Butterman v. McClintic-Marshall Construction Co.

Citations

• 206 Pa. 82
• 55 A. 839
• 1903 Pa. LEXIS 651

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Safe place — Proximate cause.</p> <p>A construction company, engaged in building a plant for a steel company, used jointly with the latter a siding with a down grade, and erected alongside of it a pole to aid in the unloading of cars. The pole was secured by guy ropes to the tracks in such a way that a car passing over the tracks would strike the ropes. The employees of the steel company permitted ears to get beyond their control on the down grade and run into the cars of the construction company, causing them to strike and break the rope, and let down the pole which struck one of the construction company’s workmen and killed him. In an action by the widow of the deceased against the construction company to recover damages for his death, held, (1) that as an accident was inevitable if the rope should be struck by a moving car, it was the construction company’s duty to foresee that cars might get beyond control and to provide for such a contingency; (2) that the defendant had not provided safe machinery or a safe place to work for its employees; (3) that a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff should be sustained.</p> <p>Negligence — Master and servant — Fellow servant — Vice principal.</p> <p>Where a construction company employs a person to superintend the erection of a plant, and no official of the company takes any part in the work, and the superintendent hires and discharges men and directs how and where they shall work, the superintendent is a vice principal, and if he is negligent in not providing suitable machinery and a suitable place to work, his employer will be liable to workmen for any resulting accident.</p> <p>Negligence — Contributory negligence — Question for jury.</p> <p>Where in an action to recover damages for the death of a person killed by a collision of cars, the question of the deceased’s contributory negligence depends upon his position at the time of the collision, and the evidence as to where he was, is