Hyde v. BAGGETT TRANSPORTATION COMPANY

• Decision Date: 21 November 1964
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 4236.
• Citation: 236 F. Supp. 194
• Parties: Albert HYDE v. BAGGETT TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, Inc.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee

236 F. Supp. 194

Albert HYDE v. BAGGETT TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, Inc.

Civ. A. No. 4236.

United States District Court E. D. Tennessee, S. D.

November 21, 1964.

Joe F. Timberlake, Jr., Jack R. Brown, Chattanooga, Tenn., for plaintiff.

W. D. Spears, Chattanooga, Tenn., for defendant.

FRANK W. WILSON, District Judge.

This is an action in which the plaintiff seeks to recover for personal injuries alleged to have arisen out of an assault and battery committed upon the plaintiff by one Dave L. Miller. The altercation between the plaintiff and Miller occurred upon October 6, 1963, while they were working at a truck terminal in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The plaintiff has herein sought to recover both compensatory and punitive damages from the defendant, Baggett Transportation Company, Inc., both upon the theory of negligence in the employment of Miller and upon the theory of liability under respondeat superior for the willful tort of Miller. The case was submitted to the jury upon special issues and the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff and against the defendant, both upon the negligence theory and upon the respondeat superior theory and awarded the plaintiff a judgment of $2,000.00 compensatory damages and $1,000.00 punitive damages. The case is now before the Court upon the defendant's motion for judgment n. o. v. or in the alternate for a new trial.

It appeared from the undisputed evidence in the case that at the time of the altercation between the plaintiff and Miller, both of them were employees of the Chattanooga Service Company, a corporation which operated the local terminal company for Baggett. Miller was a dock foreman and the plaintiff was a dock worker under the supervision of Miller. The fight occurred between Miller and the plaintiff when Miller instructed the plaintiff to unload a trailer and the plaintiff protested that he needed additional help.

In the first ground of the defendant's motion it is contended that there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict of the jury that Chattanooga Service Company was an agent of Baggett rather than an independent contractor, as contended by the defendant. The Court is of the opinion that this ground is without merit and should be overruled. The testimony was to the effect that the trucking terminal building where the altercation occurred was owned by one Jefferson Properties, Inc., and leased to Baggett, whose name the terminal bore. At all times relevant to the issues in the lawsuit one C. F. Pate was employed by Baggett as its terminal manager in Chattanooga. Pate had in turn organized a one-man corporation, of which he was the sole stockholder, known as "Chattanooga Service Company". This corporation, of which Pate was the president and managing officer, in turn had an agreement with Baggett whereby it employed the personnel to operate the terminal upon a cost plus basis. There was testimony with regard to Baggett's efforts to control the expenses by reducing overtime and loading and unloading time. Under this state of the record, the Court is of the opinion that a jury issue existed with regard to whether Chattanooga Service Company was an agent of Baggett.

It is next contended by the defendant that the evidence is insufficient to support a verdict that Miller was acting within the scope of his employment in committing an assault and battery upon the plaintiff. It is often stated as a general rule, with certain exceptions, that a master is not liable for the willful torts of his servant since such conduct is deemed as a matter of law to be beyond the scope of employment.

These exceptions to the rule of no liability are set forth in the case of Fugate v. Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Co., 181 Tenn. 608, 611, 183 S.W.2d 867, 868 (1941), where it is stated that

"* * * the willful tort of the servant could be imputed to the master in three classes of cases: (1) Where the master is under contract, expressed or implied, with the person wronged, or under a law-imposed duty, requiring the master to refrain from mistreatment of him; for example, assaults upon passengers by railway employees. (2) Where the nature of the employment or the duty imposed on the servant is such that the master must contemplate the use of force by the servant in performance, as a natural or legitimate sequence; for example, cases involving assault and homicides by special officers in the master's employ. (3) Where a dangerous instrumentality is intrusted by the master to the servant, which has capability of harm to the public, such as a locomotive whistle willfully sounded."

The defendant contends that the facts of this case clearly do not fall within one of these exceptions in that there was no showing that Miller was authorized or directed to use force in maintaining order or discipline among his men and that there was no showing that being a dock foreman for Chattanooga Service was the kind of employment out of which the employer might reasonably expect or contemplate that force might be used in maintaining order or discipline. It would appear to the Court that if these exceptions to the general rule of no liability accurately reflect the existing law of Tennessee, then there could be no liability legally imposed upon the defendant.

However, the modern trend has been to extend the liability of a master for the willful torts of his servant. Mechem on Agency, 4th Ed., Sec. 397; Prosser on Torts, 2d Ed., page 354; 6 Am.Jur. 2d, Assault and Battery, Sec. 136; 35 Am.Jur., Master and Servant, Sec. 573. According to these authorities modern cases treat the liability of the master for the willful torts of a servant upon the same basis as liability for negligence —that is, as dependent upon whether or not the employee or servant was acting within the scope and course of his employment. This would ordinarily be a...