18 Ind. 226 | Ind. | 1862
Complaint by Wilson against the railroad company for an injury done him by the cars of the defendant, through the carlessness of her servants and agents in running the train. The point upon which the case turns is developed by the subsequent pleadings; the complaint, therefore, need not be set out.
The second paragraph of the defendant’s answer avers: “ That at the time of the supposed accident and injury to the plaintiff, he was in the service and employment of the defendant, by virtue of a contract between them, as brakeman on a certain train of cars commonly called a freight train, and not as a passenger thereon, possessed and run by the defend
To this paragraph of the answer the plaintinff replied :
First “That at the time of the injury complained of one Harrison was the conductor of a certain freight train of cars belonging to the defendant, and as such had the management of said train, and that one Joshua McCauly was the engineer upon said train, and placed there by said defendant two years before said injury; and both said conductor and engineer were employed by the defendant, and were both and each careless, unskillful and incompetent in the general management of trains of cars, and that the injuries complained of were caused by the carelessness and negligence of said engineer and conductor, and of no other employees of said defendant.”
Second. “ That before and at the time of said injury, the plaintiff was an employee of said railroad company, but engaged in no particular department of their business; and that the plaintiff was stationed by said company at and near North
To these replies a demurrer was sustained and the plaintiff excepted. The plaintiff declining to make further reply to the paragraph of the answer in question, final judgment was rendered for the defendant.
The appellant, the plaintiff below, claims that if the de
The only remaining question is whether the demurrer to the replications was properly sustained.
It is now abundantly settled that an employer is not liable to one employee for an injury occasioned by another engaged in the same general undertaking. The Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Company v. Tindal 18 Ind. 367, and authorities there cited.
The first paragraph of the reply is bad, even on the hypothesis that the company would be liable for negligence in the employment of careless and unskillful servants. It alleges that the conductor and engineer were careless, unskillful and incompetent in the general management of trains, but it does not aver that the defendant had any knowledge of that fact, nor does it controvert the allegation in the answer that “ in the selection and employment of the plaintiff’s co-employees the defendant had used due and reasonable care and caution.”
The question raised by the second paragraph of the reply is whether an employee, whose duties under his employment are various, consisting, amongst other things, of coupling and uncoupling trains, is, while thus uncoupling cars, to be regarded as in the same general undertaking as the engineer and conductor having charge of the cars, within the meaning of the rule as thus established.
In Whaalen v. The Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad Company, 8 Ohio St. Rep. 249, it was held that where the injured party is engaged in the repair of a railroad track which is then in use for the running of trains, and the party through whose negligence the injury occurs is a hand employed on the engine and tender of a passing train, they are engaged in .a common business within the scope of the above rule. In Russel v. The Hudson River Railroad Company, 17 N. Y., it was held that a laborer employed by a railroad company to work in connection with a train of cars, under an arrangement by which he was to be conveyed to his home every night in such cars free of charge, could not maintain an action against the company for an injury sustained while thus riding home, in consequence of the negligence of the engineer. See, also, Sherman v. The Rochester and Syracuse Railroad Company, id. 153. In Baldt v. The New York Central Railroad Company, 18 N. Y. 432, it was held that a laborer employed to gravel a new and unfinished track, upon which no train had run, and who was walking upon it towards the place where he was to commence his day’s work, and was overtaken and injured by a passenger train using the new •track in consequence of a temporary obstruction of the old one, which run parallel and about six feet distant, could maintain no action against the common employer for the injury received from the negligence of those running the train. These authorities, whether admitted to their full extent or not, clearly show that this case comes within the established rule.
The fact that the plaintiff, under his employment, had du
The first paragraph of the reply is bad because it does not set up facts sufficient to avoid the answer, and the second is bad because it presents such a state of facts as shows the plaintiff is not entitled to recover. There was no error in sustaining the demurrer.
The judgment is affirmed with costs.