Louisville, N. O. & T. Ry. Co. v. Kennedy

• Decision Date: 01 April 1891
• Citation: 16 S.W. 113
• Parties: LOUISVILLE, N. O. & T. RY. CO. v. KENNEDY.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 113

16 S.W. 113

LOUISVILLE, N. O. & T. RY. CO. v. KENNEDY.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

April Term, 1891.

Error from circuit court, Shelby county; L. H. ESTES, Judge.

F. J. Byrne, for plaintiff in erorr. Holmes & Cummins, for defendant in error.

WILSON, Special Judge.

This is an action of debt brought before a justice of the peace of Shelby county by Mrs. Mary Kennedy in the character of widow and relict of R. W. Kennedy against the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railway Company, for the wages due by it to her husband at his death. A judgment was entered in her favor by the justice, and, upon appeal to the circuit court, a judgment in that court was rendered in her favor by the judge thereof, and by proper appeal, in the nature of a writ of error, the cause is in this court. There is no dispute as to the facts. It is conceded that the wages due by the railway company to her husband at his death was allotted to her by the county court for her year's support and it is insisted that, under our statutes, the wages thus assigned to her for that purpose became her absolute property, for which, without the aid or intervention of a personal representative of her husband, she has the right to sue. We think her right to thus sue, for property or claims so allotted to her under our statutes, is clear, although this question was reserved in the case of Bayless v. Bayless, 4 Cold. 359, 360. The railway company, however, insists that it is not liable to the demand made by the widow under the following facts, which are not disputed in the record. The company had an agreement with the owner and keeper of a surgical infirmary in Memphis for the treatment and attention therein of all of its injured employes who saw proper to avail themselves of its advantages, for which the company was to pay. The agreement between the company and its employes injured in its service, and accepting the benefits of attention and treatment in said infirmary, was that the wages due them at the time of their injury, or thereafter earned from the company, to the extent of the charges incurred by them at the infirmary, were to be retained by the company. The husband of Mrs. Kennedy was in the service of the company as baggage-master, and six or eight days before his death received an injury from falling from a train. He was carried to this infirmary for treatment at his own request, his wife accompanying him. He was cognizant of the arrangement of the company with its employes for...