Betcher v. McChesney

Citations

• 255 Pa. 394
• 100 A. 124
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 465

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Joint tort feasors — Suit against master — Prior suit against servant — Res adjudicata — Binding instructions for defendant.</p> <p>1. Joint tort feasorsliip can only be affirmed when the parties charged have a community of interest in the object and purposes of the undertaking and an equal right to direct and govern the movements and conduct of each other in respect thereto. Master and servant cannot be said to be engaged in a common enterprise, for when they so engage they cease to stand in that relation towards each other.</p> <p>2. Since joint tort feasors are in pari delicto, the injured party has a right to maintain his action against each, and although he began his attempt to recover his compensation by suing one, his right to sue each of the others in separate actions can be barred only as meanwhile he has received compensation. Where, however, a person has been injured through the negligence of a servant of another, he may sue either master or servant, the one for actual negligence, the other for imputed negligence, but if he sue the one and obtain judgment, he cannot afterwards sue the other, although he has not realized on the judgment obtained.</p> <p>3. In an action to recover damages for injuries inflicted upon plaintiff through the negligence of defendant’s servant, defendant offered to prove by a court record that plaintiff had recovered judgment against the servant for the same act for which the action was brought. The lower court excluded the evidence and the jury found a verdict for plaintiff. Held, that the evidence was admissible and the judgment was reversed with a venire facias de novo.</p>