Service v. Shoneman

Citations

• 196 Pa. 63
• 46 A. 292
• 1900 Pa. LEXIS 471

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Measure of employers' liability.</p> <p>Employers are not insurers of the lives or safety of their employees. They are liable for the consequences, not of danger but of negligence ; and the unbending test of negligence in methods, machinery and appliances, is the ordinary usage of the business. No man is held by law to a higher degree of skill than the fair average of his profession or trade, and the standard of due care is the conduct of the average prudent man.</p> <p>In an action against an employer to recover damages for the death of an employee caused, not by a boiler explosion, but by a sudden and unusual escape of steam in great force and large volume from the end of a-boiler, there can be no recovery against the defendant where the evidence shows that he bought the boiler after making extensive inquiries amongst business men, that he paid a higher price for it than many others were offered for, that it was recommended to him as nonexplosive, that it was in general use, that it was operated by a competent engineer, that it was used three years before the accident, and that three days before the accident it was examined by the official inspector who certified that it would stand a working pressure of double the force of that which was on it when the accident occurred.</p>