Creighton v. Air Nitrates Corporation
Decision Date | 26 October 1922 |
Docket Number | 8 Div. 474. |
Citation | 208 Ala. 330,94 So. 356 |
Parties | CREIGHTON v. AIR NITRATES CORPORATION. |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Franklin County; Charles P. Almon, Judge.
Action for work and labor by Robert W. Creighton against Air Nitrates Corporation. After adverse ruling on the pleadings plaintiff took a nonsuit and appeals. Affirmed.
William L. Chenault, of Russellville, for appellant.
Andrews & Peach, of Sheffield, for appellee.
Robert W. Creighton, the appellant, sues the Air Nitrates Corporation, a corporation, the appellee, under the common counts, for work and labor done by him for it.
The defendant filed 13 pleas; the plaintiff demurred to each these demurrers were all overruled by the court; the plaintiff took a nonsuit on account of the adverse rulings of the court to him on the pleadings. The court granted the nonsuit, entered judgment dismissing the case and taxing plaintiff with the court cost. This appeal is prosecuted from that judgment by the plaintiff; and the judgment of the court sustaining the demurrers to each plea are the errors assigned. Two of the pleas, 1a and 2a, are the general issue. The other 11 pleas are special. These special pleas challenge the jurisdiction of the court, and are in bar of the prosecution of the suit. They aver in various forms and terms that plaintiff was an employé of the United States, and not of the defendant; that the defendant was acting solely and purely as agent of the United States for the purpose of carrying out a governmental function; it had no interest in the plant or quarry where plaintiff worked; the wages and salaries were paid the employés by the United States through the defendant as its agent. Of all these pleas, that one lettered (d) states fairly the special defense as follows:
The federal Employés' Compensation Commission has decided, under "the agency contract" made with the defendant for the construction of a plant at Muscle Shoals, Ala., that the employés of the corporation itself engaged in the work at Muscle Shoals are civil employés of the United States, and entitled to the benefits of the Compensation Act. A copy of the order and decision appears in Webb v. White Engineering Corp., 204 Ala. 429, 85 So. 729.
This is a suit ex contractu. The plaintiff avers in substance that the work was done by him for the defendant, under an express or implied contract. The defendant seeks to avoid liability by averring it was acting as agent for the United States in making the contract; that it was simply an agent in the transaction, and the United States was principal; and that its principal is not subject to be sued in this court. We find no averment in any plea that the stock of the defendant corporation is owned in whole or in part by the United States. We find no averment that the defendant's property is owned by the United States. It does not appear to whom the defendant's corporation belongs. The defendant is a corporation; it is a separate entity; and we do not know who...
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Finnell v. Pitts, 8 Div. 133.
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