Fisher v. Delaware & Hudson Canal Co.

Citations

• 153 Pa. 379
• 26 A. 18
• 1893 Pa. LEXIS 1112

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Infants—Warning and instruction as to dangers of employment — Railroad.</p> <p>It is the duty of employers of infants to take notice of their age and ability, and to use ordinary care to protect them from risks which they cannot pi-operly appreciate, and to which in the course of their employment they should not be exposed.</p> <p>Plaintiff, a boy under thirteen years of age, was employed by defendant in picking slate from the lop of loaded coal cars. Defendant and another railroad company loaded their coal into separate ears at certain schutes. From four to six hundred ears daily were run by gravity to the scales, a short distance below the schutes, and after being weighed were dropped down the track to a point where they were made up into trains. On the way down it was necessary to separate the cars loaded for defendant from those of the other company. As the cars were thus being moved and made into separate trains, plaintiff and other boys, employed by defendant, were engaged on the top of the loaded cars picking out the slate. While plaintiff was thus at work on the second car from the rear one of a section, another car came down the track, sti'uck the cars in front, and suddenly drove them forward. When the collision occurred, plaintiff was in a stooping position, and, losing his balance, fell between the cars and was injured. The testimony as to whether plaintiff had been informed of the dangers incident to the employment, was conflicting. Several witnesses testified that the occupation was an exceedingly dangerous one for a boy of plaintiff’s age. Held, that the case was a proper one for the jury.</p>