Joliet Steel Co. v. Shields

Citations

• 146 Ill. 603

Syllabus

<p>1. Master and servant—liability of master to servant for negligence—presumption. As between master and servant no presumption ■of negligence arises, on the part of the master, from the mere fact that the servant has been injured while in his employ.</p> <p>2. In an action by a servant against his master, to recover for a personal injury received while in the service, it is necessary to aver and prove negligence on the part of the defendant. It is not enough to show an injury from the falling of molds used in a steel converting mill, near the place where the plaintiff was working, but it must appear that the falling of the molds was the result of negligence on the part of the defendant; and the fact that the mold was not laid down, as was usual, but left standing on end near where the plaintiff was required to work, is evidence tending to show negligence.</p> <p>3. Same—fellow-servants—who so considered. Persons may be fellow-servants although not strictly in the same line of employment. One person may be employed to transact one department of business, and another may be employed by the same master to transact a different and distinct branch of business, but if their usual duties bring them into habitual association, so that they may exercise a mutual influence upon each other promotive of proper caution, such persons may be regarded as fellow-servants.</p> <p>4. In an action by a servant against his master, to recover for a personal injury received from the negligence of the defendant’s servants in a converting mill, where ingots of steel were molded, it appeared that the plaintiff was, at the time, foreman of a gang of men whose duty it was to keep in repair the various railroad tracks belonging to the defendant, and that he had nothing to do with the men employed in the converting mill, where steel was made from iron. The duties of the two sets of men never brought them together, and the plaintiff’s injury was the result of negligence of the servants working i