Rankin v. Merchants' & Miners' Transp. Co.
| Decision Date | 06 January 1885 |
| Parties | RANKIN v. MERCHANTS AND MINERS' TRANSPORTATION COMPANY et al. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
September Term, 1884.
1. A declaration against a foreign corporation and a stevedore for the homicide of an employé, alleged as follows The company paid the stevedore to load a ship; the gangway used in loading was its property, and furnished to the stevedore for that use; it failed to provide proper guards and side-skids to the gang-plank to prevent the deceased from falling therefrom; " that deceased was standing on the gang-plank, under the directions and by the order of the stevedore or his agents, and was attempting to ease down over said gang-plank into said steamship, the said barrels of resin, which said barrels of resin the said (stevedore), with the grossest negligence and without regard to the dangerous position of the said deceased, caused to be rolled down the said gang-plank in such great numbers and rapid succession that the skill and strength of the said deceased were totally insufficient to manage the same, the result of which was his being drowned in the river by the gross negligence and criminal conduct of the said defendants:"
Held, that no case was made against the corporation. The mere employment of the stevedore or contractor did not make the company liable for an injury to one of the stevedore's servants; and the case falls within the ruling in 66 Ga. 145, and in 68 Id., 839.
2. If it were clearly alleged that, by the stevedore's orders and directions, the barrels were precipitated so rapidly upon deceased as to cause his death, then this gross negligence or disregard of life on the part of the stevedore in so ordering the fellow-servants of the deceased would amount to criminal negligence, and take the case as to him without the rule in the cases cited; but construing the plea most strongly against the pleader, it is not distinctly alleged that he precipitated the barrels himself or ordered others to do so; and there was no error in dismissing the declaration on demurrer.
( a. ) No motion was made to amend or otherwise to retain the action against time stevedore alone.
Master and Servant. Homicide. Damages. Actions. Stevedores. Principal and Agents. Pleadings. Before Judge HARDEN. City Court of Savannah. February Term, 1884.
Reported in the decision.
GEORGE W. OWENS; CHARLTON & MACKALL, for plaintiff in error.
W. S. BASINGER, for defendants.
A motion was made to dismiss this declaration, on the ground that no cause of action is set out therein; in other words, on general demurrer, the action was dismissed. It is a suit by the wife for her husband's homicide against " the Merchants and Miners' Transportation Company," and Merritt W. Dixon, a stevedore in the employment and pay of that company; and the death occurred by reason of the loading of a ship of the company by the stevedore and his servants.
1. The question is, whether the case falls within Daly vs. Stoddard, 66 Ga. 145, and McDonald vs The Eagle & Phenix Manufacturing Company, 68 Ga. 839. In other words, do the allegations make a case of felonious intent in the killing or such criminal negligence as constitutes an ingredient in the offense of involuntary manslaughter, because those cases, by a unanimous bench, most clearly so construe the meaning of our statute. Code, §2971.
In regard to " the Merchants and Miners' Transportation Company," there cannot arise a doubt that the case made against it is a case within the rule, and weaker than either of those. It is a corporation of Maryland, with an agency in Savannah; and the only allegation against it, in respect to the accident or incident of the death, is that it had employed and paid the stevedore to load the ship, and that...
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