Chicago Drop Forge & Foundry Co. v. Van Dam

Citations

• 149 Ill. 337
• 36 N.E. 1024

Syllabus

<p>1. Master and servant—duty of master to furnish suitable and safe appliances. There is an implied contract between an employer and. employe that the former will provide the latter .with suitable means, appliances and instrumentalities for the performance of the labor required.</p> <p>2. Where a master, on being notified by the servant of defects that render the service dangerous, expressly promises to repair the defect, or to do what is equivalent thereto, the servant may continue in the employment for such a period of time as it would be reasonable to allow for the performance of the promise.</p> <p>3. Same—injuries to servant from defective machinery. As a general rule, the servant will be regarded as voluntarily incurring the risk resulting from the use of defective machinery, if its defects are as well know to him as to the master. But this rule will not be applied when the master, by urging on the servant, or coercing him into danger, or in some other way, directly contribtites to the injury.</p> <p>4. In such case, if injury results, the servant may recover, unless the danger is such that no prudent person would continue to perform the service. The servant’s knowledge of the defect is not, under such circumstances, conclusive of want of due care on his part, because the promise of the master to remove the danger justifies him in continuing in the service, and relieves him of the charge of negligence. If the master fails to make his assurance good, he is chargeable with a failure to exercise ordinary care. It is, however, a question of fact, for the jury to determine, whether the defect is so serious that a prudent person would not continue in the performance of the required work.</p> <p>5. Negligence—exercising due care—age and discretion considered. In an action by a servant against a master, by a boy between fourteen and fifteen years of age, for a personal injury resulting from the use of defective machinery, the jury will have the right to consider whet