Tumminello v. Fore River Ship Building Co.
Tumminello v. Fore River Ship Building Co.
Opinion of the Court
There was evidence of the due care of the plaintiff, that Hines ordered him to hit the head of the .reamer with a hammer (although this was denied by Hines), and that such was a negligent order. If therefore there was evidence that Hines was acting within the scope of his authority as a superintendent in giving that order, the case was properly submitted to the jury at least upon the fourth count; and in accordance with the terms of the report upon which the case is before us the verdict to which the defendant submitted should stand.
Assuming for the purposes of the discussion that Hines gave the order, the crucial question is whether in giving it he was acting within the scope of his authority as superintendent. It appears from the report that the defendant was engaged in shipbuilding, that its work was divided into several divisions, and there was evidence that its general .work was extensive and that about five thousand men were employed in it. Hines was the superintendent of the riveters. The plaintiff was not a riveter, but a reamer; and it is not contended by him that at the time of the accident he was working as a riveter. After a plate is reamed it goes as the next step to the riveters, and it is manifest that if at any time there are no plates reamed there will be none to be riveted. It is therefore important' that the reamers should keep up with the riveters. In considering the evidence as to the acts and words of Hines it is necessary to bear in mind this relation of the two kinds of work to each other.
The plaintiff testified that Hines was the boss of the riveters, that he “ look[ed] if the rivets were good ” ; that he sometimes came into the “ gang of reamers to see what they . . . [were] . . .
On cross-examination he testified that Hines “ was the boss over the riveters.” As to his relations with the reamers he further testified as follows: “Q. Four or five weeks you had known Peter Hines ? Did he have anything to do with the reamers or have to do with the riveters ? A. I don’t know about that. He stand on the rivets, but he came on this gang of reamers, me and Sam Goldberg.—Q. He came to you and Sam Goldberg? A. On the reamers he did, yes, and called in with the plate. —■ Q. And called in with the plate you had to do? A. Yes.— Q. But he stood on the riveters ? A. He was going in the shop and coming out. — Q. On the riveters? A. Yes, on the rivets and reamers.”
Goldberg, called by the plaintiff, testified that Hines was the “ boss of the riveters,” and “ had nothing to do with the reamers or the men working on them.” In answer to the question whether Hines ever gave him “ orders about it,” he said “ Sometimes when he needed the work for rivets and he .came and says to do the work.”
One Furtaw, called by the plaintiff, testified that at the time of the accident he himself was “ boss of the reaming gang ”; that the next part of the work after the reaming was the rivet
Hines, called by the defendant, testified that at the time of the accident he was foreman over the riveters and had nothing whatever to do with the men working with the reamers, that although he had seen the plaintiff in the yard he did not know him personally and had nothing to do with him; and further testified as follows: “ Q. Did you say anything to him about taking a plate? Did you give him a plate or speak to him about a plate with six or seven holes in it ? A. Ho, sir. — Q. How do you remember that ? How do you remember you didn’t say that to him? A. Well, I — as I said before, I may have seen him standing there doing nothing, and I may have told him to go to work, something like that, and if a reamer was working outside I might tell him the work I wanted first, but that stops there.”
He further testified that the reamers worked outside the riveting shop; that he used to see Goldberg, the plaintiff’s partner, on the reaming machine, but had nothing to do with him, and “had nothing to do with any of the "reamers or ever told them what to do or how to work.”
As to his cross-examination the record, so far as material to the scope of his authority, proceeds as follows: “ On cross-examination he testified that the reamers worked outside witnesses’ riveting shop. — Q. After the reamers were finished the riveting began ? A. Yes. — Q. And if you had a plate outside or job with some holes in it that were not reamed and wanted to use that plate, you would go out and tell Tumminello if he was there, to ream it, wouldn’t you ? A. I didn’t have to do that. —
One Gibbs, called by the defendant, testified that he himself had general supervision of the hull construction in the defendant’s shipyard; that “ he had nothing to do with reamers only general supervision ” ; that Hines was a “ foreman riveter . . . and . . . had nothing to do with reamers.”
Upon this evidence we are of opinion that the plaintiff has failed to show that the alleged order to strike the reamer with a hammer was within the scope of Hines’s powers as a superintendent. Indeed it may well be doubted whether it was an order at all in the proper sense. While it may be true that, when Hines as superintendent of the riveters needed plates for them to work upon, he told the reamers to hurry up or get to work, yet, in view of the subdivisions of labor in this large shipyard, the importance of preserving with precision the lines of the divisions so that there shall be no clashing of authority, the fact that in the order of preparing the plates the work of the reamers is the step next preceding that of the riveters, it may well be said that the only reasonable interpretation of the evidence with reference to the language of Hines in urging at times the reamers to hurry up and get to work is not that it was in the nature of an order to be obeyed because given by him, but was rather in the nature of a suggestion that he needed the plates and that they ought to furnish them more promptly. It does not appear that he ever used such language except when
But however that may be, we think, even if he could order the reamers to go to work so that he could have some plates for his riveters, he is not shown to have any authority over the details of the manner in which they should do their work. And the alleged negligent order was merely as to such details. To hold that he could direct these details, and that his orders in this respect were to be obeyed as coming from the authority of the defendant, is wholly inconsistent with the general trend of the evidence and is not supported by any specific parts of it. It must be held that the order was not an act of Hines as superintendent. There-is no liability therefore under the fourth count.
We are inclined to think that the fair construction of the record is that the case went to the jury only upon the fourth count, but as the plaintiff argues to the contrary we have examined the evidence in its bearing upon the other counts. There was no evidence to show any defect in the ways, works and machinery, and so the second count must fail. Nor do we think that there was any negligence in anticipating the possibility of such an accident and in failing to instruct the plaintiff. Therefore the first and third counts cannot be sustained. There being no liability shown, by the terms of the report the order is
Judgment for the defendant.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Dominico Tumminello v. Fore River Ship Building Company
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published