15 Ga. App. 33 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1914
Winn brought suit against the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills, a corporation, alleging that while in the employ of the defendant, he suffered permanent personal injury through the gross negligence and carelessness of the defendant, its servants, agents, or employees. He alleged, that he was engaged, in the line of his duty, in rolling, moving, or carrying empty “beams,” made in the form of spools of iron or some other metal, with a point on each end thereof, from one part of the defendant’s factory to another part, and that in so doing it was necessary for him to take the said beams or metal spools' through a swinging door, made in two parts and opening from the middle, both parts of which remained closed except' when he or others were passing through it; that while he was passing through the said swinging door, and while traveling to the right, another employee of the defendant, coming from the op
The only question for determination in the case is whether or not the ■ plaintiff and the employee through whose carelessness he suffered the injury complained of were fellow-servants, within the meaning of the Civil Code, § 3129. The plaintiff appears to rely on the case of Cooper v. Mullins, 30 Ga. 146, in which the follow.ingrule is laid down: “The doctrine that servants of the same master can not have redress against the master, for the consequences of-each, other’s negligence in-his'service, being founded upon the
It is sought to bring this case under a different rule by the allegation in the 8th paragraph of the petition, which appears above, that the plaintiff and the emplo3ree through whose negligence he was injured were working in separate and distinct departments of the factory of the defendant, and were not working together in the same line of business, since the other employee was hauling quills which he obtained at a different point in the factory from the point where the plaintiff obtained the empty beams, and was depositing them in a different part of the building from that in which the articles carried by the plaintiff were deposited; and also that they did not work under the same boss, but worked under separate and distinct bosses. Diversity of duties or departments is not sufficient to exclude the defense of common employment, under the doctrine accepted by the large majority of our courts of last resort and ap
The case of Bain v. Athens Foundry & Machine Works, 75 Ga. 718, relied upon by counsel for plaintiff in error, was discussed and distinguished in Brush Electric Light Co. v. Wells, supra, by Justice Fish, and the fact that it had been so distinguished is referred to by Justice Cobb in Colley v. Southern Cotton Oil Co., 120 Ga. 258, 361 (47 S. E. 932). In the last-named ease the court says: “Employees in the service of and subject to the same general control and direction of a common master, and whose labor conduces to the same general purpose, are fellow servants, although they may be employed in different departments of duty, and so far removed from each other as that one can in no degree control or influence the conduct of the other.”. The doctrine as therein set forth is now the settled law of this State. See also Roland v. Tift, 131 Ga. 683 (63 S. E. 133, 130 L. R. A. (N. S.) 354).
It is apparent from the petition that both the plaintiff and the negligent employee of the defendant were engaged in the same factory and aiding in the conduct of the same business; and while it is alleged that they were each controlled by a different “boss,” it still appears that they were serving the same master, and the fact that each received his orders from a different superior, who was an agent of the master, would not operate to exclude the defense of co-service, where the other elements of that defense are present. Slater v. Jewett, 85 N. Y. 61, 70 (39 Am. R. 637); Adams v. Iron Cliffs Co., 78 Mich. 271 (18 Am. St. R. 441); Chicago & A. R. Co. v. Murphy, 53 Ill. 336 (5 Am. R. 48). See also 4 Labatt’s Master & Servant (3d ed.), 471, § 1431. It is not essential, in order to render employees fellow servants, that the same foreman or “boss”
Judgment affirmed.