McBride v. McNally

Citations

• 243 Pa. 206
• 89 A. 1131
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 598

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Steamboats—Passengers—Degree of care — Charge to jury.</p> <p>1. A common carrier of passengers is charged with the highest degree of care in caring for passengers when they are in the act of boarding his means of conveyance and while they are on the means of conveyance which he provides, and where a passenger sustains personal injuries in an accident caused by a disarrangement of any of tbe means of transportation, tbe burden is cast upon the carrier to show that he was without fault.</p> <p>2. The rule with respect to the liability of common carriers has been extended to include all engaged in the transportation of passengers when such transportation is attended with danger to life and limb and the care and diligence is proportionate to the danger to the person carried.</p> <p>3. One engaged in the operation of an excursion boat which he hires to societies for the transportation of members who purchase tickets from the societies, will be subject to the measure of liability for acts of negligence which the law imposes upon common carriers.</p> <p>4. In an action of trespass to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by a woman in consequence of a fall from the gangplank of defendant’s excursion steamer which had been hired by a society to carry members who should purchase tickets, it appeared that the gangplank had not been properly fastened; that an effort was made to take on passengers when the boat was improperly secured; that in consequence the gangplank tilted and the woman was thrown into the stream and injured; the trial judge charged the jury that the fact that the accident happened upon some of the means of transportation, defendant being a common carrier, threw the burden on the defendant to satisfy the jury by the weight of the evidence, as to how it occurred, and that it occurred without negligence on his part, and that the defendant was held to the highest degree of care in caring for passengers when they were in the act of boar