Donahue v. Kelly

Citations

• 181 Pa. 93
• 37 A. 186
• 1897 Pa. LEXIS 509

Syllabus

<p>[Marked to be reported.]</p> <p>Negligence — Mistake of judgment — Position of peril — Unusual cause of peril — Act done for self preservation.</p> <p>One who in a sudden emergency acts according to his best judgment or who, because of want of time in which to form a judgment, omits to act in the most judicious manner is not chargeable with negligence.</p> <p>There is no liability for an injury inflicted by one person upon another, even though the injured person be free from fault, if the cause of the injury was unusual, and one which reasonable and careful human foresight could not have foreseen as such, and which, under the circumstances, such care and foresight could not have guarded against. Such an injury without any want of ordinary care upon the part of the person inflicting it, is considered an inevitable accident.</p> <p>Where a servant in a restaurant takes up a burning lamp and carries it from a room, and in doing so catches fire and, to save himself, throws the lamp from him, a customer of the restaurant who is injured by the explosion of the lamp cannot recover damages from the proprietor of the restaurant. ■</p> <p>Negligence — Gasoline—Act of May lb, 1874.</p> <p>A person cannot be convicted of negligence in keeping gasoline upon his premises in violation of the provisions of the Act of May 15, 1874, P. L. 189, sections 1, 5, 8 where it appears that the gasoline was kept in a restaurant for illuminating purposes, and not for salo, and there is no proof that the gasoline was less than 110 degrees Fahrenheit, or that it was explosive within the prohibition of the act.</p>