Stitzel v. A. Wilhelm Co.

Citations

• 220 Pa. 564
• 69 A. 996
• 1908 Pa. LEXIS 817

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Safe machinery and appliances — Instructions to employee — Risk of employment.</p> <p>In an action by a young man about eighteen years of age against his employer, a company engaged in the manufacture of paints, and operating a cooperage department in connection with its business, it appeared that the plaintiff was injured by the explosion of a barrel which he was swelling in the cooperage department. At the time of the accident the barrel had been filled with water, and it was the duty of the plaintiff to introduce steam into it through an iron pipe one inch in diameter inserted in the bung. Plaintiff could control the flow of the steam by means of a valve, and the accident was caused by his allowing too much steam to flow into the barrel. Plaintiff had been employed in this work for about a year, but there was evidence that until two or three weeks before the accident steam had been introduced through the open end of the barrel, and not through the bunghole. Held, (1) that the defendant could not be charged, under the circumstances, with a failure to provide the plaintiff with reasonably safe machinery and appliances with which to work; (2) that the defendant was not required to point out to the plaintiff the danger that might result by turning on too much steam into the barrel filled with water, and (3) that the plaintiff had enough experience in the work and a sufficient' knowledge of the use of the appliances with which he worked to charge him with the assumption of the risks and dangers incident thereto.</p> <p>A master is not answerable as a rule for an injury to adults with experience, nor for an injury to young persons who have had experience from which a knowledge of danger may reasonably be presumed, and to have that discretion which prompts one to take care of himself.</p>