Berea Stone Co. v. Kraft
Berea Stone Co. v. Kraft
Opinion of the Court
The errors assigned for which a reversal of the judgment is sought, are the refusal of the court to*
The second request was evidently founded on a misconception of the negligent act which gave rise to the company’s liability. It was founded on the hypothesis that the want of care charged, and resulting in the injury to the •defendant in error, consisted in the negligent or careless, attachment of the hooks to the stone to be raised; hence it was contended that when Stone, the foreman, assisted in attaching or fastening the hooks to the stone, he was performing, not the duty of foreman, but the work of a common laborer, for the negligent performance of which the company was not liable. This was clearly a misapprehension of the ground upon which the liability of the
But if this construction is too limited, if the liberality with which pleadings under the code are to be construed, would require us to hold that the language of the petition charging negligence in the “ use of unsafe and dangerous implements,” is sufficiently broad and comprehensive to include the act and mode of attaching the hooks to the stone, and is not to be confined and restricted to the sense that the hooks, being unsuitable for such service, were misapplied to an improper use, we still think the court did not err, as the proposition embraced in the request is not correct as a rule of law. Where the master, or one placed by him in charge of men engaged in his service, personally assists or interferes in the labor being performed under his direction and control, and is, while performing such labor, or interfering with its performance, guilty of negligence resulting in an injury to one engaged in such service, there is no sound principle of law that will excuse or exonerate the master from liability. Ormand v. Holland, 96 Eng. Com. Law, 102; Shear. & Red. on Neg., § 89, et seq.; Wharton on Neg., § 205.
The ground of the liability of the master for the negligent conduct of his servant, in all cases where the liability arises, is, that the servant’s act is the act of the master. The implied obligation of the servant to assume all risks incident to the employment, including that of injury occasioned by the negligence of a fellow-servant, has no ap
The fact, if it be .true, that Stone’s negligence in assisting in fastening the hooks to the stone to be raised, may have caused the injury, and that he was then performing the-duty of a common workman, and not those strictly pertaining to the duties of foreman, in nowise relieves the company from liability. If the act done by him, had been done under his direction as he did it, by one of the employes of the company, its liability could not be doubted, and for the reason, that the negligent act, although committed by the hand of another,-was, in law, the act of the foreman, and consequently the act of the master. And it.
In support of the claim that a new trial ought to have been granted on the ground that the evidence was insufficient to sustain it, it is contended: 1. That the evidence fails to show that the injury was occasioned by negligence; 2. That there is a fatal variance between the allegations .and proof: and, 3. Contributory negligence by the plaintiff. We have carefully examined the evidence, and think, neither ot these objections can be sustained. We have the most doubt on the subject of contributory negligence. But, on the whole, our minds are not so clearly satisfied that the finding of the jury was wrong as to lead us to disturb the judgment. On the subject of tbe company’s negligence, there is no doubt that the verdict was right. Where safe and -unsafe instrumentalities are at hand, with which to perform a particular work, the adoption of the latter to the exclusion of the former, is clearly negligence. This is what the company did in the present case, and in ■go doing occasioned the injury to the plaintiff below.
Motion overruled.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.