Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia (Volume 34)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ...stone or stones that fell at the time of the killing of plaintiff's intestate, there shall be no right of recovery under the third count of the declaration, and the verdict, under that count, should be for the defendant. The jury are instructed that the witness Dotts and the plaintiff's intestate were fellow servants, and that the negligent act of one which might have resulted in injury to the other would not afford the latter a cause of action against the defendant. The court refused to charge the jury, at the request of the defendant, that no recovery could be had if they should find that the stone would not have fallen but for the negligent act of Dotts. To this ruling an exception was duly noted. Thereupon Statement of the Case. 34 App. the court, without objection or exception on the part of the defendant, charged the jury in part as follows: So far as appears from the evidence in the case James Steven, the defendant, was represented in this work by James Steven, Jr., his son, who has testified here as a witness; but his relation to the work and to the defendant in the case was such that it has been treated all the way through as if it were James Steven, Sr., who was there. That is James Steven, Jr., was the superintendent, and stood in the place of his father in all that was done. So there is no embarrassment on that score. The declaration as it comes to you consists of one count only, namely, the third count; and that count charges that the negligence consisted in this, --that improper directions were given by James Steven to the mason who was constructing the balustrade, as to how it should be constructed, and that these improper directions resulted in making an unsafe place for the decedent, Saunders, ...