Wilson v. Atlantic Crushed Coke Co.

Citations

• 219 Pa. 245
• 68 A. 671
• 1908 Pa. LEXIS 554

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Master and servant — Explosion of dynamite — Defective fuse — Mines and, mining.</p> <p>In an action by a coal miner against his employer, the owner of a coal mine, binding instructions for the defendant are proper where the evidence shows that the plaintiff and a competent foreman were engaged in blasting with dynamite; that three fuses connected with charges were lighted at the same time; that within two or three minutes after the men had reached a place of safety two of the charges went off; that after waiting twenty or twenty-five minutes they started back to clear away the debris when the third charge exploded, and plaintiff was injured; that the cause of the delay was the absence of powder in some inside part of the fuse; that this defect in the fuse could not be ascertained by inspection; that the usual period of delay in an explosion did not exceed six or eight minutes, and the only instance of a longer delay was a single one in an experience of thirty-five years; that the plaintiff had worked many years in mines and knew that there was a possibility that the charge which had not exploded with the others might explode later; and that the appliances used for exploding the dynamite were those in common use in coal mines.</p>