Lindway v. Pennsylvania Co.

Citations

• 268 Pa. 491
• 112 A. 40
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 724

Syllabus

<p>Workmen’s compensation — Interstate commerce — Federal or state act — Storing oil in railroad reservoir tank — Burden of proof.</p> <p>1. In determining whether liability for the death or injury of a workman is covered by the Federal Employer’s Liability Act, or the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Pennsylvania, the State courts must accept the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States as their guide.</p> <p>2. A distinction seems to prevail in the federal courts between accidents happening to one while working on or with things which are in actual common use as instrumentalities of both interstate and intrastate commerce, and those occurring to persons while employed or working on things being put in position for such common use in the future.</p> <p>3. The state compensation act and not the federal act, applies to a ease where a workman employed by a railroad company is killed while attempting to open a valve on the top of an oil tank car, so that the oil may be run into a reservoir tank of the company, later to be distributed (although not, as far as it appears, by deceased) in Idling lamps and torches for use on trains engaged in both kinds of commerce.</p> <p>4. In such case, where it appears that an effort was made to ascertain whether the tank car brought oil from points within or without the State, and a witness for the railroad testified that he did not know, and that all the records were burned, the testimony of such witness makes against defendant, who carries the burden iof proof.</p>