Berryman v. Pennsylvania Railroad

Citations

• 228 Pa. 621
• 77 A. 1011
• 1910 Pa. LEXIS 536

Syllabus

<p>Railroads — Negligence—Master and servant — “Respondeat superior” —Malicious act of railroad policeman.</p> <p>1. In an action against a railroad company to recover damages for personal injuries where plaintiff testifies that immediately after alighting at a station from one of defendant’s trains, on which he had been a passenger, and while he was moving away and behaving in a quiet, orderly way, without having given any occasion for offense or having engaged in any altercation or having been guilty of any violation of law he was the victim of a willful, wicked and malicious assault committed by a policeman in the employ of the defendant company, it is reversible error for the court to refuse binding instructions for the defendant.</p> <p>Railroads — Policeman—Presumption—Master and servant.</p> <p>2. When it is shown that a policeman is in the employ of a railroad company it may follow presumptively that when present at one of the railroad stations, he is there in the course of his employment, but no presumption arises that every act he does while there is done in the discharge of a duty owing to the company.</p> <p>3. For a willful or intentional trespass by an employee outside the line of his duty under his employment, the employer is not responsible, even though it be committed while the servant is in the exercise of his employment; but in the latter case its willful and separate character must appear.</p>