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FOURTH DEPARTMENT, JANUARY TERM, 1903.

[Vol. 79. "The duty, therefore, was upon the master to fit or prepare the car for the use to which it was consigned, and no encouragement should be given to an omission to perform that duty, or to negligence or failure in any degree in respect to it. On the contrary, a just public policy as well as that of the statute, requires a court to hold a railroad company to a strict observance of its obligation."

The rule that where an employee is injured through the fault of a fellow-workman, the common employer is not liable to respond in damages, is, therefore, for the benefit of the latter, and depends upon the performance of the full measure of duty by such employer. If the negligence consist in doing or failing to do some duty with which the master is chargeable, and has intrusted to the employee, the rule adverted to does not exist, for the servant is in the stead of the master. This case illustrates these familiar principles. The omission to supply the proper headlight at Rochester was imputable to the defendant. Its obligation to Sutter was not met until the defect was repaired. Consequently the failure of Burns to procure the chimney at Batavia was still the failure of the defendant, for the engineer with reference to that appliance was the representative of the defendant, not its servant. (Benzing v. Steinway & Sons, 101 N. Y. 547; Eastland v. Clarke, 165 id. 420, 428; Knisley v. Pratt, 148 id. 372, 378.)

In the Benzing case, in discussing this proposition, the court say (at p. 552): "The master is chargeable ordinarily with knowledge of the means necessary to be employed in performing his work, and when their procurement and selection is* delegated to a servant he stands in the place of the master in discharging those duties; and the servant's neglect in that office is chargeable to the employer as an omission of duty enjoined upon him. *

* *

"Ignorance by the master of defects in the instrumentalities used by his servants, in performing his work, is no defense to an action by the employe who has been injured by them, when by the exercise of proper care and inspection the master could have discovered and remedied the defects, or avoided the danger incident therefrom."

We reach the conclusion, therefore, that the absence of the chimney and the consequent absence of the headlight were the fault of the defendant, and the jury may possibly find that the absence of

* Sic.

App. Div.]

FOURTH DEPARTMENT, JANUARY TERM, 1903.

the headlight was a co-operating and influential cause of the collision, without which it would not have occurred, and the defendant would then be liable notwithstanding the negligence of Burns and his crew in the management of the train at the crossing. (Stringham v. Stewart, 100 N. Y. 516; Wood v. N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. Co., 32 App. Div. 606; Crispin v. Babbitt, 81 N. Y. 516; Eaton v. N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. Co., 163 id. 391.)

The learned counsel for the appellant cites McDonald v. N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. Co. (63 Hun, 587). That case is not pertinent because there when the engine left the yards of the defendant it had been duly inspected and the defect occurred en route, and therein lies the distinction. Had the engine been properly equipped with the chimney at Rochester and that appliance broken between that place and Batavia or Depew, the rule contended for by the defendant would be applicable.

Without entering into a discussion of the subject, we are satisfied that the question of Sutter's management of his train was properly submitted to the jury as one of fact.

The judgment and order should be reversed and a new trial granted, with costs to the appellant to abide the event.

ADAMS, P. J., and MCLENNAN, J., concurred; WILLIAMS and HISCOCK, JJ., concurred in result.

Judgment and order reversed and a new trial ordered, with costs to the appellant to abide the event, upon questions of law only, the facts having been examined and no error found therein.

GEORGE L. CLIFT, as Executor, etc., of MARY MERCER, Deceased, Respondent, v. JOAH W. MERCER, Appellant.

Res adjudicata -judgment for the plaintiff in an action to recover the value of a team purchased by the defendant as the plaintiff's agent—it is not a bar to an action by such agent to recover money advanced towards the purchase.

Where an executor commences an action against the son of his decedent to recover the value of a team which the defendant had in his possession, and which the executor claimed that the defendant had purchased as agent for the decedent, a judgment in favor of the plaintiff is not res adjudicata against the APP. DIV.-VOL. LXXIX.

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FOURTH DEPARTMENT, JANUARY TERM, 1903.

[Vol. 79. defendant's right to recover from the decedent's estate, in a subsequent action, moneys belonging to him individually which he expended in the purchase of the team, as the judgment in the conversion action simply established that in purchasing the team the defendant was acting as agent for the decedent, and did not determine whether he had used any portion of his individual funds in such purchase.

APPEAL by the defendant, Joah W. Mercer, from a judgment of the Supreme Court in favor of the plaintiff, entered in the office of the clerk of the county of Onondaga on the 12th day of September, 1901, upon the report of a referee.

Edwin P. Lyman, for the appellant.

Ray B. Smith, for the respondent. SPRING, J.:

Mary Mercer was the mother of the defendant. In 1896 she was an old lady nearly eighty years of age, a widow, residing in Onondaga Valley in the county of Onondaga. She owned a mill in this valley which was out of repair. Her son, the defendant, who for many years had resided in the west, came on a visit to her and induced her to furnish the money to enable him to repair the mill and leased it from her at a stipulated monthly rental. She placed a mortgage upon the property for the sum of $3,500 and turned the avails over to the defendant upon the agreement that he was to expend whatever was necessary of the same to repair the mill suitably, and the residue, if any, was to be returned to the mortgagee and applied in reduction of the mortgage indebtedness. This action is commenced by the executor of Mary Mercer, who died in 1899, mainly to recover what is alleged to be the unexpended balance which it is claimed the defendant failed to pay either to the testatrix or to the mortgagee. Counterclaims are alleged and proof was offered on behalf of the defendant to sustain the same. We think the judgment must be reversed for errors committed by the referee.

1. The referee finds that there was due the defendant from the plaintiff for money expended by him in improving said mill property, under a written agreement with the testatrix, the sum of $703.25; he also finds another item in favor of the defendant of $60, for money which he paid for commissions and abstract of title

App. Div.]

FOURTH DEPARTMENT, JANUARY TERM, 1903.

and other expenses incurred in procuring the loan of $3,500. The referee computes and finds the amount of interest on these two claims, but does not allow such interest to the defendant. Interest is allowed on the items accruing to the plaintiff and also on other sums due to the defendant, and we can see no reason why the rule adopted by the referee is not applicable to these two items. They were sums paid out for the testatrix, and at her request, and the larger one in accordance with the written agreement, and clearly the defendant is entitled to interest upon the same.

2. The executor of Mrs. Mercer commenced an action of conversion in the Municipal Court of the city of Syracuse against the defendant to recover the value of a team which it was alleged the defendant had in his possession, but which belonged to Mrs. Mercer. The answer was a general denial. The case was taken to the County Court and resulted in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $262.50, which established that the team belonged to Mrs. Mercer. The contention of the plaintiff was that the defendant purchased this team as the agent of his mother. The defendant on the other hand contended that he purchased it on his own account. The evidence in that case showed that one Mr. Husted, who had been a tenant of Mrs. Mercer, owed her about $90 for rent, and the team was purchased of him primarily for the purpose of getting this rent paid. The defendant testified that he paid of his own money about $175 to apply on the purchase price of this team. The referee held that the judgment in that action was a bar to the recovery of the $175 by the defendant in this action. In this we think he was in error. As already said, the question litigated upon that trial was whether the defendant purchased the team for his mother or on his own account, and the judgment established that he was acting for his mother. This question did not depend upon whether he paid for this team or not. He might have paid the entire purchase price out of his own funds and still the plaintiff might have recovered. There was a bill of sale from Husted to Mrs. Mercer, and that of itself may have established her title. The county judge at the Trial Term evidently took this view of the situation, for in his charge to the jury he instructed them as follows: "It is not a question of an account between these parties that on a general investigation of the state of their accounts that

FOURTH DEPARTMENT, JANUARY TERM, 1903.

[Vol. 79.

the one that owes the other should relinquish the claim to this property; it isn't that at all; but it is a question of whether in fact Mercer purchased this property and paid the rent to his mother, paid the balance of the money, or made an arrangement with her and took the title to the team himself, or whether instead of that the team was taken by Mrs. Mercer, transferred as appears from the face of these bills of sale, leaving him to adjust his equities in some other manner."

It is urged that it was incumbent upon the defendant to plead his counterclaim in the action in the Municipal Court invoking the rule that in actions in Justice's Court, the procedure in which applies to the Municipal Court of Syracuse, if the defendant neglects to interpose a counterclaim he is precluded from maintaining an action thereon. (Code Civ. Proc. § 2947.) That section, however, is limited specifically to actions "to recover damages upon or for breach of a contract," and has, therefore, no application to an action for conversion. (Davis v. Aikin, 85 Hun, 554.)

It seems clear to us, therefore, that the referee was in error in refusing to pass upon these items of the defendant's counterclaim.

It may be, as contended by the respondent's counsel, that the outcome of this litigation was even more favorable to the defendant than the proofs warranted. Upon that question we do not pass, confining our reversal to the items discussed which involve error, requiring us to grant a new trial.

The judgment should be reversed and a new trial granted, with costs to the appellant to abide the event.

ADAMS, P. J., MCLENNAN, WILLIAMS and HISCOCK, JJ., concurred.

Judgment reversed and a new trial ordered, with costs to appellant to abide the event, upon questions of law only, the facts having been examined and no error found therein.

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