Elledge v. Nat'l City & Otay Ry. Co.

Citations

• 100 Cal. 282
• 34 P. 720
• 1893 Cal. LEXIS 785

Syllabus

<p>Master and Servant—Negligence of Railroad Company—Placing Employee in Unsafe Position—Knowledge of Danger.—Where a railroad company, by its roadmaster, engaged a servant to work in loading rock from a cliff in which the company had been excavating by blasting for several days, and the roadmaster, who represented the company for the purpose of performing whatever duty it owed to its employees, knew that the condition of the cliff was dangerous, owing to a seam or crack therein, visible only from the rear of the cliff, hut failed to warn the servant of the danger, which was not visible from the front of the cliff where the servant was employed at his work and was unknown to him, the company is liable in damages for personal injuries received by the servant through the falling of the cliff.</p> <p>Id.—Duties of Employer to Employee.—The duties which an employer owes to his employees are to furnish suitable machinery and appliances by which the service is to be performed, and to keep them in repair and order; to exercise ordinary care in the selection and retention of sufficient and competent servants to properly conduct the business in which the servant is employed, and to make such provision for the safety of the employees as will reasonably protect them against the dangers incident to their employment.</p> <p>Id.—Representation of Employer by Agent—Agent’s Knowledge of Insecurity of Servant.—If an act is one which it is the duty of the employer to perform towards its servants, and one of them negligently performs it to the injury of another servant in the same common employment, the offending servant in the performance of such duty acts as the representative or agent of his employer for which the latter is responsible, and the agent’s knowledge of the insecurity of the servant injured must be imputed to the employer, and cannot he considered as merely the knowledge of a fellow-servant.</p> <p>Id.—Evidence of Agent’s Knowledge—Declarations—Res G-estjs.—In an action