Bivins v. SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY

The defendant’s appeal presents two questions: (1) Was the evidence sufficient to repel the motion for nonsuit? (2) Did the court commit error by failing to explain “the legal doctrine of respondeat superior?” The answer to the first question will provide at least a partial answer to the second.

The defendant urgently contends “there is no evidence the men doing the spraying were agents or servants of the defendant,” and that the court should have sustained the demurrer to the evidence on that ground, or at least should have charged that the burden was on the plaintiff to satisfy the jury the…