Smith v. York Railways Co.

Citations

• 237 Pa. 280
• 85 A. 367
• 1912 Pa. LEXIS 932

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Employment—Change of employment — Safe place to work — Excavations—Sewers.</p> <p>1. In an action to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been received by an employee of a street railway company, the defendant cannot be heard to say that plaintiff was not in its employ at the time he was injured and that his injuries resulted from the negligence of another, where it appears that up to within a few days of the time of the accident, and for several years prior, the plaintiff was employed by the defendant railway company as a laborer on its tracks; that the chief engineer of the defendant company, who was also vice president of an electric light company, directed the plaintiff’s boss .to send him and another laborer to work at a pit which was being dug by the light company; that the two employees were directed by their foreman to go to work at that place and they did so, without any indication whatever that they were not to continue to be the employees of defendant company or that the work being done was not being done by it; that the plaintiff while working at the pit, reported to the defendant’s foreman who kept his time and furnished him his transportation over the lines of the company and the tools with which he worked; that he received his wages from the defendant company through the time he worked at the pit in the same manner as previously; that the chief engineer of the defendant company supervised the work; and that after the plaintiff had worked in the pit about eleven days, it caved in and caused plaintiff’s injuries.</p> <p>2. In employing servants to work in excavations such as sewers, trenches, pits and cellars, the duty is upon the master to see to it that his servants have a reasonably safe place to do the work to which he assigns them. To prevent the caving in of the walls of a pit when such caving is likely to happen by reason of the depth of the pit, it is the duty of the employer to brace up and