Dellasala v. Josephine Furnace & Coke Co.

Citations

• 242 Pa. 591
• 89 A. 660
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 698

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Assumption of risk — Binding instructions.</p> <p>1. A charge of negligence in failing to provide a bridge or scaffold on which a workman may stand while preparing a furnace, so that ■ he is obliged to use a ladder and suffers injuries in consequence of a fall therefrom, is not sustained where there is nothing in the evidence that connects the accident with any defect or want of sufficiency in the ladder, with the use of which the workman was perfectly familiar.</p> <p>2. Where risks incidental to employment, which are quite as well understood by the employee as by the employer, are incurred by the employee, and from his familiarity with such risks such employee is equally able to measure the danger with his employer, no liability will attach to the employer for injuries sustained by the employee in consequence of exposure to such risks.</p> <p>3. In an action of trespass to recover damages for the death of plaintifE’s husband, who had been employed by defendant as a pipe fixer, it appeared that deceased had been directed to repair a pipe extending around a furnace at an elevation of about forty feet from the ground; that to reach this pipe he stood on a ladder which rested on a pipe about twelve feet from the ground where it was steadied by two men; that at the point where deceased was working there were large quantities of escaped gas; that he had made two trips and was only able to remain at the top of the ladder ten minutes when he was overcome by gas; that on his second trip he was compelled to lie down for three quarters of an hour; that other workmen had been made sick by the gas, which deceased well knew; that in his third attempt deceased again sickened at the top of the ladder and fell to the ground, sustaining injuries which caused death. Held, that deceased had voluntarily assumed the risk and that the court should have directed a verdict for defendant.</p>