Court Opinion

ID: 9724490
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:58:35.376687+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:01.002111
License: Public Domain

Carter, J.,
dissenting.
In my judgment, the opinion adopted by the court is manifestly wrong in at least two respects.
This is an action for negligence. The negligence is claimed to have arisen because of the failure of two employees of Service Junk Company to properly handle a cutting torch while removing an old, unused sprinkler system from the premises leased from the plaintiffs by Mid-City Motors. The action was brought by the owners of the building against Mid-City Motors and the Service Junk Company. The trial court found that negligence was not proved against the Service Junk Company, and dismissed the action as to it. This court affirms this action of the trial court. The trial court submitted the issue of negligence by Mid-City Motors to the jury, which returned a verdict in the amount of $37,400 against it. This leaves the situation in the anomalous position of holding that the employees performing the work were not negligent as to their employer, Service Junk Company, but negligent as to Mid-City Motors, unless there *107was a separate and different cause of action against Mid-City Motors.
Mid-City Motors was formerly known as Meeks Rent-A-Car Company. I do not question that they were one and the same corporation at all times pertinent to this litigation.
Meeks Rent-A-Car Company entered into an agreement with Service Junk Company whereby the latter agreed to remove the sprinkler system and to pay back to Meeks Rent-A-Car Company the difference between the value of the material removed and the cost of removal. Pursuant-to this agreement, one of the partners of Service Junk Company took two of its employees to the Mid-City Motors building and instructed them on the work to be performed. One of the employees was an expert in the use of a cutting torch and its dangers. It is stated in the majority opinion that: “The testimony is open to a reasonable inference that Mid-City had the right to exercise substantial control over the details of the work.” The majority opinion carries implications in its various parts that a principal and agent, master and servant, and employer and employee relationship existed. I submit that the record will not sustain a finding that any one of such relationships existed.
The only evidence bearing directly on the existing relationship is the evidence of a partner of Service Junk Company. His evidence is: “Q. Did you send or bring anyone else up there to supervise their work? A. No; Mr. Meeks told me that this foreman in there would help them on any situation that they needed; if anything they wanted, to sure go to him, and any kind of help they needed, why, he would give them any kind of help. Q. In other words, Mr. Meeks told you that if the men had any questions, they were to ask his foreman? * * * A. Yes; sir, if they wanted to know any certain thing, they could ask him.” The Mr. Meeks referred to was the president of Meeks Rent-A-Car Company. The business of renting, storing, servicing, and *108repairing motor vehicles was to continue while the sprinkler system was being removed. Mr. Meeks merely assured cooperation by his employees while the employees of Service Junk Company removed the sprinkler system. There is not a scintilla of evidence in this record that Mid-City Motors or its employees had the right to or did direct the manner of using the cutting torch or the details of its use. The reasonable inference referred to in the opinion is an assertion unsupported by the record. Certainly the right of Service Junk Company to control the details of the work was superior to any such right by Meeks Rent-A-Car Company, and Service Junk Company was determined not to be liable.
I submit that Service Junk Company was an independent contractor. The two employees who performed the work were hired, paid, and controlled by the Service Junk Company. There is no evidence of a principal and agent, master and servant, or employer and employee relationship between Mid-City Motors and Service Junk Company or its employees, as the majority opinion infers.
I submit that even if one of these relationships did exist, the evidence of negligence by the two employees of Service Junk Company could be no different against Mid-City Motors than against Service Junk Company. The majority opinion holds that there was other evidence to sustain a judgment against Mid-City Motors which gives rise to the second point to which I dissent.
The evidence shows that Meeks Rent-A-Car Company brought an action against Service Junk Company alleging that the fire was caused by the negligence of the employees of Service Junk Company. On the trial of the instant case the court found in favor of Service Junk Company. It is the contention of plaintiffs that the petition filed in that case was an admission against interest of Meeks Rent-A-Car Company and admissible against Mid-City Motors. I submit that the petition *109so filed was not an admission against interest for the reasons following.
In the petition filed by Meeks Rent-A-Car Company, eight specifications of negligence were alleged against Service Junk Company which it was unable to establish. The petition alleged that the two workmen were at all times acting individually and not as agents, servants, and employees of Meeks Rent-A-Car Company. It is plain, therefore, that Meeks Rent-A-Car Company never admitted any relationship out of which a vicarious liability arose. Nor did it in any way admit fault on its part, or any fact from which liability could arise. The pertinent part of the pleading is: “That at all times material herein the plaintiff Meeks Rent-A-Car Company, a corporation, was in no way in charge of or exercising control or supervision over the actions of the defendant Samuel I. Rothenberg and Jack Levy, co-partnership d/b/a Service Junk Company; that the said defendants were at all times hereinafter mentioned acting individually and not as agents, servants and employees of the plaintiff Meeks Rent-A-Car Company, a corporation.” The petition is not an admission against the interest of Meeks Rent-A-Car Company and is in fact a denial of liability on its part of negligence or any vicarious liability because of the relationship' of the parties. The offer of the pleading was objected to as not containing any admission of any knowledge prior to the fire, and raised the issue of competency, the holding of the majority opinion notwithstanding. The contention of the majority that the objection made was insufficient to raise the question of the admissibility of the petition as an admission against interest is indeed a feeble one. The petition was not admissible as an admission against interest and objection thereto was sufficiently made. The petition was nothing more than an opinion as to liability for negligence on the facts alleged which the court held was not sustained by the evidence.
“To be competent as an admission a statement must *110be one of fact, and a statement which is a mere opinion or conclusion or a conclusion of law is as a rule inadmissible. An admission by a party of his fault or of his adversary’s freedom from fault is generally held admissible.” 31A C. J. S., Evidence, § 272b, p. 700.
“Generally, a statement of a party must concern a material fact in order to be receivable as an admission against interest, and an extrajudicial statement as to declarant’s opinion or conclusion is ordinarily inadmissible, as discussed supra § 272.” 31A C. J. S., Evidence, § 317, p. 806.
“As a general rule, statements or admissions relating to a question of law or constituting conclusions of law or opinions as to what the law is, are not admissbile in evidence, for the reason that a party should not be affected by statements which may be attributed to a misapprehension of his legal right.” 31A C. J. S., Evidence, § 272b, p. 701.
I question the adequacy of the court’s opinion. A judicial opinion should cover four pertinent points: (1) The decision of the trial court, (2) the complaints of the party appealing, (3) a concise but adequate statement of the facts, and (4) the law applicable to the facts. The court’s opinion in the instant case draws inferences and conclusions from facts not stated in the opinion and which I insist are not supported by the record. A litigant who has a judgment against him affirmed for $37,400, or any other amount, is certainly entitled to know the facts upon which it is based. Without an adequate statement of the facts to- which announced rules of law are being applied, the opinion is of little use to the legal profession as a precedent. While I do not in any sense of the word impugn the sincerity and integrity of the majority, it is my view that an adequate statement of the facts shown by the record is essential to the maintenance of a court’s integrity. The drawing of inferences and conclusions from unstated facts leaves the litigants and the bar in complete darkness as to *111the meaning of the opinion. This is particularly true when a minority of the court asserts that the record does not support the inferences and conclusions drawn.
For the reasons herein stated, I cannot agree to the affirmance of the case on the law and facts, nor to the manner of its disposition by the majority opinion.
Brower, J., concurs in this dissent.