Hoehle v. Allegheny Heating Co.

Citations

• 5 Pa. Super. 21
• 1897 Pa. Super. LEXIS 185

Syllabus

<p>Actions — Tort arising from contractual relations.</p> <p>It is a well settled proposition that in certain relations duties are imposed, the breach of which is regarded as a tort, though the relations themselves are formed by contract, and the contract may cover the same ground.</p> <p>Tort — Cause of action — Negligent service of a public corporation.</p> <p>Companies, like telegraph, telephone, gas and other such companies which have received from public authority franchises which also provide for the accommodation of the general public, owe a duty to serve all persons who make proper application for such service and who comply with such reasonable rules as may be fixed and make such reasonable compensation as may be required. A refusal or neglect to render such service when asked or contracted for may give a cause of action ex delicto.</p> <p>Tort — Cause of action — Negligence of gas company.</p> <p>The negligent failure, by a natural gas company, to supply fuel gas, the same being suddenly cut off without notice, to the damage of the health of one of its customers, gives a cause of action for tortious injury which is not dependent upon a specific contract nor subject to be defeated by proof that there was a contractual relation between the parties.</p> <p>Proximate cause — Question forjw-y.</p> <p>Plaintiff’s husband convalescent from typhoid fever suffered a relapse into pneumonia from which he died, immediately after defendant company had wrongfully cut off the fuel gas whereby the patient’s room had become suddenly chilled. Held, that the breach of duty in turning off the gas was not so remote a cause of the husband’s death as required binding instructions for the defendant; the question whether defendant’s negligence was the proximate cause of the injury was for the jury under all the circumstances of the ease.</p>