Zucker v. Passetti Trucking Co.

KAUFMAN, P. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs in an action for personal injuries sustained in an accident involving a compressor owned by the defendant, Rental Machinery Company, Inc. The trial court found that on March 23, 1957, Charlie Bland, an employee of the defendant, Passetti Trucking Company, Inc., was driving a 1948 Ford dump truck north on Bayshore Highway, and towing a compressor rented from the defendant, Rental Machinery Company, Inc., in a negligent and careless manner, as there was no cotter pin in the hitch connecting the truck and the compressor. The court further found that Rental Machinery had been negligent in renting the compressor with a safety chain which was not safe because of

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the construction of the hook on the end of the chain; and that because of the negligence of both defendants, the compressor became loose and unfastened from the truck, and jackknifed across the highway near the Pulgas Avenue intersection into the automobile traveling in a southerly direction, driven by the plaintiff, Samuel M. Zucker, and occupied by his wife, the plaintiff, Maxine Zucker, and mother-in-law, the plaintiff, Bisa Prank.

On this appeal taken only by Rental Machinery Company, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as appellant), it is argued: (1) The evidence does not support the finding as to the negligence of Rental Machinery Co., Inc.; (2) Rental Machinery, as a matter of law, could not be liable for the negligence of its bailees (Passetti and Bland); and (3) the judgment must be reduced in the amount of $10,000. There is no merit in any of these arguments.

The first argument on appeal is that the evidence does not support the trial court’s finding that the appellant was negligent in renting the compressor to Passetti “with a safety chain which was not safe by reason of the construction of the hook on the end of said chain.”

Appellant’s employee at the time of the accident, one James A. Silva, testified that the safety of hauling the 4,700-pound compressor depended on the chain by which it was attached to the towing vehicle; that the appellant did not buy safety chains with locks, but bought barrels of chains which were then cut to lengths and attached to the compressors and other rental equipment; that it was appellant’s policy to check on the hooking of equipment as it was rented out, because appellant recognized the danger of an improperly hooked compressor coming loose on the highway; that for the same reason, as well as in order to protect its equipment, the appellant always gave instructions on the proper method of hooking to all lessees of equipment; that in addition to hooks, the compressors were rented with safety chains for emergencies, i.e., in case the hooks failed to hold; that the kind of hook on the safety chain of the compressor in the instant case was not a horseshoe type with a pin and bolt, but was such that a rope or wire would have to be used to affix the chain to the truck