Baker v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.

• Decision Date: 01 November 1950
• Docket Number: No. 235,235
• Citation: 61 S.E.2d 621,232 N.C. 523
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: BAKER, v. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO.

Page 621

61 S.E.2d 621

232 N.C. 523

BAKER, v. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO.

No. 235

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Nov. 1, 1950

C. G. Grady, Four Oaks, Levinson & Batton, Smithfield, for plaintiff appellant.

Abell, Shepard & Wood, Smithfield, Frank G. Kurka, M. V. Barnhill, Jr., Wilmington, for defendant appellee.

WINBORNE, Justice.

This appeal challenges only the judgment as of nonsuit entered in the trial court. As to this, the evidence shown in the case on appeal taken in the light most favorable to plaintiff, as is done in such case, fails to make out a case of actionable negligence,--indeed fails to show any negligence on the part of defenant. Murray v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 218 N.C. 392, 11 S.E.2d 326, and cases there cited.

In an action for the recovery of damages for injuries allegedly resulting from actionable negligence, 'the plaintiff must show: First, that there has been a failure to exercise proper care in the performance of some legal duty which the defendant owed the plaintiff, under the circumstances in which they were placed; and, second, that such negligent breach of duty was the proximate cause of the injury--a cause that produced the result in continuous sequence and without which it would not have occurred, and one from which any man of ordinary prudence could have foreseen that such result was probable under all the facts as they existed. ' Whitt v. Rand, 187 N.C. 805, 123 S.E. 84, 85; Evans v. Shea Bros. Construction Co., 194 N.C. 31, 138 S.E. 411; Hurt v. Western Carolina Power Co., 194 N.C. 696, 140 S.E. 730; Thompson v. North Carolina R. Co., 195 N.C. 663, 143 S.E. 186; Templeton v. Kelley, 215 N.C. 577, 2 S.E.2d 696; Gold v. Kiker, 216 N.C. 511, 5 S.E.2d 548; Murray v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., supra, and numerous other cases.

The principle prevails in this State that what is negligence is a question of law, and, when the facts are admitted or established, the court must say whether it does or does not exist. This rule extends and applies not only to the question of the negligent breach of duty, but also to the feature of proximate cause. Hicks v. Naomi Falls Mfg. Co., 138 N.C. 319, 50 S.E. 703; Russell v. Carolina Cent. R. Co., 118 N.C. 1098, 24 S.E. 512; Lineberry v. North Carolina R. Co., 187 N.C. 786, 123 S.E. 1.

In the case in hand the relationship between the defendant and the plaintiff's intestate is that of master and servant, or employer and employee. When such relationship exists, the accepted and well settled rule of law is that the master owes to the servant the duty to exercise ordinary care to provide a reasonably safe place in which to do his work and reasonably safe machinery, implements and appliances with which to work. The master is not an insurer, however. Nor is it the absolute duty of the master to provide a reasonably safe place for the servant to work, or to furnish reasonably safe machinery, implements and appliances with which to work. He meets the requirements of the law in the discharge of his duty if he exercises or uses ordinary care to provide for the servant such a place, or to furnish such machinery, implements and appliances as are approved and in general use in places of like kind, that is, that degree of care which a man of ordinary prudence would exercise or use under like circumstances, having regard to his own safety, if he were providing for himself a place to work, or if he were furnishing for himself machinery, implements and appliances with which to work. This rule of conduct of 'the ordinarily prudent man' measures accurately the duty of the master and fixes the limit of his responsibility to his servant. Murray v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., supra, and cases there cited. See also Helms v. South Atlantic Waste Co., 151 N.C. 370, 66 S.E. 312; Eplee v. Southern Ry. Co., 155 N.C. 293, 71 S.E. 325.

In the light of these principles, while plaintiff alleges as an act of negligence on the part of defendant a failure to equip the motor car with a hand-hold, the evidence offered by plaintiff is that the motor car in question was equipped with standard hand-holds, and that it was in general use by the defendant. And there is neither allegation nor proof that the motor car, so equipped, was not approved and in general use. See Grubbs v. Lewis, 196 N.C. 391, 145 S.E. 769.

And while plaintiff also alleges as an act of negligence the equipment of the motor car with a canvas windshield containing a small plexiglass opening which was covered with dust, dirt and other foreign substances so as to prevent plaintiff's intestate and the operator of the motor car having a clear vision ahead,--the evidence offered by plaintiff is that the windshield was of solid canvas, but that the operator could see over it around 20 feet in front, and by raising up 'a little bit' could see right in front of the car,--and that ...