Court Opinion

ID: 9562595
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:31:46.749952+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:25.439361
License: Public Domain

Quillian, J.,
dissenting. I dissent from the ruling made in this case by the majority of the court. The evidence introduced disclosed the following facts: Fulton County maintained a rock quarry, which was located one mile from the plaintiff’s home, and from which it obtained crushed stone for its roads. The county authorities decided to blast rock from the quarry, and for that purpose purchased dynamite from the defendant, Du Pont Company. Lee F. Davenport was at the time a general employee of Du Pont, and the county’s chief engineer requested him to advise, instruct, and assist him in determining the amount of dynamite that was to be used and the manner in which it was to be exploded. Davenport complied with this request and rendered to the county the service requested by its engineer. The chief engineer, according to the evidence, remained at all times in full charge and control of the blasting operations. In the explosion a large amount of dynamite was used, considerable concussion resulted from the explosion, and it is fairly inferable from the facts proved that the concussion caused damage, the amount of which was shown by the evidence, to the Flemings’ home.
It is the contention of the plaintiffs that the defendant is liable to them on account of the conduct of its general servant in advising and giving information and assistance to the county engineer in the blasting operations, which they contend resulted in the damage to their home. The plaintiffs contend that Davenport was the defendant’s servant. In the ordinary course of things an employer is liable for the negligence of his servant who acts within the scope of his employment and in the prosecution of his master’s business. While assisting the county’s chief engineer in setting off the explosion which damaged the plaintiff’s property, Davenport was not, on account of the fact that he was a general employee of the defendant, the employee of the defendant in relation to the work he was then doing or in relation *842to the project he had then entered upon. The blasting operation was not within the course of Mr. Davenport’s employment as a servant of the defendant, nor was it in the prosecution of the defendant’s business. lie did not, as to this particular work, occupy the relationship of a servant to the defendant.
It has been well established in this State for nearly three quarters of a century that where, as in this case, one lends his general servant to another, and relinquishes to the borrower the control and regulation of such servant’s conduct, the borrower becomes master of such servant for the time and in relation to the purpose for which he is borrowed. Brown v. Smith & Kelly, 86 Ga. 274 (12 S. E. 411). In Blakely v. United States Fidelity &c. Co., 67 Ga. App. 795, 797 (21 S. E. 2d 339), this court said: “ ‘The fact that an employee is the general servant of one employer does not, as matter of law, prevent him from becoming the particular servant of another, who may become liable for his acts. And it is true as a general proposition that when one person lends his servant to another for a particular employment, the servant, for anything done in that particular employment, must be dealt with as the servant of the man to whom he is lent, although he remains the general servant of the person who lent him.’ 18 R. C. L. 784, § 244; Bibb Mfg. Co. v. Souther, 52 Ga. App. 722, 725 (184 S. E. 421); Travelers Insurance Co. v. Clark, 58 Ga. App. 115, 122 (197 S. E. 650); Henderson v. Nolting First Mortgage Corp., 184 Ga. 724, 740 (193 S. E. 347).”
Postell v. Brunswick & Western R. Co., 112 Ga. 602 (37 S. E. 869), cited by the plaintiff in error, is not in conflict with what is here held. In that case the master did not relinquish control of the servant and retained the right to discharge him. The defendant in the instant case did not have the slightest authority to direct the course of Davenport’s conduct in the work he was doing for the county and the county’s engineer could have dispensed with his services at any stage of the blasting operations. It is not shown by the evidence that the defendant did have any right to withdraw him from the task he was performing for the county.
A case coinciding in factual aspects with the instant one is McLamb v. E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., 79 Fed. 2d 966. In the opinion in that case, which is well considered and written *843with much clarity, it was said: “It is of course true that 'one 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 he becomes the servant of that person, with all the legal consequences of the new relation.’ Standard Oil Company v. Anderson, 212 U. S. 215, 220, 29 S. Ct. 252, 253, 53 L. ed. 480. This is what the plaintiff claims took place in his case. However, this is but one aspect of the situation. The alternatives are presented in the following passage from the same authority, 212 U. S. 215, at page 221, 29 S. Ct. 252, 254, 53 L. ed. 480: 'It sometimes happens that one wishes a certain work to be done for his benefit, and neither has persons in his employ who can do it nor is willing to take such persons into his general service. He may then enter into an agreement with another. If that other furnishes him with men to do the work, and places them under his exclusive control in the performance of it, those men become pro hac vice the servants of him to whom they are furnished. But, on the other hand, one may prefer to enter into an agreement with another that that other, for a consideration, shall himself perform the work through servants of his own selection, retaining the direction and control of them. In the first case, he to whom the workmen are furnished is responsible for their negligence in the conduct of the. work, because the work is his work, and they are, for the time, his workmen. In the second case, he who agrees to furnish the completed work through servants over whom he retains control is responsible for their negligence in the conduct of it, because, though it is done for the ultimate benefit of the other, it is still, in its doing, his own work. To determine whether a given case falls within the one class or the other we must inquire whose is the work being performed—a question which is usually answered by ascertaining who has the power to control and direct the servants in the performance of their work. Here we must carefully distinguish between authoritative direction and control, and mere suggestion as to details or the necessary cooperation, where the work furnished is part of a larger undertaking.’ ”
For the foregoing reasons I do not think the trial court erred *844in granting the nonsuit, and in denying the plaintiff’s motion to reinstate the case, and I think that those rulings and judgments should be affirmed.