McDuffie v. Ocean S.S. Co.
| Decision Date | 10 November 1908 |
| Docket Number | 1,162. |
| Parties | McDUFFIE v. OCEAN S. S. CO. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Rehearing Denied Nov. 27, 1908.
Syllabus by the Court.
If the nature of the master's work is complex, and involves the presence and co-operation of a number of laborers so situated that independent individual action on their respective parts would render the doing of the work unsafe, the law imposes on the master the duty of organizing and maintaining a system by which the work can be done with reasonable safety.
[Ed Note.-For other cases, see Master and Servant, Cent. Dig. § 269; Dec. Dig. § 134. [*]]
If the master chooses to leave to an employé the regulation of matters which he ought to have provided for by specific rules, such employé will be regarded as his representative and not as a "fellow servant" of the laborers who do his work.
[Ed Note.-For other cases, see Master and Servant, Cent. Dig. §§ 385, 419; Dec. Dig. § 185. [*]]
The courts of this state are now thoroughly committed to the proposition that any employé, regardless of rank or title, who performs with the master's consent a nondelegable duty, is not a "fellow servant" with the laborers who do the work.
[Ed. Note.-For other cases, see Master and Servant, Cent. Dig. §§ 385-419; Dec. Dig. § 185. [*]
For other definitions, see Words and Phrases, vol. 3, pp. 2716-2730; vol. 8, p. 7662.]
The giving of orders as to the system of work, even though they affect but a single particular piece of work, is a duty of the master, and is to be distinguished from the giving of work signals, which merely aid the successful and satisfactory execution of the labor at hand.
[Ed. Note.-For other cases, see Master and Servant, Cent. Dig. §§ 385-419; Dec. Dig. § 185. [*]]
The court erred in granting the nonsuit.
Error from City Court of Savannah; Davis Freeman, Judge.
Action for personal injuries by James McDuffie against the Ocean Steamship Company. Plaintiff was nonsuited, and brings error. Reversed.
McDuffie was employed by the Ocean Steamship Company as one of a gang of laborers engaged in trucking and loading bridge iron from the wharf of the company to certain freight cars. There were a number of similar gangs working at the same time and place. Piled upon the wharf were eight or nine pieces of the bridge iron, each about 25 feet long and weighing about 2,000 pounds. One piece had been rolled down from the pile and placed on a truck. The plaintiff and a colaborer were in the act of pushing the truck. He had his back to the pile of iron, with his legs spread somewhat apart and braced back. The remaining men of the particular gang, 10 in number, were waiting to load another piece on another truck. George Knox, an employé of the company, who had general superintendence of the men and of the loading so far as this particular gang was concerned, gave the men in waiting orders to turn the second piece of iron off the pile. On account of the noise on the wharf the plaintiff did not hear this command, but the "header" of the gang, a fellow laborer occupying somewhat the same relationship as is usually denoted by the word "boss," repeating the command, said "Turn," and the iron was thrown down upon the heels and legs of the plaintiff, severely injuring him. Knox's designation in the employment was "shipping clerk." He and the other shipping clerks were under the authority of a chief shipping clerk; and then there was Capt. Savage, who, to adopt the language of one of the witnesses, was "the general boss over the whole business." The petition set out these facts, including the nature of Knox's duties, but not including the statement as to the existence of the chief shipping clerk and the "general boss over the whole business," and alleged that the plaintiff was injured by the negligence of the company through its alter ego, Knox, in that he negligently ordered the second piece of bridge iron to be turned off the pile under the circumstances and while the plaintiff in the conduct of his particular duty was still in range of it. The defendant filed a general demurrer to the petition. It was overruled, and no exceptions were taken. The case proceeded to trial, and, the plaintiff having proved the facts stated above, the court granted a nonsuit, on the ground that Knox was only an ordinary foreman, and not an alter ego or vice principal; that the particular order given by Knox related merely to one of the details of the work, and that it was not given by him in the performance of one of the nondelegable duties of the master; and that the plaintiff's injuries were therefore the result of the negligence of fellow servants alone. The plaintiff excepts to the grant of the nonsuit.
Where the nature of a master's work is complex, and involves the presence and co-operation of a large number of men so situated that individual independent action would render the work unsafe, the law imposes on
Nonsuit held improperly granted.
Shelby Myrick and Osborne & Lawrence, for plaintiff in error.
Lawton & Cunningham, for defendant in error.
1. In the case of Brown v. Rome Machine Company (this day decided) 62 S.E. 720, we have gone at some length into the rationale of why the law imputes certain assumption and imposes certain duties upon each of the parties to the relationship created by a contract of employment, and it will not be necessary now to elaborate these propositions again. It is sufficient to say that if the nature of the master's work is complex and involves the presence and co-operation of a large number of men so situated that individual independent action on their respective parts would render the doing of the work unsafe, the law imposes on the master the duty of organizing and maintaining a system of work by which reasonable safety can be secured. Frequently this is accomplished largely through rules and regulations promulgated and enforced by the master. In that event the doing of the work according to the rules and regulations is regarded as mere detail, and those doing it are considered as fellow servants, though some of them are superior servants and others inferior, though some are bosses and others common laborers. Since...
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