St. Johns & Halifax Railroad v. Shalley

Citations

• 33 Fla. 397

Syllabus

<p>DAMAGE BY EIRE SET BY RAILROAD EMPLOYES—PRACTICE.</p> <p>1. Where a plea of the general issue is interposed requiring nothing more than a joinder of issue or similiter to make the issue complete, and a full and final trial is had upon the merits of the controversy embraced in the declaration and plea, without any notice being taken of the absence of such similiter, and without any protest or objection to the trial because of its absence, then its absence is not ground for arrest of judgment or for reversal.</p> <p>2. Where an independent contractor is employed to accomplish a certain work, and through his or his servants’ negligent performance of it damage results to a third person, such contractor, and not his employer, is responsible to the injured party, . provided such contractor, in the performance of the work, or in the mode and manner of doing it, is not subject to the direction or control of the employer. But where the employer has the right to direct or control the performance of the work, or the mode and manner of its accomplishment, then he is liable. Whether this general rule is applicable or not to the operations attendant upon the construction of railroads under legislative grants, not decided.</p> <p>'•3. Where common laborers are employed and paid directly by a railroad company for the work of grading its road-bed, such work being taken in sections and paid for by the cubic yard, and such laborers are subject to the direction of the company’s chief engineer, or of its foreman in the mode and manner of doing the work, their pay depending upon the work being done according to directions, and they being subject to discharge when the work is delayed or imperfectly done: Held,. That such laborers are not independent contractors, but are the servants of the railroad company employing them, and that such company is liable for the damage resulting to the property of a third person from fire negligently started by such laborers in the performance of the co