Bradbury v. Kingston Coal Co.

Citations

• 157 Pa. 231
• 27 A. 400
• 1893 Pa. LEXIS 1414

Syllabus

<p>[Marked to be reported.]</p> <p>Negligence — Mines—Fellow servants.</p> <p>An engineer employed to run an engine at a colliery is a fellow servant of the miners whom the engineer raises and lowers in the shaft of the mine.</p> <p>An engineer in charge of a colliery engine attempted to stop the engine by pulling his reverse lever. He pulled it a little too far, not intending to do so, and thereby caused the cage in the shaft to shoot upward rapidly. Plaintiff’s decedent, who was on the cage, attempted to jump off on the upper platform, but missed his footing and fell down the shaft and was killed. The cage stopped almost at the instant he jumped off, and those who remained on it were unharmed. Held that there could be no recovery against the colliery company.</p> <p>Master and servant — Machinery—Risk of employment.</p> <p>Where an accident results from an unforeseen cause not discoverable in advance of its occurrence, with no visible defect in any part of the machinery, and no knowledge of any defect on the part of the men who were constantly using the machinery, or of the employer, the accident is one of the ordinary risks of the employment which the servant takes upon himself.</p> <p>The breaking of a wire pin caused an engineer to lose control of the throttle of his engine, resulting indirectly in an injury to a miner descending the shaft of the mine. The wire pin was conclusively shown to have been amply sufficient for its purpose, and free from original defect, by the fact that for seven years it continuously and successfully served its use without any change, repair, substitution or visible defect. It gave no external indication of defect up to the time of the accident, and there was no testimony that it had diminished in size, or changed in appearance or in substance; no crack or flaw was discovered, and on the actual testimony in the cause no defect was visible or known to the engineer, the mine inspector, or the employer. Held that the breaking of the pi