Mercer v. Jackson

Citations

• 54 Ill. 397

Syllabus

<p>1. Respondeat superior—liability for negligence of a contractor. The owner of a building employed a carpenter to do carpenter work and a mason to do mason work thereon, and while one of the men employed by the mason, in the performance of his duties in the line of his employment, was ascending a ladder which had been erected by the carpenter, the ladder gave way by reason of its defective construction, and the man fell to the ground, receiving injuries from which he died: Held, in an action against the owner, by the father of the person injured, to recover damages for his death, alleged to have been occasioned by the negligence of the carpenter in the construction of the ladder, there was no cause of action shown, it not appearing it was the duty of the carpenter, in the course of his employment as such, to build this ladder for the masons to use, or that he was specifically employed by the owner to build it.</p> <p>2. Although the carpenter may have made the ladder “ for the purpose of enabling all the men working on the building to climb up to the different parts thereof,” still, it not appearing it was any part of his employment as a carpenter, to make ladders for any body but himself, the owner could not be held liable for injury resulting to the masons from their defective construction. If the mason chose to employ the carpenter to make ladders for him, or to use those made by the carpenter for the common use of all, he should look to the carpenter for damages from defects, not to the owner of the building.</p> <p>3. Parent and child—master and servant—when the rights md duties of these relations cease. A parent has no right or legal interest in the services of his child after the latter has attained his majority, although the child, after reaching that age, may still live with the parent and give to him the avails of his labor, as a mere voluntary contribution, and there is a reasonable expectation that he will continue to do so.</p> <p>4. So the parent can