Jones v. Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Corp.

Citations

• 255 Pa. 339
• 99 A. 1008
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 456

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Vice principal — Unusual emergency — Invitee—Physician—Dangerous condition of premises —Case for jury.</p> <p>1. The emergency of an accident or an unusual condition which requires prompt action may invest the representative of a company highest in authority who is then present with power to do such things as are reasonable to meet the emergency.</p> <p>2. The chief engineer of a mining company, who finds an employee in a dying condition as the result of an accident, is invested with authority by the emergency to summon a physician to attend such employee.</p> <p>3. Such physician, having been invited upon the premises, does not as a matter of law exceed his invitation in using a telephone to call for aid for the injured man, and if while using the telephone such physician is injured in consequence of defects therein, the company may be held liable therefor.</p> <p>4. In such case it is not material that the company had no knowledge or notice that the premises were in a dangerous condition, no time to repair them, and did not know that plaintiff contemplated going on the premises, the negligence alleged and shown being the defective construction of electric lines and the failure to provide safeguards to prevent a broken uninsulated power wife falling upon the telephone wire.</p> <p>5. The case was for the jury in an action of trespass by a doctor against a mining company to recover damages for personal injuries, where it appeared that the defendant operated high power tension wires and telephone wires on the same poles, with no provision to prevent the telephone wires from coming in contact with the high tension wires, which were not insulated, and with other customary safeguards not provided; that, as a result of an electrical .storm, the power wire broke and fell upon the telephone wire, and defendant’s engineer discovering another employee, lying dead or unconscious in a building, sent a messenger to summon a doctor, who respo