Court Opinion

ID: 9637092
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:56:25.126542+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:53.253855
License: Public Domain

BINGHAM, Circuit judge
(concurring).
I agree that the judgment must be vacated, the verdict set aside, and the case remanded for a new trial. I wish to add, however, a word to what has been said. The question whether the relation of employer and employee existed between the owner and the plaintiff’s intestate involved a material question of fact which was not submitted to or passed upon by the jury. If the owner and the master stood to one another as lessor and lessee of the boat, then the master in the management of the boat, the employment of the men, etc., could be found to be the principal or owner pro hae vice, and the relation of employer and employee would not exist between the owner and the men, although it would between the master and the men. The Carrier Dove (C. C. A.) 97 F. 111. But there was evidence that the owner received a one-fifth lay and out of this paid the master 12% per cent. Where the relation of lessor and lessee in fact exists, it certainly is not usual for the lessor to pay the lessee for operating the leased property. The usual thing is for the lessee to pay the lessor rent. It therefore would be open to the jury on-this evidence to find that the owner did not let the boat to the master, but that the 12% per cent, of the owner’s lay was paid to the master, as the owner’s agent, for his services in taking *943charge of the boat, hiring the men, conducting the fishing trip, and dividing the proceeds as agreed.
If the jury should conclude that in doing these things the master acted as the agent of the owner, then they could find that the relation of employer and employee existed between the owner and the men, including the plaintiff's intestate.