Mapes v. Pittsburg Provision & Packing Co.

Citations

• 31 Pa. Super. 453
• 1906 Pa. Super. LEXIS 236

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Vice principal — Definition.</p> <p>A vice principal for whose negligence an employer will be liable to other employees must be either, first, one in whom' the employer has placed the entire charge of the business, or of a distinct branch of it, giving him not mere authority to superintend certain work of certain workmen, but control of the business, and exercising no discretion or oversight of his own; or secondly, one to whom he delegates a duty of his own which is a direct personal and absolute obligation, from which nothing but performance can relieve him.</p> <p>Any person who so far represents the master as to exercise his authority in directing the places where the employees shall work, whether he be called the superintendent, foreman, or agent, will become in that respect and as to the performance of that obligation of the master, a vice principal.</p> <p>In an action to recover damages for personal injuries it appeared that the plaintiff was directly ordered to work in a place, which, under the conditions usually prevailing, would have been regarded as a reasonably safe one, but which by virtue of another direct order from another person employed by defendant, had been suddenly converted into a place of great risk and danger. The evidence showed that the person who gave the order was in general charge of the men, hiring and discharging them at pleasure, and that he was known as the foreman. There was also evidence that he was superintendent under the architect. Held, that the question whether such person was a fellow servant of the plaintiff, or a vice principal of the defendant, was for the jury.</p> <p>Appeals — Assignments of error — Extract of charge.</p> <p>An extract from the charge alleged to be error is not a proper basis for an assignment of error, where the extract taken in connection with the context, and the charge in general, was a proper instruction.</p>