Stoltenberg v. Pittsburg & Lake Erie R. R.

Citations

• 165 Pa. 377
• 30 A. 980
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1011

Syllabus

<p>Negligence—Bailroad—Master arid servant—Contributory negligence— Position of danger— Co-employee.</p> <p>In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, it appeared that plaintiff was a tinner who had been working several months in defendant railroad company’s shops. On the day of the accident, he was sent to a station some miles distant to make repairs on the roof of a passenger oar which was standing on a siding. He was told that the car would remain there until noon, and that he would have ample time to do the required work. Soon after he had begun work an engine was attached to the car, and it was drawn rapidly forward. When the car moved plaintiff arose from his work and walked forward on the upper deck of the roof to learn the cause of the movement. As he approached the front of the car the smoke and cinders from the engine came directly against his face, and to avoid them he turned his head to one side, and almost immediately afterwards was struck by a wire stretched across the tracks, and seriously injured. The wire was nineteen feet and -one inch above the track, and the top of the upper deck of the car was fourteen feet ancl four inches above the track. The main roof was about seventeen inches lower. Held, that the accident was not caused by the negligence of a co-employee, and that the questions of defendant’s negligence and plaintiff’s contributory negligence were for the jury.</p>