69 Ind. App. 142 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1918
This is an action for damages for personal injuries brought by Victor Van Hentenryek, by his next friend, Isidore Van Hentenryek, against the Jaekson Hill Coal Company, an Indiana corporation.
The case was tried on the second and third paragraphs of amended complaint and an answer of general denial. The jury returned a verdict for appellee in the sum of $1,000, appellant’s motion for a new trial was overruled, judgment was rendered on the verdict and this appeal taken.
The errors assigned and not specifically waived by appellant are based upon (1) the overruling of appellant’s motion to make each paragraph of amended complaint more specific; (2) the overruling of appellant’s separate demurrers to each of the second and third paragraphs of complaint, and the overruling of its motion for a new trial.
Omitting formal averments about which there is no controversy, the amended second paragraph of complaint, in substance, charges that- on March 17, 1914, appellant was a, duly organized corporation under the laws of the State of Indiana, and owned and operated a coal mine in Sullivan county, in said state,
The amended third paragraph in most of its averments is similar to the second paragraph, except it is therein alleged that it was the duty of defendant to furnish plaintiff with a tail chain of suitable length, and one which would enable him as such driver to ride between the mule and car with one foot on the bumper of'the car and the other on the tail chain, with one hand on the top of the car and the other on the mule; that defendant did not exercise ordinary care to discharge such duty to plaintiff, but care
Appellant moved to have the second amended paragraph of complaint made more specific by showing (1) in- what way plaintiff was physically and mentally immature, and the length of time such facts were known to appellant; (2) whether it was necessary for plaintiff to ride between the mule and car as alleged; (3) the grade or amount of fall in the entry where the accident occurred; (4) in what way, and with what he struck the mule and the amount of the force used in so doing; (5) in what way defendant-failed to use ordinary care as to said mule and for what period of time appellant knew of the defects and unfitness of the mule; (6) what connection, if any, the leap or jump of the mule had with the fall of the plaintiff.
By similar motion directed to the amended third paragraph of complaint, appellant asked that appellee state (1) why appellant owed him the duty of using ordinary care to furnish a tail chain of suitable and proper length; (2) how long before the accident it knew the chain was unfit and unsuitable as alleged; (3) what caused him to fall, and whether the fact that he was unable'to reach from the car to the mule caused him to be thrown to the ground. •
Appellant contends that the trial court erred in overruling its separate demurrers for insufficiency of facts to state a cause of action, directed to the second, and also to the third amended paragraph of complaint, because of the failure to allege certain details, viz.: (a) That appellee could not safely have gotten off the car before it ran against the mule;
Hasler (1914), 56 Ind. App. 88, 90, 104 N. E. 878; Hedekin Land, etc., Co. v. Campbell (1916), 184 Ind. 643, 645, 112 N. E. 97; Blair Baker Horse Co. v. Railroad Transfer Co. (1915), 59 Ind. App. 505, 507, 108 N. E. 246; Bossert v. Geis (1914), 57 Ind. App. 384, 393, 107 N. E. 95.
Appellant also asserts tbat tbe facts alleged do not show that any negligence of appellant was tbe proximate cause of appellee’s alleged injury; tbat tbe second amended paragraph does not allege facts to show tbat appellant knew of tbe unfitness of tbe mule in time to bave discontinued tbe use of tbe same before appellee was -injured, and, in substance, tbe same point is made as to tbe third amended paragraph with reference to tbe tail chain. Also tbat tbe allegations of tbe complaint are mere conclusions supported by no facts, and show tbat appellee assumed tbe risk of bis employment and was guilty of negligence which contributed to bis injury.
Under the motion for a new trial appellant insists that the verdict is not sustained by sufficient evidence. In support of this contention it is asserted that the evidence wholly fails to show any knowledge on the part of appellant that the mule or the tail chain was unfit for the purposes they were used in appellant’s mine, and therefore no actionable negligence was proved against appellant.
Appellant also contends that the undisputed evidence shows such a state of physical facts as to preclude a recovery; that the track over which the car ran was up grade for sixty or sixty-five feet immediately preceding and leading up to the place of the accident, and for that reason the car could not have run against the mule as contended by appellee.
There is also evidence tending to show that the track was hilly'; that there were some bumps and obstructions by pieces of rock and coal and that it sloped toward the bottom, and was about level where the car stopped when appellee was injured. Also that appellee was squeezed between the mule and the car, that he struck the mule, that it moved forward, that his foot missed or slipped off the chain, that he could not reach the mule, and fell and was injured by the car. While there is evidence of the kind referred to by appellant, it is not undisputed, and the contention of appellant cannot be sustained.
Considering the. evidence, and the inferences the jury may reasonably have drawn therefrom, as presented on appeal, we are compelled to hold that the verdict is sustained by sufficient evidence.
Some of the objections need not be discussed further than to note that they are predicated upon the proposition that the case made by the complaint does not come within the provisions of the Employers’ Liability Act of 1911, supra.
It is urged that the court erred in the first instruction because he read to the jury each paragraph of the complaint on which the case was tried, and informed the jury that, to recover, appellee must prove the material allegations .of some one of such paragraphs by a fair preponderance of the evidence, without specifically stating to the jury what such material allegations were. It is also contended that appellant’s instructions Nos. 43, 49 and 65 tendered by it and refused by the court supplied the requisite statement of the issues and that the court erred in refusing to give the same to the jury,
Instruction No. 51 so tendered and given clearly indicates the material averments of the third paragraph as set forth in instruction No. 49 refused by the trial court. Instructions Nos. 28, 42 and 52, tendered by appellant and given by the court, also indicated the material averments of each paragraph of the complaint.
Objection is also urged to instruction No. 8, because it in substance informed the jury that, if the allegations relating to the tail chain were proved by the evidence, the same was an appliance within the meaning of the law. A similar objection is urged to instruction No 12, which in the same way informed the jury that the mule furnished appellee was an appliance within the meaning of the law.
“a thing applied or used as a means to an end,” and it is therein stated that the term is very broad and comprehensive in its meaning, and includes not only inanimate things, such as machinery, tools and ways, but also human beings and animals generally. Mules and horses have been considered as appliances where furnished by the master for the use of his servant in the performance of some work the latter was required to do by his employment. 3 Labatt, Master and Servant (2d ed.) §1109, p. 2917; Manufacturers’ Fuel Co. v. White (1907), 228 Ill. 187, 81 N. E. 841, 843; Leigh v. Omaha St. R. Co. (1893), 36 Neb. 131, 54 N. W. 134; Hammond v. Johnson (1893), 38 Neb. 244, 56 N. W. 967, 969; Arkansas Smokeless Coal Co. v. Pippins (1909), 92 Ark. 138, 122 S. W. 113, 114, 19 Ann. Cas. 861; Wilson v. Sioux, etc., Min. Co. (1898), 16 Utah 392, 52 Pac. 626, 627; McCready v. Stepp (1904), 104 Mo. App. 340, 78 S. W. 671; McGarry v. New York, etc., R. Co. (1892), 60 N. Y. Super. Ct. 367, 18 N. Y. Supp. 195; Berenson v. Butcher (1911), 209 Mass. 208, 95 N. E. 229; Stutzke v. Consumers Ice, etc., Co. (1911), 156 Mo. App. 1, 136 S. W. 243, 245; Farmer v. Cumberland Tel., etc., Co. (1905), 86 Miss. 55, 38 South. 775.
in case they found for the plaintiff, by authorizing them to consider “how far, if at all, the
Other objections to the instructions are suggested, but we are not justified in further extending this opinion to consider them in detail. Some of the suggestions are already met by this opinion. Many of them depend for their merit upon the proposition that the case does not come under the provisions of the Employers’ Liability Act, supra, which we have decided adversely to appellant’s contention.
Appellant tendered sixty-eight instructions, of which number the court gave to the jury forty-six. Considering all the instructions given in their entirety, they fairly and accurately informed the jury as to the issues to bé tried, and the law applicable to the issues and the evidence. Appellant was deprived of no substantial right, and the jury could not have been misled by any of the instructions given.
amount as under the rules of appellate procedure would warrant the reversal of the judgment on account thereof. Southern R. Co. v. Crone (1912), 51 Ind. App. 300, 305, 99 N. E. 762.
The case seems to have been fairly tried on its merits. No intervening error has been pointed out which will warrant a reversal. The judgment is therefore affirmed.