Sheetram v. Trexler Stave & Lumber Co.

Citations

• 13 Pa. Super. 219
• 1900 Pa. Super. LEXIS 136

Syllabus

<p>Trespass — Master and servant — Employer and employee.</p> <p>It is not only the duty of a master or employer to warn a servant or employee against the danger that lies in the unskilful or careless operation of machinery involved in his employment or task, but he should also give suitable instructions as to the manner of using the same so as to avoid danger.</p> <p>Infant — Damages—Contributory negligence— Coemployee.</p> <p>A lad between sixteen and seventeen years of age, unless there is positive proof to the contrary, is presumed to have sufficient intelligence to be cognizant of the patent dangers of feeding a circular saw with billets for manufacture into barrel staves, and is held to the rule that an employee who contracts for the performance of hazardous duties assumes such risks as are incident to their discharge, from causes that are open and obvious. But although a servant be as fully conscious of the danger incident to the discharge of a duty in a particular way as if he had been expressly warned of the danger, it does not necessarily follow that his employer is relieved of the duty to instruct him further. There may be two modes in which the duty can be discharged, one safe and the other dangerous, and if the servant bo young and inexperienced, and be not instructed, it cannot be declared as matter of law that the risk of making a wrong choice is one of the incidental risks which he accepted when he entered into the employer’s service.</p> <p>If it is shown that with the knowledge of his employers, an employee was in the habit of hiring and discharging workmen, the jury may infer that the hiring of the plaintiff was within the scope of his authority, and so binding upon the employers.</p>