunk and Western Railway Company, to recover damages resulting from the death of John Thompson. The issues formed by the amended complaint were submitted to a jury, which returned a verdict in favor of appellee and against appellant. At the conclusion of the evidence the defendant railway company moved that the court instruct the jury to return a verdict in its favor, which motion was sustained, and a verdict returned in favor of said defendant. Appellant filed [213]*213a demurrer to appellee’s amended complaint, which demurrer was overruled by the court, and this ruling presents the first error relied on for reversal.

After alleging the appointment of plaintiff as administrator of the estate of John Thompson, deceased, the complaint avers, in substance, that defendant, Benjamin E. "Wallace, was the owner and proprietor of a circus and menagerie, which was traveling on the Grand Trunk and Western Railway, a corporation owning and operating a line of railroad from Port Huron, Michigan, to Chicago, Illinois; that on August 7, 1903, plaintiff’s decedent was in the employ of defendant Wallace, in connection with his circus and menagerie; that his duties were to assist in erecting tents for performances and in preparing for transporting said circus and menagerie from one place to another, on- cars owned by said Wallace, and which were transported over the line of defendant railway company under some agreement between Wallace and said company, and that the duties of plaintiff’s decedent under his employment were in noway connected with operating said trains. It is further averred that on the date mentioned Benjamin E. Wallace and the defendant railway company were jointly engaged in transporting cars belonging to said Wallace, and carrying his circus and menagerie, over the railroad of defendant company, and that said cars were made up and operated as two sections.

The complaint then proceeds as follows: “Plaintiff further says that while said sections of said train were being so transported over" said defendant company’s said line of road on the 7th day of August, 1903, as aforesaid, in and throughout the State of Michigan, near the city of Durand, the said decedent, John Thompson, was fatally injured by the negligent, careless and "wrongful acts of defendant, in this to wit: That said defendant so carelessly and negligently managed and controlled said train, and the two sections thereof into which the same was divided, that they; [214]*214ran the second section of said train into the first section thereof, without taking any precaution or making any effort whatever to prevent running said section into said first section, and that they negligently ran said sections so close together that when the first section was stopped the second could not be prevented from running into the rear end of the first section thereof, and that the servants and employes of said defendant, in charge of said trains, negligently failed to take any 'precaution whatever to prevent said second section from running into said first section, without making any effort to prevent so doing; that the engine and ears comprising said second section were old, worn out and decayed, so that the air brakes were loose, and the air-brake pipes, springs and air-brakes were so loose, leaky and worn out that they would not operate when an attempt was made to stop said section of said train, as the defendant well knew when they undertook to transport said decedent, as aforesaid, and that they, by reason of said negligence of said trainmen of defendant’s and by reason of the negligence of defendant’s servants in charge of said train, and by reason of the worn out and dilapidated, and negligent useless condition of said engine and cars and the air-brakes, air-pipes and brakes of said engine and cars of said section, as aforesaid, the second section ran and crashed into the rear end of said first section, on which said decedent was riding, as aforesaid, and crushed, broke to pieces and destroyed the cars comprising said first section, including the car in which said decedent was riding, and so crushed, maimed and mangled said decedent that he died on the 8th day of August, 1903, as a result thereof, and as a result of said negligence and wrongful acts of said defendant.”

The complaint then sets out the statute of Michigan, which authorizes a recovery in case the death of a person is caused by the wrongful act of another, and avers that plaintiff’s decedent died in Michigan, as a result of said injuries, and left surviving him his father, who under the laws of [215]*215Michigan was capable of inheriting from him. The complaint concludes with a prayer for damages.

According to the averments of the complaint, the collision which resulted in the death of appellee’s decedent was caused either by the negligence of the servants of the defendant in charge of the train, or by the worn-out and defective condition of the air-brakes and connections with which the cars belonging to defendant Wallace were equipped, or from both of these causes acting together.

1. The complaint does not directly aver that the persons in charge of the train were in the employ of defendant Wallace. They are referred to as the servants of the “defendant,” without designating which one of the defendants is meant. If the persons in charge of the train were not the servants of Wallace, it is clear that he cannot be held liable for an injury resulting from their negligence. It is averred, however, that the two defendants ■were jointly operating said train at the time the collision occurred, and it is contended on behalf of appellee that this sufficiently shows that the persons in charge of said train were the servants of both defendants. We have serious doubts as to the sufficiency of the complaint in this particular ; but, as it is clearly bad for other reasons, we need not decide this question.

2. 3. The injury and death of appellee’s decedent occurred in Michigan, and, as there is no averment of the complaint to the contrary, we must presume that the common law on the subject of the liability of a master for injuries to his servant caused by the negligence of a fellow servant still prevails in that state, and that it is the same as the common law of this State on that subject. Baltimore, etc., R. Co. v. Reed (1902), 158 Ind. 25; Wabash R. Co. v. Hassett (1908), 170 Ind. 370; Southern R. Co. v. Elliott (1908), 170 Ind. 273. The act of the legislature of this State, known as the employer’s liability act (§§8017-8020 Burns 1908, Acts 1893 p. 294, §§1, [216]*2163-5), has no extraterritorial force. In determining- the sufficiency of this complaint, we must consider it, in the light of the common law of this State, unaffected by the statute to which we just referred.

4. In an action at common law against a master to recover damages in favor of a servant caused by the negligence of another in the employ of the common master, the complaint must show by affirmative averments that the negligent employe was not the fellow servant of the person injured. To- render a master liable in such a case it must appear that the negligent employe was in the discharge of a duty which the master owed to the injured servant. Chicago, etc., R. Co. v. Barker (1908), 169 Ind. 670, 17 L. R. A. (N. S.) 542; Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Lightheiser (1904), 163 Ind. 247; New Pittsburgh Coal, etc., Co.

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112 N.E. 23 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1916)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
97 N.E. 26, 49 Ind. App. 211, 1912 Ind. App. LEXIS 168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wallace-v-thompson-indctapp-1912.