Driscoll v. Carlin
| Decision Date | 26 November 1887 |
| Citation | 50 N.J.L. 28,11 A. 482 |
| Parties | DRISCOLL v. CARLIN. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
(Syllabus by the Court.)
Error to circuit court, Hudson county; KNAPP, Judge.
Action by Mary Driscoll against James Carlin for personal injuries. Plaintiff had a verdict and judgment, and defendant brings error.
Vredenburgh & Garretson, for plaintiff in error.
This is a writ of error to the Hudson circuit. The only error assigned is the common one that the judgment was given for the plaintiff instead of the defendant. The only complaint of error in the plaintiff's brief relates to the charge of the court, and it is not pretended that there exists any error save those which are alleged to appear in the bill of exceptions. Correct practice requires that the grounds relied upon for reversal by writ of error should be specified in the assignment of errors. Donnelly v. State, 26 N. J. Law, 463, 512. The common errors relate only to the record itself, and not to the out-branches of the record. Errors outside of the strict record should be specially assigned. 1 Archb. Pr. 501. The bill of exceptions is not a part of the record in this technical sense, as is plain from the statutory provisions under which such bills exist. The act of March 7, 1797, (Paters. Laws, 245; Revision, p. 886, § 242,) speaks of the bill as showing exceptions not found in the record itself, and was designed to provide a mode of examining errors which could not properly be inserted in the record. Ford v. Potts, 6 N. J. Eq. 388. So the former rule of this court, now embodied in the practice act, (Revision, § 245,) requires the bill to be returned and filed with the record. It plainly, then, is not a part of the strict record. It follows that, upon an assignment of the common errors only, the court cannot be required to look into the bill of exceptions. On this ground the judgment should be affirmed.
But if we consider the point made by the plaintiff in error, the same result must be reached. The case was, that the defendant below had directed his workmen to remove several sticks of timber from Montgomery street to Sixth street, Jersey City, and there to put them in his yard; that his workmen had carted them to Sixth street, and unloaded them upon the sidewalk near the curb in front of the yard, and there had left them; that several days afterwards, the plaintiff, while passing along the sidewalk, with due care, after dark, had stumbled over the timbers, and received the injury for which she sued. The plaintiff in error now contends that as he had directed his workmen to put the timber in his yard, which was lawful, and they had left them upon the sidewalk, which was unlawful, he cannot be held responsible for their act. The application of the rule respondeat superior does not depend upon the obedience of the servant to his master's orders, nor upon the legality of the servant's conduct. Thus, in Bayley v. Railway Co., L. R. 8 C. P. 148, the instructions of the defendant to its porters were that, if passengers were in the wrong carriage, the porter should inform them of the fact, and request them to alight, but should not remove them. The plaintiff was in the proper carriage; but the porter, thinking he was not, violently pulled him out, and threw him down on the platform. The company was held responsible, KELLY, C. B., declaring the principle to be that, where a servant is acting within the scope of his employment, and in so acting does something negligent or wrongful, the employer is liable, even though the acts done may be the very reverse of that which the servant was actually directed to do. The same principle was announced by this court in Aycrigg v. Railroad Co., 30 X. J. Law, 460, although the facts were held to put the case outside of it. The defendant's pilot, being in command of its ferry-boat for the purpose of transporting passengers and freight from one side of the North river to the other, voluntarily steamed down the river to catch a burning barge, which he towed to a place where she set fire to the plaintiff's yacht. HAINES, J., stated the question to be whether the pilot was acting within the scope of his authority, within the course of the business of his employment, and decided that he was not.
But the present case does not seem to call for the application of the rule under which a master is held responsible for the tortious act of his servant done in...
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Barnes v. Mitchell
...is liable, even though the acts done may be the very reverse of that which the servant was actually directed to do. Driscoll v. Carlin, 50 N.J.L. 28, 30, 11 A. 482. * * 'To rebut the presumption of liability of a master for damage consequent upon the negligent act of a servant, done within ......
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...authority of Katz, but that authority went no farther; and, indeed, the transportation of "Sam" was not a "delivery." In Driscoll v. Carlin, 50 N.J.Law, 28, 11 A. 482, the servant had put lumber on the sidewalk as ordered, but had left it there against orders. The master was held liable. In......
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Margolies v. Goldberg
...And assignment of common errors refers only to what is technically known as the record, and not to a bill of exceptions. Driscoll v. Carlin, 50 N. J. Law, 28, 11 A. 482. And this court said in the Goekel Case, supra, at page "Errors in law on the record are either common or special. Common ......
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Van Horn v. Huegel
...served or filed in the case. We think this point is well taken for the reasons given by Mr. Justice Dixon in the case of Driscoll v. Carlin, 50 N. J. Law, 28, 11 A. 482. Correct practice requires that the grounds relied upon for a reversal from a court in the first instance should be specif......