Opinion ID: 1103678
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Affirmative Charge for Cosby.

Text: Appellant Cosby asserts that the court erred in refusing his requested, affirmative charge with hypothesis. Cosby's argument is that a verdict against him must rest on proof that Smedley, the crane operator, was acting within the line and scope of his employment as a servant of Cosby at the time of Smith's injury; that the evidence completely fails to show that Smedley was so acting; and, therefore, Cosby was entitled to his requested charge and its refusal was error. Cosby insists that Smedley was not Cosby's servant at the time of the injury but had become and was the servant of the contractor, Mitchell & Nall, Inc. An employee may be in the general service of another, and, nevertheless, with respect to particular work, may be transferred, with his own consent or acquiescence, to the service of a third person, so that the employee becomes the servant of such third person with all the legal consequences of the new relation. Whether one who is usually the servant of one master has become specially and temporarily the servant of another is ordinarily a question of fact. If, under the circumstances only one inference can be properly drawn, the court will determine the issue, but if reasonable men may fairly come to different conclusions respecting the inference to be drawn from the facts, the case will be one for the jury. United States Steel Corp. v. Mathews, 261 Ala. 120, 73 So.2d 239. In the Mathews case, citation of authority and the rules to guide determination of the issue are set out. The result will be determined by answer to the questions: Whose work was the servant doing and under whose control was he doing it? It is the reserved right of control rather than its actual exercise that furnishes the true test of relationship. He is master who has the supreme choice, control, and direction of the servant and whose will the servant represents in the ultimate result and in all its details. There must be careful distinguishing between authoritative direction and control, and mere suggestion as to details or the necessary cooperation where the work furnished is part of a large undertaking. The fact that the borrower gives information and directions to the servant as to details of work or the manner of doing it does not make this general servant of the employer the servant of such other person. Where the evidence does not clearly establish who the employer is, consideration must be given to the character of the service to be rendered, the duration of employment, and the one who is paying the employee. United States Steel Corp. v. Mathews, supra. It seems axiomatic that all competent, relevant, legal evidence tending to prove or disprove the issue should be considered and that each case must be determined on its own facts. Much of the language of the preceding paragraph is found in The Standard Oil Company v. Anderson, 212 U.S. 215, 29 S. Ct. 252, 53 L.Ed. 480, a much cited, leading case, where pertinent principles are considered at length. In that case the court considered the question whether a servant of defendant had become the servant of a contractor who had undertaken to load a ship for the defendant. To accomplish the work, an employee of defendant operated a winch of the defendant. Negligent operation of the winch caused plaintiff's injury. The court held that the winchman remained the servant of defendant. The many cases cited by able counsel have been carefully considered. Discussion of each case would be of little value. The question here presented, simply put, is does the evidence support any reasonable inference that the crane operator was the servant of Cosby, or provide a scintilla of evidence to support such inference? The general rule of the loaned servant doctrine is certain and easy; the difficulty arises in applying the facts of a given case to the rule. Pearson v. Arlington Dock Company, 111 Wash. 14, 189 P. 559. Annotation on liability for acts of operator furnished with leased machine is found in 17 A.L.R.2d 1388. The cases there cited reach varied results. Evidence favorable to plaintiff was presented as follows: Kimbrough testified that he contacted Mr. Cosby and asked Cosby where and how we might get a crane and bucket to pour that roof, and Cosby told Kimbrough that he, Cosby, had a crane and would rent it to pour the roof, that He had a competent crane operator that would come with the crane, who had operated it for a good many years; that Kimbrough did not request any particular operator and had never seen Smedley before; that the conversation with Cosby took place in the schoolyard probably a month or more before the accident; that Kimbrough called Mr. Cowan, an employee of Cosby, one or two days prior to the accident; that Cowan came out on the job and went up on the roof with Kimbrough who pointed out to Cowan what we had to do there to get the concrete poured. Carmichael, manager of Cosby's sand and gravel business, and also interested in Cosby-Carmichael Transit Mix Company, testified that Cosby was supplying sand and gravel, and the Mix Company was supplying concrete, to the contractor; that Cosby leased cranes periodically, he, Carmichael, supposed several times a year; that Smedley was their regular crane operator; that Smedley is the only person authorized to operate that crane on the Mitchell & Nall job; that Smedley is the operator that goes with the crane; that on this same job he had rented a bulldozer to Mitchell & Nall, and the bulldozer was leased with an operator; that operation of the crane requires a man with skill and a specialty; that the crane cost between twenty and twenty-five thousand dollars; that crane and operator were rented for $100.00 per day; that the total charge to the contractor for crane and operator was $460.00, being four days' rent, $40.00 for moving crane and $20.00 for moving bucket and extension. Kimbrough further testified that he had never operated a crane, and did not have knowledge as to how to operate a crane; that Kimbrough told Smith to work out signals with Smedley and Smedley said he would instruct Mr. Smith how to give those signals, what signals to give for a certain movement of the bucket and so forth; that no one told Smedley where to place his crane and placing the crane after he started to work on the building was left entirely up to Smedley. Smedley was paid by Cosby. Mitchell & Nall, Inc. paid Smedley nothing. Cosby carried Smedley on his records as an employee for tax purposes at the time of injury. Smedley had been Cosby's employee since 1951, and was still Cosby's employee at the time of trial. Cosby provided the gas and maintained the crane when it was leased. It was Smedley's job to maintain the crane and keep it up. A man not skilled in operating a crane could not with safety and good sense operate one. Smedley did nothing on that job other than operate the crane hauling concrete to the roof, which was what Cosby had told Smedley he would be doing. It is, of course, clear and as we understand it, undisputed that Cosby was the general master of Smedley. The only question is does the evidence justify a finding that Cosby had not lost the right to control Smedley in operating the crane on the job. We are of opinion that the evidence justifies an inference that Cosby had a reserved right of control over Smedley at the time of the injury. This, we think, is a case where the question of who was master was a question of fact and that reasonable men might fairly come to different conclusions respecting the inference to be drawn from the evidence. Jeffrey Mfg. Co. v. Hannah, 268 Ala. 262, 105 So.2d 672. Consequently, the issue was properly submitted to the jury and Cosby's affirmative charge was correctly refused.