Wabash, St. L.&P. Ry. Co. v. Hawk

Decision Date17 June 1887
Citation12 N.E. 253,121 Ill. 259
PartiesWABASH, ST. L. & P. RY. CO. v. HAWK.
CourtIllinois Supreme Court

121 Ill. 259
12 N.E. 253

WABASH, ST. L. & P. RY. CO.
v.
HAWK.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 17, 1887.


Error to appellate court, Second district.

Case by Hawk, defendant in error, against the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company, plaintiff in error, to recover damages for a crushed ankle. The facts appear in the opinion.

The following instructions were given for the plaintiff:

‘(1) The court instructs the jury that if you believe from the evidence that the plaintiff, William Hawk, was employed by the defendant to assist in the removal of cars wrecked on its said road, it then and there became the duty of the defendant to provide and use such machinery, apparatus, and appliances, and other necessary means and material, suitable and proper to the prosecution of the said business in which the plaintiff was so employed, so as to insure a reasonable degree of safety to life and security against injury, and if you further believe, from the evidence, that the said defendant failed and neglected to furnish and use such machinery, apparatus, and appliances, and other necessary means and material, suitable and proper for the safe performance of such work, and that, in consequence of such failure and neglect on the part of defendant, the plaintiff, while in the discharge of his duty as such servant, in the work aforesaid, and in the exercise of all due care and caution on his part, received the injury in question, then you should find the defendant guilty.

‘(2) The court instructs the jury that if you believe from the evidence that plaintiff was employed by an agent or servant of the defendant to assist in removing wrecked cars from its said road, and that such servant had such authority to employ and direct plaintiff, and that said plaintiff entered upon such work under such employment, and received the injury in question while acting under and obeying the special instructions and orders of such servant, and in consequence thereof, then such injury, if proven, was not received by the plaintiff through the negligence or acts of a fellow-servant in the same line of employment; and provided you further believe from the evidence that such injury was solely in consequence of the negligence of such servant, as representative of the defendant, in ordering the plaintiff, with others, to remove said wreck by hand, if you believe from the evidence that Button gave the order to so remove the car, and that mode of removing the car was not a reasonable and prudent mode of so removing, and that the plaintiff was in the exercise of ordinary care in obeying said order, and while at the work.

‘(3) The court instructs the jury that one servant of a corporation, to whom the corporation delegates the power of hiring other servants, and in whom the corporation invests the sole control and direction of such other servants in and about the work which they may be ordinarily required to do, is, as to such servants he so hires and controls, the representative of the master when exercising such power of control, and is not a fellow-servant, and is not, under such state of facts, if proven by the evidence, in the same line of employment as the servant whom he so controls.

‘(4) The court instructs the jury that if you believe from the evidence that the plaintiff, William Hawk, was employed by the defendant to assist in the removal of cars wrecked on its said road, it then and there became the duty of the defendant to provide such machinery, apparatus, and appliances, and other necessary means, suitable and proper to the prosecution of the said business in which the plaintiff was so employed, so as to insure a reasonable degree of safety to life and security against injury, so far as could be reasonably done in that line...

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