Curry v. Atlantic Refining Co.

Citations

• 239 Pa. 302
• 86 A. 856
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 560

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Passageway—Duty to light— Obstructions — Oontributory negligence.</p> <p>1. It is the duty of an employer to furnish his employees with a reasonably safe means of access to the premises where they are employed. This duty is not discharged where an employer fails to light a passageway in use by his employees, so as to disclose the presence of obstructions which are temporarily thereon.</p> <p>2. In an action by an employee to recover damages for injuries alleged to have been caused by defendant’s failure to provide a safe means of access to his place of employment, the question of defendant’s negligence and plaintiff’s contributory negligence are for the jury where it appears that plaintiff was injured by running against a temporary obstruction in an unlighted passageway, which he was required to use, at night time; that plaintiff had no reason to know that the passageway was dangerous, and did not see the obstructions; and that while it may have been customary to place such bars as those which caused the injury in the passage, they were as a rule cleared away before night.</p>