Hunt v. Illinois Central Railroad
Hunt v. Illinois Central Railroad
Opinion of the Court
Appellant sued appellee to recover for the hoard and room rent of one Hoel Slusser, an employe of appellee, who had been injured upon its road, during the time that he was confined to the house as the result of the
Eeduced to narrative form, the findings of the jury are in substance as follows: March 25, 1901, Uoel Slusser was, and for about five months immediately prior thereto had been, a brakeman on one of appellee’s freight-trains, rtmning in and out of Switz City. At the time of his injury hereinafter mentioned, and during all of the time aforesaid, Slusser boarded and roomed at appellant’s hotel in Switz City. He had many friends and acquaintances in said town. On the day aforesaid, while acting as a brakeman on said train, one of his legs was crushed, necessitating amputation. He received said injury in the city.of Linton. He was taken from there to Switz City, some six miles further east, at his request, and upon his assigned reason that he had friends and acquaintances there. He gave no other reason for his request. During all of the time'that he was in Linton he was perfectly conscious. Linton was at that time a city of 3,000 inhabitants. It had a good hotel, skilful physicians and surgeons, and ample facilities for treating, boarding, and earing for Slusser while he was suffering from his injury. Appellee had a surgeon there on said day, who was competent to treat said injury, and appellee was on said day ready and willing to have said injury treated by said surgeon, so far as any immediate and
The first and leading case upon the subject of the authority of the conductor of a railroad train to employ surgical aid in an emergency for an employe of the company who has been injured by such train is Terre Haute, etc., R. Co. v. McMurray (1884), 98 Ind. 358, 49 Am. Rep. 752. So far as concerns the questions as to the duty of the company and the power of the conductor in such circumstances, the decision mentioned foreclosed discussion in this court. Our duty in this case is but to determine whether a state of facts has been presented which brings the case within the above authority. It was said on the petition for a rehearing in
It was declared in Louisville, etc., R. Co. v. McVay (1884), 98 Ind. 391, 49 Am. Rep. 770, that the presumption was against the authority of a subordinate railroad employe to engage a hotel-keeper to care for and nurse a servant of the company who had been injured in its employ, there being no emergency demanding immediate action.
The complaint in the case of Terre Haute, etc., R. Co. v. Brown (1886), 107 Ind. 336, was for professional services rendered as an assistant to Dr. McMurray.in performing the operation which gave rise to the case first above mentioned. In holding that the plaintiff in the Brown case could not recover, this court said: “The question is, can the judgment be maintained upon the facts stated? That it can not, is, in the view we take of the case, too clear for debate. If it be conceded that such an overwhelming emergency might arise as would create a necessity for immediate action in order to save life, or prevent great bodily suffering, and that under such circumstances a state of affairs might exist, in the presence of which one employe would have the implied power to bind the employer, in his absence, for necessary medical or surgical aid bestowed on another
In Ohio, etc., R. Co. v. Early (1894), 141 Ind. 73, 28 L. R. A. 546, there was an attempt to recover from the appellant therein on the ground that it had negligently failed to furnish medical and surgical assistance to one of its employes who had received a dangerous injury while in the line of his employment. It appeared from the evidence that temporary aásistance had been given to the man at the place where the injury occurred. lie was then placed upon a train to be conveyed to North Vernon, where preparations had been made to treat him. At his request, however, he was taken to Seymour, some fourteen miles beyond North Vernon, necessitating a delay at North Vernon of one hour, and on the run from North Vernon to Seymour of twenty-five minutes more. There appears to have been hemorrhage, as a result of the wound, during the delay, and shortly after his arrival at Seymour the man died from loss of blood. In discussing the question as to whether the company was liable, this court, after adverting to the duty of a railroad company with respect to furnishing medical or surgical aid in an emergency to an injured employe, said: “This duty does not clothe the master with the power to dictate to the injured servant what particular physician or surgeon shall treat him, nor does it deprive such injured servant of the right of making a conscious and deliberate choice while in the possession, of his mental faculties, of
We entertain no doubt as to the correctness of the ruling awarding judgment to appellant upon the jury’s answers to interrogatories. If it were granted that an emergency existed while the injured employe was at Linton, yet this duty did not exist at the time the conductor requested appellant to furnish the room. Appellee was prepared to deal with tire situation at Linton, so far as there was any pressing emergency; but the wounded man having been afterwards removed, at his own request, to the town where he had friends and acquaintances, and to his own home, so to speak,
As before pointed out, appellant relies in his complaint upon the authority of the conductor, as such, to bind the company. The agency of the conductor being special, appellant was required to know the extent of the conductor’s authority. Davis v. Talbot (1893), 137 Ind. 235.
It seems hardly necessary to add that the claim for room rent and board furnished the injured man’s nurses must also fail, for the same general reason heretofore assigned.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.