Roy v. Mutual Rice Co. of Louisiana, Inc
Citation | 149 So. 508,177 La. 883 |
Decision Date | 29 May 1933 |
Docket Number | 32194 |
Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
Parties | ROY v. MUTUAL RICE CO. OF LOUISIANA, Inc |
Rehearing Denied July 7, 1933
Judgment rendered.
St Clair Adams and St. Clair Adams, Jr., both of New Orleans for applicant.
Gremillion & Smith, of Marksville, for respondent.
OPINION
Plaintiff, a married man of the age of 16 years, 7 months, and 20 days, was employed by defendant company, and was injured while performing the duties for which he was employed.
He instituted suit under article 2315 of the Civil Code, the general tort law of the state, for the sum of $ 10,150, and, in the alternative, claimed compensation under the Employers' Liability Act, Act No. 20 of 1914, and amendments thereto, in the sum of 65 per cent. of his weekly wages of $ 12 per week, during one hundred weeks, or the sum of $ 780, for the reason that the permanent and impaired condition of the upper half of his leg was not included in the settlement made with him by defendant company for the loss of a foot.
Judgment was rendered in the lower court in favor of plaintiff for damages ex delicto in the sum of $ 7,500. From this judgment defendant company appealed to the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, and in that court filed an exception of no right or cause of action, either under article 2315 of the Civil Code, or under Act No. 20 of 1914, and amendments thereto.
This exception was sustained by the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, as to the cause of action alleged by plaintiff under the Employers' Liability Act, and the judgment of the lower court was affirmed. 143 So. 668. This judgment is now before us for review under the writ of certiorari granted in this case.
We wish, at the outset, to make it very plain that, in considering the exception of no right or cause of action in this case, the allegations of well-pleaded facts as set forth in plaintiff's petition must be taken as true, for the purpose of disposing of this exception, and not the facts found by the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, in passing upon the merits of the case.
The petition of plaintiff, in so far as it relates to a right or cause of action under the Employers' Liability Act is as follows:
It appears therefore that, at the time of plaintiff's injury, he was engaged in running, operating, and looking after machinery on the first floor of the rice milling company, an employment which is, concededly, "a man's job."
Section 1 of Act No. 20 of 1914 provides.
Under subdivision 3 of section 3 of Act No. 20 of 1914, "Every contract of hiring * * * between any employer or employee engaged in the trades, businesses or occupations specified in paragraph 2 of Section 1, * * * shall be presumed to have been made subject to the provisions of this act, unless there be as a part of said contract an express statement in writing not less than thirty days prior to the accident, either in the contract itself or by written notice by either party to the other, that the provisions of this act other than Sections 4 and 5 are not intended to apply, and it shall be presumed that the parties have elected to be subject to the provisions of this act and to be bound thereby." (Italics ours.)
It is provided in subdivision 4 of section 3 of the act that: "Any workman of the age of eighteen and upwards engaged in the trades, businesses or occupations specified in paragraph 2 of Section 1, * * * shall himself exercise the election hereby authorized; the right of election hereby authorized shall be exercised on behalf of any workman under the age of eighteen by his parent or guardian." (Italics ours.)
The above provisions of subdivision 4 of section 3 of the act clearly apply to minors, not emancipated by marriage under the age of 18 years, and who are still under the control of a parent or a guardian, since a minor under the age of 18 years, emancipated by marriage, is considered as having arrived at the age of majority for all acts which have any relation to his trade.
Article 379 of the Civil Code provides that: "The minor, whether male or female, is emancipated of right by marriage."
Article 381 of the Civil Code declares that:
Article 382 also declares that: "The minor, emancipated by marriage, does not need the assistance of a curator in any act or proceeding."
Consequently, the plaintiff in this case, a minor emancipated by marriage, did not need the assistance of a tutor to elect to be subject to the provisions of the Employers' Liability Act; nor is it pretended in this case that the plaintiff, at any time, gave the notice required by subdivision 3 of section 3 that the provisions of the act should not apply to himself.
It is expressly provided in article 376 of the Civil Code that: "The emancipated minor who is engaged in trade, is considered as having arrived at the age of majority, for all the acts which have any relation to such trade."
The Civil Code itself has declared in article 14 that: "The words of a law are generally to be understood in their most usual signification, without attending so much to the niceties of grammar rules as to the general and popular use of the words." Applying this familiar canon of construction to the word "trade" as used in article 376 of the Civil Code, we find that it is "generally...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Morgan v. American Bitumuls Co.
... ... 968 ... AMERICAN BITUMULS CO ... In re MORGAN ... No. 39444 ... Supreme Court of Louisiana ... June 30, 1950 ... [217 La. 970] ... Samuel M. Robertson, and Neal N ... 889, 109 So. 538; Brown v. Vacuum Oil Company, 171 La. 707, 132 So. 117; Roy v. Mutual Rice Company of Louisiana, Inc., 177 La. 883, 149 So. 508 ... True, in Butzman v ... ...
-
Lobell, for Use and Benefit of Hardware Mut. Cas. Co. v. Neal, 3294
...v. Tremont Lumber Co., La.App., 151 So. 683 and Anderson v. Harvey & Jones, La.App., 154 So. 495. * * *' See also Roy v. Mutual Rice Co., of Louisiana, 177 La. 883, 149 So. 508. The petition of plaintiff stated a cause of action, and in view of our ruling that the pleadings were not enlarge......
-
Blanchard v. Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Co.
...Central Lumber Company, 161 La. 889, 109 So. 538; Brown v. Vacuum Oil Company, 171 La. 707, 132 So. 117; Roy v. Mutual Rice Company of Louisiana, Inc., 177 La. 883, 149 So. 508.' After thorough consideration we are firmly of the opinion that the injury suffered by plaintiff is so slight in ......
-
Fontenot v. Great Am. Indem. Co.
...it. See Succession of Douglass, 225 La. 65, 72 So.2d 262; Gregory v. Hardwick, 218 La. 346, 49 So.2d 423, and Roy v. Mutual Rice Company of Louisiana, 177 La. 883, 149 So. 508. In passing upon the exception of no cause of action filed in this court we shall consider the entire record and pa......