Ross v. Walker

Citations

• 139 Pa. 42
• 21 A. 157
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 956

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>1. It is the duty of an employer to provide his laborers with suitable places to work, with suitable tools and machinery to use in doing their work, and with reasonably competent fellow laborers with whom to work; and also, to instruct the young and inexperienced laborer in the use of the tools and machinery, and as to the dangers peculiar thereto.</p> <p>2. A vice-principal is one to whom an employer delegates the performance of these duties and therein represents the employer, so that his acts are the acts of his principal; but, except when and so long as the acts of a foreman are in discharge of these duties, due from the employer to his employees, he acts as a workman and not as a vice-principal.</p> <p>3. Wherefore, when it is sought to hold an employer liable to an employee for the negligent act of a foreman, it must first be considered whether the negligence alleged relates to anything which it was the master’s duty to do; if it does, he is liable; but if not, and the foreman selected is reasonably competent, he is not liable.</p> <p>4. It is not the duty of an employer, after having provided materials ample in quantity and quality for the work his employees are engaged in, to supervise the selection of every piece of material for every purpose; and, if his foreman should make the selection, he does not represent the master therein as a vice-principal.</p> <p>5. In such case, it is not material whether the person who did the negligent act had entire control of the work or not; whether he, as a foreman, selected from the mass the materials to be used for any particular purpose or not, or whether he hired or discharged the men or not; his act was but the act of a fellow employee.</p>