Marsh v. Lehigh Valley Railroad

Citations

• 206 Pa. 558
• 56 A. 52
• 1903 Pa. LEXIS 761

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Master and servant — Evidence—Explosion of locomotive.</p> <p>While an employer owes his employee the duty of furnishing such machinery and appliances as, in the ordinary usage of the business engaged in, are safe and suitable and of keeping them in such condition, a verdict and judgment cannot be entered against him at the suit of an injured servant on a guess that he was negligent or on a mere theory of specific negligence without proof to sustain it. Specific negligence must be shown by competent testimony before the question of liability can go to a jury, who, in no case or controversy, are to be guessers, but, in all, sworn triers of facts, upon evidence submitted to them.</p> <p>In an action to recover damages from a railroad company for the death of a locomotive fireman, it appeared that the death was caused by the explosion of the boiler of a locomotive upon which the deceased was working. After the explosion parts of the boiler were varnished to preserve them, and they were stored away by the railroad company. When the ease was called for trial the defendant presented to the court an affidavit stating that the portions of the boiler preserved were in the same condition as they were in immediately after the explosion, and that to properly understand the case the jury should view the boiler. Two experts for the plaintiff who examined the parts of the boiler preserved, testified that the iron was in poor condition, thin and worn, unsafe, rotted, wasted away and corroded; that it had wasted away from its original thickness of three eighths of an inch to one eighth of an inch, and was not thicker than a knife blade. One of the experts stated that in his judgment the explosion was caused by the unsafe condition of the boiler. Held, that the evidence was sufficient to submit to the jury on the question of defendant’s negligence.</p> <p>Negligence — Railroads—Master and servant — Fellow servant — Fireman —Boiler inspector.</p> <p>A boiler