Stenzler v. Standard Gas Light Co.

Headnote

Stenzler v. Standard Gas Light Co. of N. Y. City, 179 App. Div. 774 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment entered November 9, 1917, upon an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, reversing a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict and directing a dismissal of the complaint in an action to recover for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff through the negligence of defendant, as the result of a collision between an automobile truck belonging to defendant and a wagon on which plaintiff was riding. Frank Kelly, a superintendent in the employ of the defendant, testified, without contradiction, that the automobile truck had been loaned on the day of the accident to the “ Gas Companies’ Employees’ Mutual

Aid Society,” an organization composed of employees of the defendant and other gas companies,, and of which he himself was a member, for an excursion .to College Point, L. I. Kelly returned with other members of the party to Fifty-ninth street and the bridge, and told the driver of the truck to go back to the garage on One Hundred and Tenth street and First avenue, after he had taken two other members of the party home. The driver, however, disobeyed these instructions and went to his own home at 407 West One Hundred and Fifty-second street, whence he drove with his two brothers-in-law, his brother and two unidentified strangers back to the garage. It was on this trip that he collided with the wagon in which the plaintiff was riding. The Appellate Division held that, at the time of the accident, the chauffeur was not engaged in the business of the defendant.