Court Opinion

ID: 9829614
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 19:28:29.746852+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:03.508033
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing by Appellee.
[4] Counsel for appellee request us to find certain facts, some of which are supported by the evidence, and which are by appellee considered material. In compliance with the request we find: (1) That just before undertaking to lift and load the rail that injured appellee appellant’s foreman dispatched a fifth employs who had been assisting in the work on other business, and, as stated in our original opinion, appellee attempted the work with the remaining four men; (2) that, in addition to telling the employfis to “load the rail, boys; I am in a hurry to put them in the main line,” as stated in our original opinion, the foreman also said, in effect, that after the rail was loaded, “he would not be so particular.” The other requested findings upon examination will be found in our original opinion either in our statement of the case or our statement of the findings of the jury, save the one that “appellee did not understand and appreciate the danger of loading the rails” in the manner directed. Our conclusion in that respect is that appellee did understand and appreciate the danger of loading the rails in the manner directed. Such was also the effect of the finding of the jury when they declared, in answer to a special issue, that appellee knew that four men were insufficient in number to handle the rail in the manner directed.
[5] It is earnestly insisted by able counsel that when appellant’s foreman, in effect, promised to furnish a sufficient number of men with which to do similar work after the rail which injured appellee had been loaded, a new contract was created whereby appellant assumed the risk incident to the immediate engagement, and cites in support of the contention the rule, announced in many cases, that the effect of a promise by the master to repair or restore instrumentalities with which the servant is engaged in the discharge of his duties, when relied upon by the servant, creates another and different contract whereby the master assumes the risk pending repair or restoration. We conclude, however, that the rule stated has no application to the facts in the instant ease. Such conclusion is reached for the reason that the promise was not to relieve the existing condition, but rather a promise not to subject appellee to a like danger in the future if he would take the hazard of the one in which he was then engaged.
We recognize, as urged by appellee, that the evidence supports the finding of the jury that he was seriously injured, and that the verdict, measured by his injuries, is small. At the same time, such facts are without force in view of the rules of law invoked by appellant, and which it is its right to have applied.
Accordingly we conclude that the ease has been correctly disposed of, and the appellee’s motion for rehearing is overruled.