Mullican v. Meridian Light & Ry. Co.

Citations

• 121 Miss. 806
• 83 So. 816

Syllabus

<p>1. Pleading, Declaration to be construed against pleader.</p> <p>A declaration is to be construed most strongly against the pleader, and the character of a contract set out as a part of it cannot be altered by any allegations or conclusions.</p> <p>2. Negligence. Light company held not liable for death of customer’s employee caused by failure of lights.</p> <p>Where a company contracted merely to furnish electrical energy for power to the operator of a linter washing and drying factory, it was not liable for the death of an employee in such factory, who, when the lights went out on account of a failure of power, fell into a vat of boiling chemicals, there being no duty on the power company toward the employee either as the agent of his employer or otherwise.</p> <p>3. Pleading. Plea in bar setting up discharge in bankruptcy and con-concluding to county a joinder of issue if valid at all.</p> <p>In an action for the death of a servant against his employer and a light and power company whose negligence caused the death where defendant employer, set up his discharge in bankruptcy by plea in both concluding to the country, such plea was insufficient in law and form, and could have been stricken out or answered either by demurrer or replication and under the circumstance should have been considered as a joinder of issue, if valid at all for any purpose, and motion for final judgment on it should not have been sustained.</p>