Packet Company v. Mccue

Mr. J. P. C. Cottrill, for the plaintiff in error (a brief of Mr. J. W. Cary being filed on the same side): 1. A master is not responsible to those in his employ for injuries resulting from the negligence of a fellow-servant engaged in the same general business; and this is so although the grades of the servants are different, and the person injured is inferior in rank and subject to the directions and general control of him by whose act the injury is caused. Neither is it necessary that the servants–the one that suffers and the one that causes the injury–should be at the time engaged in the same operation or particular work. It is enough that they are in the employment of the same master, engaged in the same common enterprise, both employed to perform duties and services tending to accomplish the same general purposes. This rule, in the full extent in which we state it, is one supported by authorities perfectly known to all. Its application to this case is plain, if the relationship of McCue was not terminated by the act of his receiving his pay at the office on the boat; the captain's office, we suppose.