Williams v. Monongahela Connecting Railroad

Citations

• 223 Pa. 482
• 72 A. 811
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 559

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Standing on pilot of engine — Contributory negligence.</p> <p>1. To ride upon the pilot in front of an engine without a necessity for so doing, or unless the railroad company by its rules authorizes employees to ride on the pilot in certain instances, or where provision is made for the employee to stand in front of the engine for the convenient discharge of duty, as in the case of a shifting engine used in yards where trains are made up, and for other like purposes, is negligence per se which will defeat a recovery for injuries received in collisions or other like causes.</p> <p>2. A freight conductor who is injured by being thrown from the pilot of a moving engine where he was standing, cannot recover from the railroad company owning the track upon which the engine was being run, where it appears that the conductor was in the employ of the railroad company owning the engine, that the engine had no standing board in front of the pilot, that the conductor took his stand voluntarily on the pilot without any duty to perform thereon, and that he had on all previous occasions gone ahead of the engine in performing a similar duty.</p>