McElhone v. Philadelphia Quartette Club

Citations

• 53 Pa. Super. 262
• 1913 Pa. Super. LEXIS 164

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Infants—Act of May 2, 1906, P. L. 352.</p> <p>1. An incorporated club maintaining and operating a bowling alley is an “establishment ” within the meaning of sec. 2 of the Act of May 2, 1905, P. L. 352, which provides that “no child under fourteen years of ago shall be employed in any establishment.”</p> <p>2. A construction put upon an act of the legislature by itself by means of a provision embodied in the .same, that it shall or shall not be construed in a certain designated manner, is binding upon the courts, although the latter without such direction would have understood the language to mean something different.</p> <p>3. The legislature has not only ample power to give a definition to a trade, business or operation, but under its police power it may rightfully fix an age limit below which persons shall not be employed, and when that limit is so fixed, an employer who violates the act by engaging a person under the statutory age, he does so at his own risk, and if such minor is injured while engaged in the performance of the prohibited duties for which he was employed, the employer will be liable in damages for injuries thus sustained.</p> <p>4. The fact that the Act of May 2,1905, P. L. 352, is penal in chan acter and that violations of its provisions are punishable by fine and imprisonment, does not render such remedies exclusive and does not supersede the right of action for damages in a civil proceeding.</p>