Guinney v. Hand

Citations

• 153 Pa. 404
• 26 A. 20
• 1893 Pa. LEXIS 1117

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Scope of employment — Question for jury — Charge of court.</p> <p>The question whether a servant was acting within the scope of his employment when he committed a negligent act is a question of fact for the jury.</p> <p>In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, it appeared that plaintiff was injured by being run into by a beer wagon driven by an employee of defendants. The driver testified that just before the accident occurred he unloaded a barrel of porter, and undertook to tap it, as he was instructed to do for all his employer’s customers. In doing so he broke a wooden faucet, when the saloon keeper for whom he was unloading the porter asked him to go to a street some distance off, and buy a faucet, giving him the money to pay for it. In driving rapidly on this errand, he ran into and injured plaintiff. Plaintiff testified that on the day following the accident defendants came to his house, and told him that they would pay his doctor’s bill and expenses, and stated that they had discharged the driver the night before. This conversation was denied by defendants. The court charged that if the jury believed plaintiff’s testimony, defendant’s liability was fixed; but in other parts of the charge and in answer to several points, the question was distinctly left to the jury to determine whether the driver was acting within the scope of his employment. Held, that there was no error which justified the reversal of the judgment.</p>