O'Keefe v. Thorn

Citations

• 2 Monag. 73
• 16 A. 737
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 1377

Syllabus

<p>In an action to recover damages for personal injuries caused by the alleged negligence of the defendant, it appeared that the plaintiff, a boy between fourteen and fifteen years of age, was employed by the defendant, to operate a machine for stamping tin shingles. The machine was worked by pressing the foot upon a treadle, which caused a heavy weight, or hammer, to come down with force upon the tin, which was placed beneath it by the operator with his right hand. The plaintiff testified that he had never worked on a machine before ; that, on the first day of his employment,' the defendant’s foreman took him to a machine, and put in five or six pieces of tin to stamp them ; that he himself then put three or four pieces in, and after that the foreman left him. On the second day of his employment, the plaintiff, while adjusting a piece of tin under the hammer with his left hand, leaned over from the bench on which he was sitting, to arrange the tin, causing the bench, which was “loose and kind of shaky,” to fall, and his foot slipped on the greasy floor and caught the treadle, bringing down the hammer on his hand. The plaintiff, on cross-examination, testified that he had “no occasion to use the left hand.” The defendant, claiming that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence, and that he had assumed the risk of his employment, asked the court to enter a compulsory non-suit, which was done. Held, not to be error.</p>