Ulm v. McKeesport Tin Plate Co.

Citations

• 263 Pa. 327
• 106 A. 639
• 1919 Pa. LEXIS 425

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Guarding cogwheels on machinery — Act of May 2,1905, P. L. 852 — Contributory negligence— Safer way — Custom—Ordinary usage.</p> <p>1. An act of assembly which requires the cogwheels of machinery to be properly guarded, is not complied with by placing a box over the entire machine, and nothing further over the cogwheels, so far as regards an employee whose duty compels him to perform labor within the box.</p> <p>2. An employee cannot be held guilty of contributory negligence, as a matter of law, merely because he knows there is a safer way of doing his work, if he does it as he and the other like employees were taught to do it, had many times done it safely, and as defendant knew they were doing it.</p> <p>3. The test of negligence in methods, machinery and appliances is the ordinary usage of the business, and that test is applicable to allegations of contributory negligence.</p>