Jones v. Southern Ry. Co.
Jones v. Southern Ry. Co.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Examination of the cases relied upon by respondent in which verdicts against the master were sustained, notwithstanding the acquittal from liability of his codefendant servant, will show that, in each of them, there was evidence either of a joint tort of master and servant, or of some separate and independent delict of the master for which the servant was not liable.
In this view of the case, the other assignments of error need not be considered.
Judgment reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Jones v. Southern Ry. Co. Et Al.
- Cited By
- 24 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Master and Servant—-Injury to Third Person-—Liability op Master—-Torts op Servant.—In an action by plaintiff against a railway, its freight agent, and two assistant freight agents, for damages from the bite of a cat allowed to be on the railroad’s premises while plaintiff was there on business, alleging that it was known by the defendants to be vicious, that it had rabies, and that plaintiff suffered the administration of Pasteur’s treatment to prevent hydrophobia, a directed verdict for the agent, leaving the liability of the others to the jury, which returned a verdict against the railroad alone, could not stand, where no delict of the company was proved other than through the assistant agents. 2. Master and Servant — Injury to . Third Persons — Respondeat Superior—Verdict.—Such verdict could not be sustained, where the railroad’s liability was predicated solely upon the conduct of its agents under the doctrine respondeat superior, since if the railroad was liable to the plaintiff, the agents whose wrongful acts caused the injury were liable over to it for the amount it would be compelled to pay on the verdict, of which remedy the judgment of acquittal deprived the railroad.