Central District & Printing Telegraph Co. v. Otis Elevator Co.

Citations

• 50 Pa. Super. 230
• 1912 Pa. Super. LEXIS 32

Syllabus

<p>N egligence — Evidence—Nonsuit.</p> <p>In an action by a telegraph company against an elevator company, to recover damages for the destruction of property, it appeared that the defendant was called upon to repair cable connections in an elevator belonging to a third party. In doing the work an employee of the defendant in order to melt metal, took a burning plumber’s furnace into the shaft, placed it on a plank which he knew to be greasy, and during the progress of Ms work Ms foot slipped, struck the furnace and knocked it off the plank and it fell down the shaft and ignited the greasy covering of the cables and wires of the defendant and destroyed them. The presence of the wires was known to the defendant’s employee. There was evidence that the work could have been done without taking a lighted furnace into the shaft. There was no evidence that the course pursued was not the ordinary way of doing the work. The court below entered a compulsory nonsuit which it refused to take off. The six judges of the appellate court who heard the appeal from the judgment, were equally divided in opinion, and the judgment was affirmed.</p>