{ "id": 8618545, "name": "WILLIS ROBERTSON v. VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY et al.", "name_abbreviation": "Robertson v. Virginia Electric & Power Co.", "decision_date": "1933-03-15", "docket_number": "", "first_page": "359", "last_page": "361", "citations": [ { "type": "official", "cite": "204 N.C. 359" } ], "court": { "name_abbreviation": "N.C.", "id": 9292, "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina" }, "jurisdiction": { "id": 5, "name_long": "North Carolina", "name": "N.C." }, "cites_to": [ { "cite": "143 N. C., 176", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8656571 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/143/0176-01" ] }, { "cite": "71 S. E., 322", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "155 N. C., 287", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8652281 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/155/0287-01" ] }, { "cite": "72 S. E., 1059", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "157 N. C., 416", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8658060 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/157/0416-01" ] }, { "cite": "73 S. E., 137", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "157 N. C., 443", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8658217 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/157/0443-01" ] }, { "cite": "173 N. C., 33", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 11268715 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/173/0033-01" ] }, { "cite": "122 U. S., 597", "category": "reporters:federal", "reporter": "U.S.", "case_ids": [ 3521889 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/us/122/0597-01" ] }, { "cite": "121 Mass., 501", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Mass.", "case_ids": [ 742461 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/mass/121/0501-01" ] }, { "cite": "172 S. W., 359", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.W.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "263 Mo., 142", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Mo.", "case_ids": [ 1778062 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/mo/263/0142-01" ] }, { "cite": "47 L. R. A. (N. S.), 1116", "category": "reporters:federal", "reporter": "L.R.A.N.S.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "69 S. E., 754", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "154 N. C., 140", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8651909 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/154/0140-01" ] }, { "cite": "49 L. R. A. (N. S.), 544", "category": "reporters:federal", "reporter": "L.R.A.N.S.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "138 N. W., 434", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "N.W.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "119 Minn., 454", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Minn.", "case_ids": [ 210090 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/minn/119/0454-01" ] }, { "cite": "51 S. E., 1015", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "139 N. C., 347", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8652575 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/139/0347-01" ] }, { "cite": "135 S. E., 852", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "192 N. C., 760", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8626766 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/192/0760-01" ] }, { "cite": "150 S. E., 501", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "197 N. C., 720", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8631353 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/197/0720-01" ] }, { "cite": "159 S. E., 446", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "201 N. C., 90", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8622747 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/201/0090-01" ] }, { "cite": "54 S. E., 793", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "142 N. C., 1", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8651463 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/142/0001-01" ] } ], "analysis": { "cardinality": 516, "char_count": 7686, "ocr_confidence": 0.486, "pagerank": { "raw": 2.5389630209167464e-07, "percentile": 0.813243358975755 }, "sha256": "af310619bf0f337832ef17e422e6a1b1ab93a57f936f34d87d74d328f977b5fd", "simhash": "1:82403bb5a8ea8ea3", "word_count": 1393 }, "last_updated": "2023-07-14T22:38:28.108315+00:00", "provenance": { "date_added": "2019-08-29", "source": "Harvard", "batch": "2018" }, "casebody": { "judges": [ "Adams and Bkogden, J.J., dissent." ], "parties": [ "WILLIS ROBERTSON v. VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY et al." ], "opinions": [ { "text": "Stacy, C. J.\nWas the servant about the master\u2019s business and acting in the course of his employment when he set fire to the yellow jackets\u2019 nest in order to prosecute the work he was engaged to do? Sawyer v. R. R., 142 N. C., 1, 54 S. E., 793.\n\u201cA servant is acting in the course of his employment, when he is engaged in that which he was employed to do, and is at the time about his master\u2019s business. He is not acting in the course of his employment, if he is engaged in some pursuit of his own. Not every deviation from the strict execution of his duty is such an interruption of the course of employment as to suspend the master\u2019s responsibility; but, if there is a total departure from the course of the master\u2019s business, the master is no longer answerable for the servant\u2019s conduct.\u201d Tiffany on Agency, p. 270.\nWhile the formal statement of the rule is simple enough, its application under a variety of conditions is not always so easy. No hard and fast definition of the expression \u201ccourse of employment,\u201d or \u201cscope of authority,\u201d readily applicable to all cases, can be given, for rigidity of statement is opposed to liberality of application; and, if the right is to prevail in all cases, the former must bend to the latter. Otherwise substance would yield to form.\nThe modern tendency is to give the rule a liberal and practicable application, especially where the business of the master, entrusted to his servants, involves a duty owed by him to the public or to third persons. Dickerson v. Refining Co., 201 N. C., 90, 159 S. E., 446; Martin v. Bus Co., 197 N. C., 720, 150 S. E., 501; Grier v. Grier, 192 N. C., 760, 135 S. E., 852; Jackson v. Tel. Co., 139 N. C., 347, 51 S. E., 1015.\nIn McLaughlin v. Cloquel Tie & P. Co., 119 Minn., 454, 138 N. W., 434, 49 L. R. A. (N. S.), 544, the defendant entrusted to its employees the work of rafting lumber products down a stream and through the lands of the plaintiff. The work during its progress was interfered with by a stump in the stream at a point near the plaintiff\u2019s house. The foreman and a driver, another employee, waded into the stream and sawed out the obstruction, and in doing so, both got wet. The driver, upon reaching the shore, built a fire near the bank of the stream on plaintiff\u2019s land for the purpose of drying his clothes. He negligently failed to put out the fire, whereby the plaintiff sustained damages. The Court held that \u201cthe execution of the work entrusted by the defendant to its employees required them to pass over the plaintiff\u2019s land along the banks of the stream, and the defendant owed to the plaintiff the duty of exercising due care to prevent injury to the plaintiff\u2019s land in the course of the work assigned to its employees. The building of the fire by the driver to dry his clothes was not, as a matter of law, a departure from the course of his employment; for it was incidentally connected therewith, and was made necessary by his going into the stream to remove the obstruction, which was a part of the work assigned to him.\u201d\n\u00a5e perceive no difference in principle between the case at bar and the McLaughlin case. See, also, Baxter v. Great Northern R. Co., 75 N. W. (Minn.), 1114; Note, Ann. Cas., 1914A, 1102; 11 R. C. L., 942.\nThe case of Marlowe v. Bland, 154 N. C., 140, 69 S. E., 754, 47 L. R. A. (N. S.), 1116, strongly urged by the defendants in favor of their position, is distinguishable in that the fire there set out, to clear the land of corn stalks, was started by the employee after his assigned task of cutting and piling the corn stalks had been completed, while here the work was going on and the fire was started for the purpose of enabling the defendants\u2019 servants to do the work assigned to them. The case of Excelsior Products Mfg. Co. v. Kansas City So. R. Co., 263 Mo., 142, 172 S. W., 359, Ann. Cas., 1917B, 1047, is likewise distinguishable.\nThe result of the modern cases is, that a corporation is liable civiliter for torts committed by its servants or agents precisely as a natural person. Though it may have no mind with which to plot a wrong or hands capable of doing an injury, yet it may employ the minds and hands of others. If the tort of the servant is committed in the course of doing the master\u2019s work, and for the purpose of accomplishing it, it is the act of the master, and he is responsible \u201cwhether the wrong done be occasioned by negligence, or by a wanton and reckless purpose to accomplish the master\u2019s business in an unlawful manner.\u201d Levi v. Brooks, 121 Mass., 501; Denver, etc. Ry. v. Harris, 122 U. S., 597.\nWhen the servant is engaged in the work of the master, doing that which he is employed or directed to do, and an actionable wrong is done to another, either negligently or maliciously, the master is liable, not only for what the servant does, but also for the ways and means employed by him in performing the act in question. Ange v. Woodmen, 173 N. C., 33; Reinhard on Agency, sec. 335; Bucken v. R. R., 157 N. C., 443, 73 S. E., 137; May v. Tel. Co., 157 N. C., 416, 72 S. E., 1059; Berry v. R. R., 155 N. C., 287, 71 S. E., 322; Roberts v. R. R., 143 N. C., 176.\nThe motion for judgment as in case of nonsuit was properly overruled ; and the prayer for a directed verdict was correctly denied. These are the only questions presented by the record.\nNo error.\nAdams and Bkogden, J.J., dissent.", "type": "majority", "author": "Stacy, C. J." } ], "attorneys": [ "E. L. Owens and Ward & Grimes for plaintiff.", "T. Justin Moore, Zeb Vance Norman and Spruill & Spruill for defendants." ], "corrections": "", "head_matter": "WILLIS ROBERTSON v. VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY et al.\n(Filed 15 March, 1933.)\n1. Master and Servant D h\u2014\nThe modern tendency is to give the rule defining \u201ccourse of employment\u201d a liberal and practical application, especially where the business of the master involves a duty to the public or to third persons.\n2. Corporations G i\u2014\nA corporation is civilly liable for torts committed by its servants or agents within the course of their employment precisely as a natural person.\n3. Master and Servant D b \u2014 Evidence that defendant\u2019s employees were\nacting within scope of employment in setting out fire held sufficient.\nThe evidence tended to show-that defendant\u2019s employees were digging holes for telephone poles along defendant\u2019s right of way, that they were molested by yellow jackets, and in order to get rid of them, set fire to a tree above their nest, that the fire was allowed to burn and spread until a large part of plaintiff\u2019s woods were destroyed: Held, the evidence was sufficient to be submitted to the jury on the issue of whether the damage was caused by defendant\u2019s employees while acting within the scope of their employment.\nBrogden and Adams, XT., dissent.\nAppeal by defendants from Cowper, Special Judge, at June Special Term, 1932, of WASHINGTON.\nCivil action to recover damages for an alleged negligent burning of plaintiff\u2019s timber lands.\nThere is evidence tending to show that on 2 September, 1930, about 1:30 or 2:00 p.m., while servants of the defendants were engaged in digging holes for telephone poles along a right of way near Plymouth, N. C., they were molested by yellow jackets from a nest under an old pine, a small one, and in an effort to get rid of the yellow jackets and their stings, the tree was set on fire by one of the servants, and allowed to burn until the fire spread from the right of way to plaintiff\u2019s woods, causing considerable damage. The defendants\u2019 evidence is strongly and directly opposite.\nYerdict for the plaintiff on the issues of ownership and negligence, and damages assessed at $1,000. From judgment thereon, the defendants appeal, assigning as error the insufficiency of the evidence to carry the ease to the jury or to support the verdict.\nE. L. Owens and Ward & Grimes for plaintiff.\nT. Justin Moore, Zeb Vance Norman and Spruill & Spruill for defendants." }, "file_name": "0359-01", "first_page_order": 425, "last_page_order": 427 }