McNees v. Sims

Citations

• 231 Pa. 386
• 80 A. 866
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 853

Syllabus

<p>Trial — Charge—Points for charge.</p> <p>1. The court commits clear error in declining points submitted for charge on the ground that the instruction prayed for was covered in the general charge, where the legal propositions contained in the points were correct, and the answers gave no'clear expression of the court's views as to the various propositions contained in the several points.</p> <p>Negligence — Master and servant — Inexperienced youth — Duty to instruct — Private railroad.</p> <p>2. In an action to recover damages for personal injuries the case is for the jury where there is evidence to show that the plaintiff, an inexperienced country youth sixteen years of age who had been working only a month for the defendant, was directed two or three days prior to the accident, to sand a rough, temporary track which he did by walking along the track in front of the donkey engine and dropping the sand from a can which he held in his hand, that the track ran through a cut, the sides of which were three or four feet high, that on the day of the accident by order of the engineer under whom ho was working by direction of the foreman, he got on the side of the bumper in front of the engine to sand the tracks, that to secure himself, he put his left foot around the end of the bumper, that the train started and after it had gone 150 feet there was a jolt and his left foot was caught between the bank and the end of the bumper, and plaintiff testifies that he received no instructions how to sand the rails while sitting on the bumper, or how to avoid the danger incident to the service.</p>