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BIRDIE WINTERS v. AMERICAN RADIATOR COMPANY and Another

Minnesota Supreme Court1915-02-26No. Nos. 19,050—(244)
128 Minn. 508

Summary

Holding. The transfer company was an independent contractor, not a servant of the radiator company, and the radiator company is therefore not liable under respondeat superior for the driver's negligent delivery. The order dismissing the radiator company is affirmed.

Birdie Winters was injured after falling over radiators that had been left on a sidewalk. She sued the radiator company and another defendant, seeking damages for her injuries. The radiator company was dismissed from the case at the close of testimony, and Winters appealed the denial of her motion for a new trial.

The radiator company had contracted with a transfer and storage company to deliver the radiators to a construction site. The transfer company independently managed its routes and deliveries for efficiency and was paid a flat rate per hundred weight. The delivery driver negligently left the radiators on the sidewalk, where Winters fell over them. The central legal question was whether the transfer company should be considered a servant of the radiator company, making the radiator company liable for the driver's negligence, or whether it was an independent contractor whose negligence would not bind the radiator company.

The court held that the transfer company was an independent contractor. The radiator company exercised no control over how the transfer company performed its work and merely specified when and where delivery should occur. This arrangement was consistent with established precedent involving third-party carriers and delivery services. Therefore, the radiator company was not liable for the negligent placement of the radiators.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether a delivery contractor is a servant or independent contractor of the party engaging it
  • Applicability of respondeat superior doctrine when a third party negligently performs contracted delivery services
  • Degree of control necessary to establish employer liability for a contractor's negligence

Procedural posture

The radiator company was dismissed at the close of testimony, and the plaintiff appealed from the denial of her motion for a new trial.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Dibell, C.

The plaintiff fell over some radiators left on the sidewalk space .and was injured. This action .was brought against the defendant American Eadiator Co. and another, for damages sustained through ¿such fall. The ease was dismissed as to the radiator company at the close of the testimony. The plaintiff appeals from the order •denying her motion for a new trial.

The American Eadiator Co. sold these radiators to one Stone, who as contractor was constructing a residence. It employed the Cavanaugh Transfer & Storage Co. to make delivery. The method ■of their doing business was this: When the radiator company wished material delivered by the transfer company it telephoned it, giving the place of delivery. The transfer company routed its deliveries so as to make an economical transfer; that is, it made out .a number of deliveries which a particular wagon on a particular day could economically make and such wagon made the deliveries. The wagon took the radiators about nine o’clock in the morning. It made a number of other deliveries coming within its route — in all ■something like eight or nine. About half past eight in the evening it reached the premises at which the radiators were to be delivered. This was the last delivery but one for the day. The driver left the radiators on the sidewalk space in front of the lot adjoining the resi•dence being constructed. In doing this he was negligent.

The question is whether the transfer company, in making the ■delivery, was a servant of the defendant for whose acts it is liable under the doctrine of respondeat superior, or an independent contractor for whose acts it is not liable. The defendant exercised no •control over the transfer company in the doing of the work. It paid it an agreed compensation per hundred weight. It used this company and other companies. The transfer company exercised an independent calling. The arrangement between the radiator company and the transfer company was a common one. We are unable to hold that the doctrine of respondeat superior applies. The case is quite unlike Waters v. Pioneer Fuel Co. 52 Minn. 474, 55 N. W. 52, 38 Am. St. 564, where the teamster was hired with his team and was in ■ control of the defendant and under its special direction. The transfer company was an independent contractor and the case comes fairly within the following cases so holding: Riedel v. Moran, Fitzsimons Co. 103 Mich. 262, 61 N. W. 509 (plaintiff, a pedestrian, struck by barrel rolled out of defendant’s warehouse on sidewalk by employee of cartage company under contract with defendant to do its carting); Foster v. Wadsworth-Howland Co. 168 Ill. 514, 48 N. E. 163 (death of child on street caused by negligence of driver of teaming company delivering for the defendant at an agreed sum per week); Moore v. Stainton, 80 App. Div. 295, 80 N. Y. Supp. 244, affirmed in 177 N. Y. 581, 69 N. E. 1127 (plaintiff injured while standing on street by being struck by a truck engaged in delivering merchandise of defendant) ; Burns v. Michigan Paint Co. 152 Mich. 613, 116 N. W. 182, 16 L.R.A.(N.S.) 816 (plaintiff, a pedestrian, injured by express wagon of a licensed expressman delivering merchandise for defendant) ; DeForrest v. Wright, 2 Mich. 368 (plaintiff, a pedestrian, injured by negligence of licensed drayman in unloading merchandise on sidewalk, he being employed by defendants to haul merchandise from warehouse and deliver to their store); Chicago Hydraulic Press Brick Co. v. Campbell, 116 Ill. App. 323 (injury through negligence of driver of teaming company hauling for defendant company which directed when to haul and where to make delivery) ; Wood v. Cobb, 13 Allen, 58 (plaintiff struck and injured by wagon of one who had contracted to do all the delivering for the defendant) ; Fink v. Missouri Furnace Co. 82 Mo. 276, 52 Am. Rep. 376 (child killed by negligence of one who dug and hauled sand from defendant’s land to its furnace at a specified compensation per load); Catlin v. T. B. Peddie & Co. 46 App. Div. 596, 62 N. Y. Supp. 76 (plaintiff injured by negligence of employee of truck-man engaged in making a delivery for defendant).

Order affirmed.