Kennedy v. Chase

Citations

• 119 Cal. 637
• 52 P. 33
• 1898 Cal. LEXIS 688

Syllabus

<p>Negligence—Corresponding Duty—Injury to Plaintiff—Nonliability of Defendants—Nonsuit.—There can be no negligence, without the existence of a corresponding duty upon the part of the persons against whom the negligence is charged; and there can be no liability of defendants for an injury to the plaintiff where, under the circumstances shown, it is clear that defendants were under no legal duty or obligation to protect plaintiff from the injury he received; and, where the evidence for the plaintiff discloses that no such duty existed, the plaintiff is properly nonsuited for want of proof of negligence of the defendants.</p> <p>Id.—Master and Servant—Safe Place for Work—Extent of Duty of Master—Private Excursion of Servant.—The duty of a master to furnish his servant with a reasonably safe place in which to work is limited to the premises where the employee is required to be for the purposes of his employment, and does not extend to his protection while upon private excursions outside of those limits, taken solely upon his own account.</p> <p>Id.—Employment of Servant upon Lighter—Private Excursion to Vessel—Injury in Hatchway—Nonliability of Master.—Where the servant’s place of employment was upon a lighter, from which a vessel was being loaded, and his work consisted m shoveling ballast from the deck of the lighter onto a staging erected outside of the vessel, and the servant made a private excursion upon the deck of the vessel, upon his own account and for his own convenience, to place his coat upon a main hatchway unnecessarily remote from the place of his employment, and, upon resuming his coat after quitting work, fell into a smaller hatchway on the deck which was outside the limits of his employment, and was injured by the fall, the master owed no duty to protect him against such injury, and cannot be held liable therefor.</p> <p>Id.—V oluntaby Entbyupon Vessel out op Scope op Employment—Licensee at Suffebanoe—Nonliability of Ownebs of Vessel.—The plaintiff, i