Brooks v. Mississippi Cotton Oil Co.
Brooks v. Mississippi Cotton Oil Co.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Section 193 of our constitution of 1890 is in these words, viz: “ Every employe of any railroad corporation shall have the same rights and remedies for any injury suffered by him from the act or omission of said corporation or its employes as are allowed by law to other persons not employes, where the injury results from the negligence of a superior officer or agent, or of a person having the right to control or direct the services of the party injured, and also when the injury results from the negligence of a fellow-servant engaged in another department of labor from that of the party injured, or of a fellow-servant on another train of cars, or one engaged about a different piece of work. Knowledge by an employe injured of the defective or unsafe character or condition of any machinery, ways, or appliances, shall be no defense to an action for injury caused thereby, except as to conductors and engineers in charge of dangerous or unsafe cars, or engines voluntarily operated by them. Where death ensues from an injury to employes, the'legal or personal representatives of the person injured shall have the same right and remedies as are allowed by law to such representatives of other persons. Any contract or agreement, express or implied, made by any employe to waive the benefit of this action shall be null and void; and this action shall not be construed to deprive any employe of a corporation or his legal or personal representative, of any right or remedy that he now has by the law of the land. The legislature may extend the remedies herein provided for to any other class of employes.” Sec. 3559, code of 1892, is an exact copy of this constitutional provision, omitting the last sentence, thereby limiting the fellow-servant rule as thus defined to railroad corporations and their employes.'
The peremptory instruction given appellee in the court below, as we are informed by counsel for it, was based upon the theory that the acts of 1896 and 1898 did not extend the fellow servant rule propounded in section 193 of the constitution, and declared in the code provision, § 3559, to employes of corporations other than railroad, and this must be true, for otherwise the court’s action is inexplicable. This view was incorrect, and the instruction should not have been given, and the case should have been submitted, on all its facts, to the determination of the jury.
We forbear any comment of the evidence, as the case must be tried again on the lines indicated in the foregoing opinion.
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Walter Brooks v. Mississippi Cotton Oil Co.
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Master and Servant. Fellow-servants. Negligence. Defective appliances. Corporations. Constitution of 1890, sec. 193. Code 1892, § 3559. Laws 1896, p. 97, ch. 87; Laws 1898, p. 84, ch. 66. The provisions of the constitution of 1890, sec. 193, and code 1892, § 3559, abolishing- the common law fellow-servant rule, and the rule that knowledge of defects in the master’s machinery, ways and appliances, by a servant using them, was a defense for injuries sustained because thereof, as to employes of railroad corporations, were, by laws 1896, p. 97, chap. 87 (itself amended laws 1898, p. 84, chap. 66), extended to the employes of all corporations.