Clegg v. Seaboard Steel Casting Co.

Citations

• 34 Pa. Super. 63
• 1907 Pa. Super. LEXIS 80

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Vice principal — Fellow servant— Master mechanic — Repairs.</p> <p>A master mechanic of a steel works, is a vice principal and not a fellow servant of other employees of the works, where it appears that he has entire charge of the repairs, employs and discharges the repair men, and has the authority to determine, without being required to consult any higher officer, when and what repairs are necessary, and to select his own means for executing his plans.</p> <p>A vice principal is one to whom the master delegates a duty of his own which is a direct, personal and absolute obligation, from which nothing but performance can relieve him.</p> <p>Negligence — Master and servant — Safe place of employment — Vice principal.</p> <p>The obligation of a master to furnish to his servant a reasonably safe place in which to work, is a direct, personal and absolute obligation, and if such a duty is delegated to an agent, such agent is a vice principal.</p> <p>The imperative obligation upon a master to furnish to his servant a safe place in which to work, is not discharged by the master merely by seeing that the working place was safe, when the relation began; he must continuously furnish it, that is, maintain it, in that condition; and the rule extends to the means provided on the master’s own premises by which the servant obtains access to his working place.</p> <p>In an action against a corporation operating a steel works, by an employee, to recover damages for personal injuries, it appeared that the plaintiff fell into an open ditch on the 'defendant’s premises, and was injured. The ditch had been opened over night by the defendant’s master mechanic who had entire charge of the repairs of the plant. When the plaintiff was on his way to his work in the morning, he approached the ditch without being aware of its existence. There was evidence on behalf of the defendant that warning of the danger was given by a burning torch. The plaintiff, howe