Pennsylvania R. v. Jones

Citations

• 123 F. 753
• 59 C.C.A. 87
• 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4033

Syllabus

<p>1. Master and Servant—Safe Place to Work—Question for Jury.</p> <p>Id an action against a railroad company to recover for the death of a brakeman who was killed by the backing of the rear car of a train, on which he was stationed, over the end of a switch which terminated on a trestle, in the nighttime, it was not error to submit to the jury the question whether defendant, in leaving the end of the switch unprotected by a bumper, failed to perform a primary duty, which it owed to its employés, to exercise ordinary care to provide them with a reasonably safe place to work, where the effect of an affirmative finding was properly limñed with respect to the assumption of the risk by decedent.</p> <p>2. Same—Assumption of Risk—Knowledge of Extraordinary Danger.</p> <p>The failure of a railroad company to place a bumper or other obstruction at the open end of a switch which terminated on a trestle some feet above the ground subjects train employés to a danger which is not one of the ordinary risks of the employment, and which an employs cannot be said as matter of law to have assumed; and a defense set up by the railroad company to an action for the death of an employs, caused by the backing of a car off the end of the switch in the nighttime, that the danger was so obvious that the deceased, who was shown to have been an experienced man, and to have been in the place some six or seven times, must or should have had knowledge of it, and assumed the risk, or was guilty of contributory negligence, raises an issue of fact for the jury, unless the evidence of actual knowledge is clear, and the burden of proof upon such issue rests on the defendant.</p> <p>S. Same—Contributory Negligence of Fellow Servant.</p> <p>Where a brakeman was killed by the backing of a car' in the night from the end of a switch track which was left unprotected through the negligence of the railroad company, the fact that the negligence of fellow servants in handling the train also contributed to the