Peters v. George’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 federal appellate ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Under the modern rule of the federal courts, the theory of vice principal as determining the liability of a master to a servant for the negligence of another employe has been largely discarded, and the distinction between negligence which is to be imputed to the master and that which is to he considered as merely and solely the negligence of a fellow servant, turns rather on the character of the act than on the relation of the employes to each other. * * * The duty to warn and instruct an employe who is set to perform a dangerous work with which he is unacquainted is a primary and absolute duly of the master to the servant, and lie cannot relieve himself of liability for its nonperformance by delegating or intrusting it to a subordinate or to a fellow servant of such workman. Nothing short of actual notice of the danger to the workman who is to encounter it, with such cautionary explanation as may enable him to avoid it, will satisfy the requirement of the law, and the default of an intermediary, whether he be the highest officer in control or merely a fellow workman of the one exposed to the danger, is the default ol' the master.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Gagnon v. Klauder-Weldon Dyeing Mach. Co.

2. ““Xlie master does not insure the safety of the servant, but he does undertake that the place in which he works, and the appliances with which he works, and the conditions under which he works, shall be reasonably safeguarded. * * * It has never been doubted that a master’s duty to an ig •norant or inexperienced workman, indeed to any workman about to undertake more than ordinarily dangerous work, is to explain, its dangerous character and give adequate caution as to its prosecution. This duty is of the absolute personal character above referred to, and is not discharged by merely intrusting its performance to a properly selected subordinate. Nothing short ■of actual notice of the danger to the workman who is to encounter it, with •such cautionary explanation as may enable him to avoid it, will satisfy the •requirement of the law, and the default of the intermediary, whether he be the highest officer in control, or merely a fellow workman of the one exposed •to the danger, is the default of the master.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Freedom Casket Co. v. McManus

3. ““The duty to warn and instruct an employe who is set to perform a dangerous work with which he is unacquainted is a primary and absolute duty of the master to the servant, and he cannot relieve himself of liability for its nonperformance by delegating or intrusting it to a subordinate or to a fellow servant of such workman. Nothing short of actual notice of the danger to the workman who is to encounter it, with such cautionary explanation as may enable him to avoid it, will satisfy the requirement of the law, and' the default of an intermediary, whether he be the highest officer in control or merely a fellow workman of the one exposed to the danger, is the default of the master.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Moss v. Gulf Compress Co.