Karl v. Juniata County

Citations

• 206 Pa. 633
• 56 A. 78
• 1903 Pa. LEXIS 776

Syllabus

<p>Practice, G. P. — Appeals—Charge—Assignmentsof error.</p> <p>A judgment on a verdict will not be reversed because of a detached portion of the charge alleged as error, where it appears that the portion of the charge complained of, taken in connection with instruction immediately preceding it, and other portions of the charge, could not have possibly been misunderstood by the jury.</p> <p>Charge — Independent contractor — Illustration.</p> <p>Where the court has given the jury a correct definition of an independent contractor, it can in nowise confuse or mislead the jury by giving an illustration as follows: “If the commissioners employ a tinner to roof this courthouse making no provision as to how the old tin is to be removed or the new tin raised up and placed, and the commissioners are not present directing the operation or the manner of its performance and have relinquished their power over the work or manner of its performance and an accident befall an employee or other person, the county would in nowise be responsible for any act, negligent or otherwise, by the employer whereby some one is injured.”</p> <p>Charge — Points—Improper points.</p> <p>A point is properly refused which assumes that the jury could have found facts of which there was no proof, and asks them to give undue effect to other facts.</p> <p>Contract — Independent contractor.</p> <p>The fact that the person alleged to be an independent contractor was employed at $2.00 per day and directed to employ other hands at $1.60 per day, is not necessarily inconsistent with the independent character of his employment.</p> <p>Negligence — County—Repair of county bridge.</p> <p>Where a county is about to repair a county bridge, it is not negligence per se to regularly and carefully pile plank on the bridge, leaving ample room for two two-horse teams to pass immediately opposite the pile, and leaving the pile there from the beginning of May 29, to remain over Decoration Day until the following morning Ma