Mcdonald v. The Eagle

• Decision Date: 30 September 1881
• Citation: 67 Ga. 761
• Parties: McDonald . vs. The Eagle and Phenix Manufacturing Company.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

67 Ga. 761

McDonald . vs. The Eagle and Phenix Manufacturing Company.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

SEPTEMBER TERM, 1881.

67 Ga. 761 Damages. Negligence. Master and Servant. Torts. Before Judge Willis. Muscogee Superior Court. May Term, 1881.

Charlotte McDonald, the widow of Absolom McDonald, brought suit against the Eagle and Phenix Manufacturing Company for the homicide of her husband. The body of her declaration was as follows:

" For that heretofore, to-wit, on the--day of June, 1879, at the request of defendant, Absolom McDonald, who was her lawful husband, and up to the time the injuries hereinafter stated were received by him, was a carpenter by trade, forty-seven years old, in good health and of a strong constitution, and whose services were worth an average of two dollars per day, was employed by the said defendant as an ordinary workman to aid in building a dye-house in said county of Muscogee, the said defendant undertaking to furnish a careful, prudent and skillful superintendent to direct said work, and competent and careful laborers to aid in constructing the same, and especially to manage a derrick and ropes, tackle and machinery attached to said derrick, by which large timbers were to be hoisted to a great elevation, which said timbers your petitioner's said husband was to adjust and put in place in the frame-work of said building, when carefully conveyed to him by means of said derrick and ropes, tackle and machinery, attached by said laborers under the orders and directions of said superintendent. Yet the said defendant, not regarding its duty, placed in charge of said derrick and ropes, tackle and machinery attached, a careless and negligent superintendent, and one or more careless, ncompetent and negligent laborers, and by the want of the care and diligence, and by negligence, so managed the said derrick and ropes, tackle and machinery, used to hoist said heavy timbers, as to knock the prop which supported her said husband from under him, and precipitated him from a great elevation upon some timbers near the ground, where a large piece of timber suspended by means of said derrick, by which said fall, and fall of said heavy piece of timber. her husband was crushed, bruised, wounded and so hurt that he languished in great pain and died, by reason of said wound, within twelve hours afterwards, and from thence and for all time deprived your petitioner of the companionship, comfort, labor and service, of her said husband; that at...