Jefferson v. TL James & Company

• Decision Date: 09 December 1969
• Docket Number: No. 27474.,27474.
• Parties: Barbaras JEFFERSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. T. L. JAMES & COMPANY, Inc., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

420 F.2d 322 (1969)

Barbaras JEFFERSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. T. L. JAMES & COMPANY, Inc., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 27474.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

December 9, 1969.

W. Scott Welch, III, Roger C. Landrum, Jackson, Miss., for appellant-defendant; Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens & Cannada, Jackson, Miss., of counsel.

Paul G. Swartzfager, John L. Jeffries, Laurel, Miss., for plaintiff-appellee.

Before BROWN, Chief Judge, JONES and CARSWELL, Circuit Judges.

JONES, Circuit Judge:

T. L. James & Company, Inc., hereafter called James, was engaged in the construction of an interstate highway in Clarke County, Mississippi. Employed by it and engaged in the construction work was Barbaras Jefferson. He and other employees were to be at the construction site and ready to work at six o'clock in the morning. About a mile from the place where the work was being done and on a portion of the highway under construction and under the control of James, one of James' trucks was parked for the purpose of carrying the employees to the site of the work. About 5:30 on the morning of November 30, 1966, Jefferson drove up in his car to a place at the side of the constructed portion of the highway, intending to leave his car there until the end of the workday. He planned to get on the truck before it departed, shortly before six o'clock, for the site of the work. As he drove up, a state highway inspector drove up on the other side of the highway and from the direction opposite to that from which Jefferson had arrived. His car struck the rear of the truck, which was unlighted and which projected out onto the highway. The highway inspector's car careened across the road and crashed into Jefferson's car just as he had stopped and before he had turned off the ignition switch in his car or turned out his lights. Jefferson was injured. He brought an action against James in a Mississippi state court, asserting that his injury resulted from James' negligence in leaving its truck projecting onto the highway and without lights. James removed the case to the United States District Court on the ground of diversity of citizenship. As defenses, it asserted that it was free from negligence, that Jefferson was guilty of contributory negligence and assumed the risk, and that he was restricted in his recovery to benefits under the Mississippi workmen's compensation law.

The Mississippi workmen's compensation law provides, among other things, that:

"Compensation shall be payable for disability or death of an employee from injury arising out of and in the course of employment * * *.

* * * * * *

"The liability of an employer to pay compensation shall be exclusive and in place of all other liability of such employer to the employee * * * on account of such injury or death * * *." 5A Mississippi Code of 1942, Annotated, §§ 6998-04 to 6998-05 (Recomp.1952).

The case was tried to the court without a jury. The district court found that James was negligent, that Jefferson was free from negligence, and that the workmen's compensation law was inapplicable. Judgment for Jefferson against James in the amount of $17,500 was entered and the cause is before us on appeal from that judgment.

James contends on this appeal that the district court was in error in its holding that Jefferson was free from negligence. There is no merit in this claim and it requires no discussion. The principal ground urged for reversal is that the workmen's compensation law provided the exclusive remedy available to Jefferson as redress for his injuries.

It is held by the courts of Mississippi, as well as by the courts of other jurisdictions, that an injury arises out of employment if and only if there is a causal connection between such injury and the conditions under which...