Eldridge v. Fell Manufacturing Co.

Citations

• 240 Pa. 321
• 87 A. 966
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 671

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Safe place to worTc — Cutting machine — Complaint to superintendent — Evidence—Case for jury.</p> <p>1. An employer is required not only to furnish his employee reasonably safe tools and appliances, but to see that they are kept in such condition by proper and timely inspection.</p> <p>2. Where a spring in an automatic paper cutting machine, is shown to have been in use for more than four years without inspection, that such length of use was improper, that the spring was in fact defective, and that such defect was known to the superintendent of the shop where the machine was installed, a workman' who is injured by reason of the defect, is entitled to have his case submitted to a jury.</p> <p>3. Where in an action by an employee against his employer to recover damages for personal injuries sustained while operating a defective machine, the plaintiff shows affirmatively that the machine was defective, he is entitled to show that complaint had been made to the defendant’s superintendent prior to the accident, of the defective condition of the machine, and also to show a conversation between the superintendent and another employee relating to the defect in the machine.</p>