Gulf & S. I. R. Co. v. Sullivan

• Decision Date: 28 May 1928
• Docket Number: 27214
• Citation: 119 So. 501,155 Miss. 1
• Parties: GULF & S. I. R. Co. v. SULLIVAN
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

119 So. 501

155 Miss. 1

GULF & S. I. R. Co. v. SULLIVAN

No. 27214

Supreme Court of Mississippi

May 28, 1928

Division A

On Suggestion of Error, Jan. 14, 1929.

1. MASTER AND SERVANT. Parents permitting minor to remain in another's employment for six weeks after acquiring knowledge thereof must be held to have "consented" thereto (Hemingway's Code 1927, section 848).

Where minor remained in another's employment about six weeks after his parents acquired knowledge thereof and without objections from them, they must be held to have "consented" to employment, within meaning of Code 1906, section 1080 (Hemingway's Code 1927, section 848).

2 TORTS. Vaccination of one person by another without his consent, or of person incapable of understanding consequences by reason of youth, creates liability.

Vaccination of one person by another without his consent subjected one who vaccinated the other to liability, if not consented to or if person vaccinated was at the time by reason of his youth incapable of understanding or appreciating consequences.

3. MASTER AND SERVANT. Seventeen-year-old employee held of sufficient intelligence to understand and appreciate consequences of vaccination required by employer.

Where employee at time employer required him to be vaccinated was seventeen years of age, he was of sufficient intelligence to understand and appreciate consequences of vaccination so as to preclude liability on theory that he was incapable of understanding or appreciating consequences thereof by reason of youth.

4. MASTER AND SERVANT. Employee's assenting to vaccination in order to retain job does not constitute "duress."

The fact that employee assented to vaccination required by employer in order to retain job does not constitute "duress," within meaning of the law.

ON SUGGESTION OF ERROR.

5 CARRIERS. Stipulation relieving railroad from liability in case of one using pass held inapplicable as to abusive conduct of conductor.

Stipulation in railroad pass that railroad should not be liable for any injuries to person, or for any loss or damage to property of individual, using pass, even though valid, held inapplicable as to abusive conduct of conductor, in that it only applied to cases of ordinary negligence, and not to willful or wanton acts.

APPEAL from circuit court of Smith county, HON. W. L. CRANFORD Judge.

Action by John Sullivan, by next friend, against the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Judgment reversed. Suggestion of error sustain.

T. J. Wills, of Hattiesburg, and R. V. Fletcher, of Chicago, Ill., for appellant.

The father's consent may be implied as well as express, and if the minor is employed on a continuous job, and the father permits him to continue without objection, his consent to the employment will be implied within the meaning of Code 1906, sec. 1080.

20 R. C. L., sec. 29; Warrior Manufacturing Co. v. Jones, 155 Ala. 379, 46 So. 456; Tennessee Coal Co. v. Crotwell, 156 Ala. 304, 47 So. 64; Wolf v. East Tennessee R. Co., 88 Ga. 210, 14 S.E. 199; L. & N. R. Co. v. Davis, 105 S.W. 455; Pecos R. Co. v. Blasengame, 93 S.W. 187.

Where a railroad was engaged in interstate commerce, and the plaintiff was so employed; the relationship and status so created and existing is one that is defined and governed by the Federal Employer's Liability Act.

Pedersen v. D. L. & W. Railroad Co., 229 U.S. 146, 57 L.Ed. 1125, 33 S.Ct. 648; So. P. Co. v. I. A. Commissioners of Calif., 251 U.S. 559; P. & R. Railroad Co. v. Di Donato, 256 U.S. 327; I. A. Commissioners of Cal. v. Payne, 259 U.S. 182.

There was no liability under the federal statute for the vaccination or the injuries resulting therefrom.

Davis v. Green, 260 U.S. 349, 43 S.Ct. 123; Eastman, Gardiner & Co. v. Permenter, 111 Miss. 813, 72 So. 234; Owen v. G. & S. I. R. R. Co., 79 So. 348; Congeon v. La. Saw Mill Co., 78 So. 470.

There must be a causal connection between the wrongful act and the injury in order for it to impose liability.

Reeves v. Anniston Knitting Mills, 154 Ala. 565, 45 So. 702.

No cause of action can be maintained against the master for actionable words used by a servant and especially to a fellow-servant.

Dixie Fire Insurance Co. v. Betty, 101 Miss. 880; Neely v. Payne, 126 Miss. 854.

Where a contract in a pass was for an interstate carriage it was governed by the federal law. It was a gratuitous carriage. The contract against liability contained on the back of the pass was a valid and binding contract under the decisions of the federal court; and those decisions must be followed and enforced in the state courts where applicable.

C., etc., Railroad Co. v. Thompson, 234 U.S. 576; Boering v. Chesapeake Beach R. R., 193 U.S. 442; Northern Pacific Railroad Co. v. Adams, 192 U.S. 440.

Wells, Stevens & Jones and Hughes, Nobles & Lane, all of Jackson, for appellee.

Where the legislature prohibits the doing of a thing, a right of action arises in favor of anyone injured by the violation as against the person who violates the statute.

Sluder v. St. Louis Transit Co. (Mo.), 5 L.R.A. (N.S.) 186; Leathers v. Blackwell's Durham Tobacco Co. (N. C.), 9 L.R.A. (N.S.) 349; 1 Thompson on Negligence, sec. 10; Shearm & Redf. Neg. (3 Ed.), sec. 54a; Wolf v. Smith (Ala.), 42 So. 824, 9 L.R.A. (N.S.) 338; Stearns v. Atlantic & St. L. R. Co., 46 Me. 115; Willy v. Mulledy, 78 N.Y. 310, 34 Am. Rep. 536; Union P. R. Co. v. McDonald, 152 U.S. 262, 38 L.Ed. 434, 14 S.Ct. 619; Pike v. Eddy, 53 Mo.App. 505; New York, C. & St. L. R. Co. v. Lambright, 5 Ohio C. C. 433; Ohio & M. R. Co. v. McGehee, 47 Ill.App. 348; Baxter v. Coughlin, 70 Minn. 1, 72 N.W. 797; Platte & D. Canal & Mill Co. v. Dowell, 17 Colo. 376, 30 P. 68; Pitcher v. Lennon, 12 A.D. 356, 42 N.Y.S. 156; O'Donnell v. Providence & W. R. Co., 6 R. I. 211; Terre Haute & I. R. Co. v. Williams, 69 Ill.App. 392, affirmed in 172 Ill. 379, 64 Am. St. Rep. 44, 50 N.E. 116; Osborne v. McMasters, 40 Minn. 103, 12 Am. St. Rep. 698, 41 N.W. 543; Haynie v. N.C. Electric Power Co., Ann. Cas. 1913C, 232; Rolin v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 140 N.C. 300, 7 L.R.A. (N.S.) 335, 8 Ann. Cas. 638; American Car & Foundry Co. v. Armentraut, 214 Ill. 509, 73 N.E. 766, affirming 116 Ill.App. 121; Morris v. Stanfield, 81 Ill.App. 264; Nickey v. Steuder, 164 Ind. 189, 73 N.E. 117; Brower v. Locke, 31 Ind.App. 353, 67 N.E. 1015; Woolf v. Nauman Co., 128 Ia. 261, 103 N.W. 785; Queen v. Dayton Coal & I. Co., 95 Tenn. 458, 30 L.R.A. 82, 49 Am. St. Rep. 935, 32 S.W. 460; Sterling v. Union Carbide Co., 142 Mich. 284, 105 N.W. 755; Cooke v. Lalance Crosican Mfg. Co., 33 Hun. 351; Hickey v. Taaffe, 32 Hun. 7; Perry v. Tozer, 90 Minn. 431, 101 Am. St. Rep. 416, 97 N.W. 137; Norman v. Virginia Pocahontas Coal Co., 68 W.Va. 405, 38 L.R.A. (N.S.) 504; Birdoes v. Tremont & Suffolk Mills, 209 Mass. 489, Ann. Cas. 1912B, 797; 83 Kan. 533, 112 P. 145; Frank Unnewehr Co. v. Standard L., etc., Ins. Co., 176 F. 16, 99 C.C.A. 490; Stehle v. Jaeger Automatic Mach. Co., 225 Pa. 348, 74 A. 215, 133 Am. St. Rep. 884; 39 C. J., page 298; Queen v. Dayton Coal & Iron Co., 30 L.R.A. 82; Francis Wharton on Negligence, sec. 443; Bishop on Non-Contract Law, sec. 132; Pauley v. Steam Gauge & L. Co., 131 N.Y. 90, 15 L.R.A. 194; Willy v. Mulledy, 78 N.Y. 310, 34 Am. Rep. 536; 1 Thomp. Neg., p. 506, sec. 8; Star Fire Clay Co. v. Budno, 269 F. 508; 26 Cyc. 1582; Hoole v. Dorroh, 75 Miss. 257; Everett v. Sherfey, 1 Iowa 356.

A violation of a statute forbidding the employment of children and subjecting the employer to a penalty is to be deemed conclusive evidence of negligence whenever such violation can be seen to have been the natural and proximate cause of an injury.

16 R. C. L. 552, sec. 65; 48 L.R.A. (N.S.) 657; Frorer v. Baker, 137 Ill.App. 588; Nairn v. National Biscuit Co., 120 Mo.App. 144, 96 S.W. 679; Syneszewski v. Schmidt, 153 Mich. 438, 116 N.W. 1107; Starnes v. Albion Mfg. Company, 147 N.C. 556, 17 L.R.A. (N.S.) 602, 61 S.E. 525, 15 Ann. Cas. 470; Bromberg v. Evans Laundry Co., 134 Iowa 38, 111 N.W. 417, 13 Ann. Cas. 33; Riegel v. Loose-Wiles Biscuit Co., 169 Mo.App. 513; 155 S.W. 59; Stirling v. Bettis Mfg. Co. (Tex. Civ. App.), 159 S.W. 915; Fitzgerald v. International Flax Twine Co., 104 Minn. 138, 116 N.W. 475; Jacobson v. Merrill & R. Mill Co., 107 Minn. 74, 22 L.R.A. (N.S.) 309, 119 N.W. 510; Kircher v. Iron Clad Mfg. Co., 134 A.D. 144, 118 N.Y.S. 823; Solomon v. Royal Art Glass Co., 83 Misc. 53, 144 N.Y.S. 590; Fahey v. Jephcott, 2 Ont. L. Rep. 449, 1 B. R. C. 616; Jones v. Morton Co., 14 Ont. L. Rep. 402, 9 Ont. Week Rep. 500; Jones v. Morton Co., 14 Ont. L. Rep. 402; Purtell v. Philadelphia & R. Coal & I. Co., 256 Ill. 110, 43 L.R.A. (N.S.) 193, 99 N.E. 899, Ann. Cas. 1913E, 335, affirming 167 Ill.App. 125; Castell v. Pittsburg Vitrified Paving & Bldg. Brick Co., 83 Kan. 553, 112 P. 145; Smith v. National Coal & I. Co., 135 Ky. 671, 117 S.W. 280; Casperson v. Michaels, 142 Ky. 314, 134 S.W. 200; Darsam v. Kohlmann, 123 La. 164, 20 L.R.A. (N.S.) 881, 48 So. 781; People v. Taylor, 192 N.Y. 398, 85 N.E. 759; Curtis & G. Co. v. Pigg, 134 P. 1125; Norman v. Virginia-Pocahontas Coal Co., 68 W.Va. 405, 31 L.R.A. (N.S.) 504, 69 S.E. 857; Burke v. Big Sandy Coal & Coke Co., 68 W.Va. 490, 69 S.E. 993; Dickinson v. Stuart Colliery Co., 71 W.Va. 325, 43 L.R.A. (N.S.) 335, 76 S.E. 654; Blankenship v. Ethel Coal Co., 69 W.Va. 74, 70 S.E. 863.

A master is not relieved from liability for injury to a child employed in violation of the terms of a statute, because the statute does not in express terms provide for such liability.

Strafford v. Republic Iron & Steel Co., 238 Ill. 371, 20 L.R.A. (N.S.) 876, 128 Am. St. Rep. 129, 87 N.E. 358; Beauchamp v. Sturges &...