Carlin v. William Butler Co.

Citations

• 220 Pa. 194
• 69 A. 552
• 1908 Pa. LEXIS 748

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Cellar door — Contributory negligence — Evidence—Province of court and jury — Nonsuit.</p> <p>In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, it appeared that the plaintiff was employed by the defendant to paint a sign on a store window pane. During this work he was compelled to stand on a folding cellar door under the window. Before starting the work he warned the employees of the defendant not to open the folding parts of the door without notice to him. As he stood upon one fold of the door with his eyes and hands directed upwards, a clerk of the defendant, without being observed by plaintiff, opened another fold of the door, and the plaintiff subsequently stepped an inch or two to the right of where he had been standing, and fell into the opening and was injured. Held, that the case was for. the jury, and that it was error to enter a non-suit.</p> <p>A plaintiff in an accident case is not to be nonsuited because one of his own witnesses testifies to acts of the plaintiff showing contributory negligence, where the plaintiff himself denies the commission of such acts.</p>