55 So. 732 | La. | 1911
This is a suit in damages for personal injury. The facts in connection with the liability of the defendants have already been stated in the ease of R. T. Ingram against the same defendants (No. 18,349, 55 South. 580,
Plaintiff is a colored laborer, 39 years old. His life expectancy is 32 years. He is uneducated; dependent upon his labor for earning a living. He has a wife and six children dependent upon him for support. One of his legs was crushed and had to be amputated at the knee joint. Before the wound
[-1] The defendant railroad company leased three miles of its road to the defendant lumber company, and the latter company subleased to the logging company. The train was being operated by the logging company, for carrying the logs of the lumber company. But the two companies are admitted to be practically.one and the same, the logging company being a mere subsidiary of the other, and may be dealt with accordingly. The lease contract between the railway company and the lumber company contains the following clause:
“The lumber company is to be responsible for all damages of whatsoever kind or character which may result from the operation of said locomotives and trains, motor and hand cars, while on the tracks of the railroad company, including injuries to employés of both lumber company and railroad company or to other persons, damages by fire, for stock injured or killed, or for any accident, wreck or collision.”
Under this clause, the railroad company contends that the lumber company is answerable over to the' railway company for whatever judgment may be rendered in this case against the railway company. There was an allegation and prayer to that effect in the railroad company’s answer, but there was no regular call in warranty or prayer for citation, and no issue was ever joined on that demand.
That the lessor railroad company is also liable in case its lessees are found to have been responsible for the injury and to be liable is not seriously contested, and is clear under the doctrine of the Muntz Case, 111 La. 423, 35 South. 624, 64 L. R. A. 222, 100 Am. St. Rep. 495.
The judgment of this court in the Ingram Case is conclusive on the question of liability to plaintiff.
For convenience of statement, we set aside in toto the judgment appealed from.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the plaintiff, William Taylor, have judgment against the defendants, Louisiana & Northwest Railroad Company, and Frost-Johnson Lumber Company, and the Prestige-Buchannan Logging Company in so-lido in the sum of $5,000, with 5 per cent, interest on $2,500 thereof from September 8, 1910 (date of the judgment of the lower court), and like interest on the remainder thereof from this date. And it is further ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the demand of the Louisiana & Northwest Railroad' Company against the Frost-Johnson Lumber Company be rejected as in ease of nonsuit.
128 La. 934.