Herron v. American Steel & Wire Co.

Citations

• 230 Pa. 90
• 79 A. 228
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 567

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Assistance in 'performing work— Safe place to work — Assurance of employer.</p> <p>1. Where an employee asks his employer for three assistants to aid him in. doing a particular work, and such assistants are provided for the first day, but on the second day one of the assistants fails to report, and another man not being procurable in his place, the employee then adopts a suggestion of doing the work by mechanical device without a third assistant, and does so with full knowledge of the dangers and risks of the method adopted, he cannot complain that his employer was negligent in not providing him a third man.</p> <p>2. Where an employee of mature years and experience is instructed to look up some wire for a purpose intended, but no instructions are given him as to the kind of wire to be selected, nor as to the place where such wire might be found, and he selects certain wire and asks the opinion of his superintendent as to its strength for the use intended but also tests the wire himself and exercises his own judgment, and subsequently the employee is injured in using the wire, and it is not certain whether the wire broke, or pulled loose from defective splicing, the employee cannot recover from his employer for the injuries sustained.</p> <p>3. An assurance given by an employer or his representative to an employee of the good condition of an appliance will not be a bar to a defense upon the ground of the assumption of risk when it is shown that the risk was known and comprehended by the employee, who was a mature man experienced in the kind of work he was doing.</p> <p>Practice, C. P. — Motion for nonsuit — Evidence.</p> <p>4. Where a motion for a nonsuit is made after the plaintiff rests, and before the motion is disposed of the defendant announces that he will offer no evidence, and the plaintiff then, with the permission of the court, offers the testimony of another witness as in chief, and the court then rules on the motion a