Lengle v. North Lebanon Township

Citations

• 274 Pa. 51
• 117 A. 403
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 635

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Damages — Previous compensation under Workmen’s Compensation Act — Charge—Corrective instructions.</p> <p>1. While the Workmen’s Compensation Act provides a certain means of relief to a person injured, or those surviving a decedent, which, from a legislative viewpoint, is ample, it cannot be regarded as representing total compensation, or that which the injured person or the decedent’s dependants are entitled to receive from others than the employer causing the injury.</p> <p>2. In an action brought to recover damages for children, whose father had been killed through the negligence of defendant, it is reversible error to admit evidence that the children had received compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act.</p> <p>3. Corrective instructions are not sufficient to overcome such error.</p> <p>Negligence — Townships—Defective road — Barriers—Private lane —Duty of borough — Wagon tracks — Evidence—Remoteness of time —Weight of evidence — Admissibility.</p> <p>4. Adjoining owners have the right to join their premises with the public highway by means of a private road or lane, under such regulations as to safety as the supervisors may prescribe, and the supervisors cannot prevent such connection.</p> <p>5. But when such lane is so dangerous as to become a nuisance, if the owner does not repair, the supervisors may barricade the lane, or erect a gate, and continue the barrier until the menace is removed.</p> <p>Negligence — Damages—Infants—Verdict—Separate verdict.</p> <p>6. In an action by several children through their guardian to recover damages for the death of their father, it is reversible error for the court to charge that the jury must return a separate verdict for each of the children.</p>