Mumby, Stockton & Knight v. Bowden & Rosenthal

Citations

• 25 Fla. 454

Syllabus

<p>1. Where a contractor is employed to do a job of work and the work is done by him, bis servants or laborers, in such negligent manner as to cause injury or damage to a third person, he, and not his employer, is responsible to the party injured or damaged ; but this rule does not apply where the employer has control and direction of the work. In that case he is liable.</p> <p>•2. M., S. & K., landlords of B. & R., undertook to repair a gutter over the partition wall between their adjoining- stores, and there was such negligence in the work as to cause damage to the goods of the tenants, B... & R., who sued the landlords to recover for the damage. The defence of M., .8. & K., that they employed a contracting company, through its foreman, to do the job, and the workmen 'who did it were the servants of the company : Held, Not to be sustained, because from the facts it appears that the . control of the work was not in the company, but.in M., S. & K.</p>