59 Ind. App. 280 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1915
This was a complaint against appellee, a railroad corporation, alleging “that the plaintiff did work and labor for the defendant at its special instance and request continuously from July 19, 1909, until July 19, 1911, at and for the agreed price of fifty-five dollars per month. That said defendant paid plaintiff for each of said months the sum of $52.50, retaining of plaintiff’s wages each month the sum of $2.50, and retaining a total sum due plaintiff during said time of $60.00, which sum of money is now due plaintiff and remains wholly unpaid.”
The second paragraph of appellee’s answer to this complaint set up that appellant was a member of a relief association maintained by appellee and associated corporations, that appellant, being an employe of appellee, on July 19, 1909, made application for membership in said association, and by the terms of his contract and admission was to pay
The chief error assigned is the overruling of appellant’s demurrer to appellee’s second paragraph of answer. . The contract with the relief association alleged in this paragraph is in all essentials the same as the contracts considered in Wells v. Vandalia R. Co. (1914), 56 Ind. App. 211, 103 N. E. 360; and Boes v. Grand Rapids, etc., R. Co. (1915), ante 271, 108 N. E. 174, 109 N. E. 411, and upon the authority of those cases, such contract must be held null and void, according to the provisions of §5308 Burns 1914, Acts 1907 p. 46. Since the contract of membership in the relief association
The court erred in overruling the demurrer to the second paragraph of appellant’s answer, and for that error the judgment is reversed.
Note. — Reported in 108 N. E. 535. As to contracts of servant, in advance of employment, waiving right to recover for injuries due to master’s negligence, see 44 Am. Rep. 633. As to the question arising under contracts requiring servants to elect between acceptance of benefits out of a relief fund and a prosecution of his claims, in an action for damages, see 11 L. R. A. (N. S.) 182; 48 L. R. A. (N. S.) 440. As to the right of a railroad company to maintain relief department as incidental to main business, see 4 Ann. Cas. 911. See, also, 26 Cyc. 1096.