O'Dowd v. Burnham

Citations

• 19 Pa. Super. 464
• 1902 Pa. Super. LEXIS 131

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Relative duties of employer and employee.</p> <p>The duty of an employee is to use his senses in all that relates to his employment, to exercise attention and care in the selection of material from the mass provided for general use, and to provide with reasonable diligence for the safety of himself and his coemployees in his management of his share of the work to be done.</p> <p>The master does not insure his employees against each other nor is he bound to supervise and direct every detail of their labor. They must exercise their own sense in the selection of material out of the mass provided for them; they must use their own judgment as to the manner of handling it. No employer could bear the burden of legal responsibility for every blunder or neglect on the part of each or all of his employees. The fact that one employee, is more skillful than another, or has had greater experience, and is so deferred to by others, does not change his relation to his employer or to his fellows. Nor does a difference in rank or grade of service change the rule. When the character of the business requires it, the master is as much bound to provide his workman with a reasonably competent foreman as to provide them with tools, but in either case his liability ceases when he has made a suitable selection. He is neither bound to provide the best tools and machinery, nor the highest grade of skill in his foreman, but he is bound to provide that which is reasonably safe and sufficient in both cases, and having done so he has discharged his duty.</p> <p>Negligence — Master and servant — Risk of employment — Machinery.</p> <p>Where an accident results from an unforeseen cause not discoverable in advance of its occurrence, with no visible defect in any part of the machine, and no knowledge of any defect on the part of the men who were constantly using the machineiy, or of the employer, the accident is one of the ordinary risks of the employment .which the