McBride v. William Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co.

Citations

• 48 Pa. Super. 459
• 1912 Pa. Super. LEXIS 391

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Ship building company — Unsafe place to work.</p> <p>1. In an action by a boy seventeen years old against his employer, a ship building company, to recover damages for personal injuries resulting from an upright wooden stanchion falling upon him, the case is for the jury and a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff will be sustained where the evidence tends to show that the plaintiff was employed as a ship fitter’s helper, that while he was at work he was surrounded by wooden stanchions standing perpendicularly between the decks, that it was customary to secure these stanchions in place at top and bottom, that owing to constant vibration they would work out of place, that the stanchion which fell upon the plaintiff was in a shaky condition before the accident, and that this was known to the ship carpenters who had not corrected the trouble.</p> <p>2. In such a case the defendant cannot relieve itself from liability by setting up as a defense that the unsafe condition of the stanchion was due to the negligence of the plaintiff’s fellow servants; nor is it a defense that the plaintiff did not examine the stanchion.</p>