Houston & Great Northern Railroad v. Miller

Citations

• 51 Tex. 270

Syllabus

<p>1. Liability of master for damages to employe.—The master is not liable for injuries sustained by his servant through the negligence of a fellow-servant.</p> <p>2. Contracts by minor.—The contract of a minor, made without the consent of his parent, for employment in a legitimate business, by means of which necessaries conic! be obtained, is not void.-</p> <p>3. Minority op employe.—We do not believe that, upon sound principles of public policy or authority, the mere fact that an employs is under the age of twenty-one years should shield him from the usual responsibility incident to an honest employment voluntarily’ assumed by himself. This rule should not be enforced against a child of tender years.</p> <p>4. Same.—A minor aged nineteen years could not recover of a railroad company’ for damages sustained in its employ and occasioned by the negligence of an employ’d of the railroad.</p> <p>5. Damages.—The father had obtained judgment for injuries sustained by his minor son; in a suit by the son for damages: Held, That the jury should have been instructed not to include in their computation the time for which the father had recovered, in finding damages for his lessened capacity to make a living.</p> <p>G. STegligenoe.—In the absence of law declaring an act to be negligence, it is a fact to be found by the jury. It was error to instruct the jury as to an act, that it is negligence.</p>