Rauhauser v. York Manufacturing Co.

Citations

• 50 Pa. Super. 506
• 1912 Pa. Super. LEXIS 86

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Obedience to orders — Contributory negligence — Act of June 10, 1907, P. L. 528.</p> <p>1. An employee is not required to set up his own judgment against an employer or a foreman having charge of the particular work. Even where he may question the safety of the undertaking, he may rely on the advice of his superior and is justified in acting on the order of the latter. Where the act to be performed is not imminently dangerous the workman’s dependent position permits him to follow the positive orders given him by the person in charge of the work even where there are conditions of peril.</p> <p>2. In an action by an employee against his employer to recover damages for personal injuries the question of the defendant’s negligence and plaintiff’s contributory negligence is for the jury, where the evidence tends to show that the plaintiff was injured while engaged in setting a molding machine in place; that plaintiff was a,carpenter unfamiliar with the machine; that he was ordered to help in moving the machine by defendant’s foreman who had entire charge of this particular work; that the foreman raised the cap or head of the mar chine about eighteen inches or two feet, and afterwards ordered the plaintiff to go between the machine and the wall in a space eighteen inches or two feet wide and spring the machine over a fraction of an inch with a crowbar; that plaintiff while engaged in the work supported himself with his right hand on the machine; and while he was in this position the cap which had not been securely fastened dropped on his hand and injured it. Such case is within the terms of the Act of June 10, 1907, P. L. 523, making an employer liable for the negligence of any person in charge of or directing the particular work in which an employee was engaged at the time of the injury.</p>