Beckman v. Meadville & Cambridge Springs Street Railway Co.

Citations

• 219 Pa. 26
• 67 A. 983
• 1907 Pa. LEXIS 597

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Street railways — Independent contractor — Cleaning and repairing cars.</p> <p>One street railway company may employ another street railway company as an independent contractor to clean and repair its cars.</p> <p>In an action against a street railway company to recover damages for death, it appeared that at the point where the accident occurred, the tracks were the property of a traction company, but were in joint use by that company and the defendant under a traffic agreement, by which the defendant paid the traction company two and a half cents for every passenger it carried over the latter’s line. The agreement also provided that the cars of the defendant were to be cleaned and repaired by the traction company. Two cars of defendant had been delivered under this agreement to the traction company, which dismantled one of them, attached it by chains to the other and started both towards the car barn for cleaning and repair. On the way the coupling chains broke and the dismantled car ran on a down grade at increasing speed until it collided with the car of defendant on a siding. The deceased was a passenger on the car which was struck. The workmen who were engaged in repairing and cleaning the cars, were employed, controlled and discharged by the traction company, and an account was kept of their wages for such services, as a basis upon which the defendant paid. Held, (1) that the method of paying for cleaning and repairing on the basis of wages did not make the workmen, whose negligence caused the accident, coemployees of defendant; (2) that no joint obligation of both companies for the safe carriage of defendant’s passengers arose from the payment to the traction company of two and a half cents for every passenger carried; (3) that the traction company was an independent contractor for cleaning and repairing, and as such that it and not the defendant, was liable to the plaintiff for the negligence of its workmen.</p>