Brooks v. Madden
Brooks v. Madden
Opinion of the Court
Opinion of the Court by
Affirming.
Appellant, James Brooks, an infant by bis next friend, Jonas Ellis, filed tbi-s action in the Fayette circuit court seeking by the original petition the recovery of a judgment against defendant, Madden, for the sum
On June 3, 1920, Madden entered motion to require plaintiff to elect as against which defendant he would proceed, upon the ground that the causes of action attempted to be relied on against the separate defendants were entirely distinct and wholly disconnected. That motion was sustained and plaintiff was given ten days in which to make his election. He declined to do s.o but moved the court to elect for him, which motion was overruled, and.he then filed a written, motion declining to elect. Whereupon, the court elected for him that he should prosecute his supposed cause of action against Madden and dismissed it as against the State Racing Commission. At a. subsequent term of -the court plaintiff tendered an amended petition in which he alleged that by the wrongful .acts of the State Racing Commission he had been deprived of work for others than Madden and of earning wages of one .hundred dollars-per month which.his skill and ability commanded and that he.was
From the above brief .statement of the pleading’s it requires no argument or citation of cases to show that, under the provisions- of section 83 of the Civil Code of Practice, there was a clear misjoinder of causes of action, arid under the provisions, of section 85 of the same Code the motion to require plaintiff to elect was properly sustained, and under the same provisions it was likewise proper for the court to strike from the petition either of the improperly joined causes upon plaintiff’s refusal to elect. That being true, it necessarily follows that the court did not err in rejecting the offered amended petition by which the State Racing Commission was again sought to be brought into the case upon substantially the same facts as alleged against it in the original petition, or upon facts which formed an equally independent and separate cause of action, if any at all. There is therefore no ground for complaint against the judgment in favor of the State Racing Commission.
A vigorous argument is made in brief of counsel for plaintiff that Madden, under the alleged facts, was guilty of peonage as defined by .section 3944 of the Federal Statutes and punished as prescribed by section 10444 of the sarhe statutes. But that argument does not appeal
Plaintiff’s counsel also insists that the facts show an effort to create the relationship of “master and apprentice,” as provided by chapter 81 of the 1922 edition of Carroll’s Kentucky Statutes, nearly all of the sections thereof are copied in brief, and that they were not complied with and because of which, he reasons, that a great wrong was perpetrated on his client, for which he is entitled to recover. This court, however, in the case of Cain v. Garner, 169 Ky. 633, held that such contracts were valid in so far as they were executed and, inferentially, it was held that they did not come within the purview or were included in the statutory provisions for apprenticing minors, and for that reason the reliance of counsel upon the statute can be given no effect in this case. If, however, there had been an attempt to apprentice plaintiff to the defendant, Madden, and it was abortive because of a failure to conform to some statutory prerequisite in order to create the relationship, it would then remain to be shown that the master would be liable for false imprisonment because of services executed pursuant thereto. We are. thoroughly convinced that the only consequence of such an abortive effort, provided the relationship was wrongfully entered into, would be the loss to each party of the remedies given by the statute for the enforcement of that relationship, and not a right to recover damages because of the failure to comply with the statute, which, therefore, it is clearly apparent has no bearing upon the case whatever.
Plaintiff and his mother, who testified as a witness in his behalf, claimed that the written contract entered into in the early part of 1917, .after he had worked .some time under an oral one, was not signed by the latter, although it is conclusively proven that plaintiff himself ■signed it. We are thoroughly convinced, however, that if the mother did not in fact sign her name to it' she consented thereto. However, we do not consider that fact either material or anywise important, since it is admitted by both of them that throughout the term of service the agreed wages were paid monthly, he receiving his proportion and his mother her proportion. It is true that he testified that some colored person at the stables on defendant’s farm drew a revolver on him and
Wherefore, the judgment is. affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.