Weeks v. Scharer

Citations

• 111 F. 330
• 49 C.C.A. 372
• 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 4384

Syllabus

<p>1. Injury to Employe—Negligence of Master—Competence of Servants.</p> <p>It is the positive duty of the master, which he may not delegate so as to relieve himself from a failure to discharge it, to use reasonable care to place fit and competent persons in charge of his work.</p> <p>2. Same—Negligence of Fellow Servants.</p> <p>One who enters the employment of another thereby assumes the risk of the negligence of his fellow servants in the performance of all acts which they do while they are not discharging a positive duty of the master.1</p> <p>3. Same—Who Are Fellow Servants.</p> <p>All who enter the employment of a common master to accomplish a common undertaking are prima facie fellow servants, although their grades of service are different, and some direct and supervise the men subject to their command and their work, while others perform the labor. The subordinates assume the risk of the negligence of their superiors in their work of supervision to the same extent as that of those who work by their sides.1 2 ,</p> <p>4 Same—Risk of Incompetence of Fellows Known to Them.</p> <p>It is the duty of a servant to report to his master, or to those whom the master empowers to hire and discharge his workmen, the dangerous incompetence of his fellows known to him, and notice of such incompetence and a failure to report it entails upon him an assumption of its risk.</p> <p>5. Same—Incompetence of Servant—Notice to Shift Boss No Notice to Master.</p> <p>A shift boss in charge of a gang of men, whose duty it is to direct the men when, where, and how to work, to supervise them and their labor, and to see that they properly perform it, but who has no authority to hire or to discharge employes, is a fellow servant of the men in nis shift, the risk of whose negligence they assume, and notice to him of the incompetence of a fellow servant is not notice thereof to the master.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>